pansies blooming from stone

Find more joy

Connect with life, free your spirit—and disconnect from the daily grind. By diving into a creative pursuit—from a knitting project to expressive dance—you can transcend a mundane existence and experience that timeless, focused feeling of “flow.”

“But I’m not creative!”

Sure you are; you may simply discount your unique creative expression as one that “doesn’t count.” Under-appreciated creative impulses in people I know:

  • Building yard and garden fences
  • Home remodeling
  • Baking
  • Woodworking
  • Gardening or landscaping
  • Planning a day out with a child

Creativity has less to do with “art” and more to do with an active focus on creating something, including an experience or event, that doesn’t already exist. Or improving something that does. 

Get started now

  • Find inspiration. Wander a craft, art supply, wood-working, or gardening store and pick up something inexpensive to play with. It’s cheap therapy.
  • Take a class. Community college Continuing Ed classes, which range from coding to photography, are usually a bargain.
  • Join a creative community. Few things are more nurturing than surrounding yourself with a like-minded group, whether that’s fellow writers or gardening buddies who swap seeds and cuttings.
  • Try something easy. Doodling or coloring a mandala are easy places to start. The end result doesn’t matter; the point is to play with colors, lines, and shapes. 
  • Read. Dip a toe into my article on spirituality and the imagination.
  • Have some fish. Even the ocean is full of wild designs. So are you. Let loose!