I have been participating once a week in a creative meeting!  I am really enjoying the sessions and here are a few things that I would like to pass on to encourage creativity in all of our lives!

1.) Write your ideas down! It does not matter how simple, silly or small the ideas may seem – write them down!  You may have just a seed, but seeds that are planted and nurtured – grow into big trees!  Keep a little notebook, moleskin, digital file or small recorder to record your ideas.  Don’t think that you will remember them – you won’t!  Record it and you will free your mind up for even more creative ideas!

2.) Brainstorm! Think out loud with other people and listen to their thinking out loud.  It is amazing the ideas that this will generate.  How many times have you found yourself in a conversation with someone and something they said sent your mind to thinking in a totally different direction than what they were talking about?  Find someone, if possible several “someones” and allow your brains to storm!

3.) People Watch! Observe what is going on around you.  We miss so much, because we are often so busy that we just live life in a blur!  Slow down, smell the roses and enjoy the ride by really seeing everybody and everything that God has put around you!

4.) Relocate! If you work at a desk all of the time, then move to a couch.  If you are inside all of the time, then get outside.  You get the picture – put yourself in a place to see things from a different perspective and you will be amazed at the creativity that will flow to and through your life!

5.) Get Spiritual! You were created by a very creative God.  If you don’t believe that, just look around you at all of the variety!  You were created in the image of your creative God, so you are creative too!  Talk to God and listen to God through prayer and take some time to read and look for understanding and challenge from His Word!

These are just a few of the ideas that we have been utilizing to stoke our creative fires!  It’s fun and it’s exciting and you really will be glad you did!