Most of my ideas for stories, videos, articles and projects-yet-to-be come when I am either on my bike or running.
It is precisely when I am not at the computer, trying to think and be creative that I am able, with the help of my 3 ingredients, to get real creative work done.
MUSIC: Listening to music puts a tempo to my footfall and my racing heart. The melodies distract my thinking mind, lulling me into deeper channels of intuition and non-thought. Music is often a story and keeps me more focused on the moment at hand by active listening.
EXERCISE: Exercise is a key component in how creative and good I feel. I go to the gym several nights a week but I prefer riding my bike around the city to plodding on a treadmill. As I ride the landscape slips past me. Thousands of people cross my path. Infinite scenarios play themselves out. The physical toil of exercise allows my mind to exist in a simpler, more watchful state. I can release the tension that hours at the computer can build up and in this state my most productive thinking is accomplished.
NATURE: Communing with nature, whether it is a walk in the woods or on a mountain summit, lets my creative spirit free. But living in downtown Seattle I seldom have the option of wandering through unspoiled wilderness. That’s fine. I take the term urban jungle to heart and let the city be my forest. When I consider Man as an act of Nature then the city, with all of its pavement and neon, becomes a shifting natural landscape. Jogging through town I can watch the tides of human life ebb and flow as businessmen and transients share the sidewalk.
I know what works for me. When I am in a steady rhythm is when my mind flies beyond me and lives a imaginative life of its own. I reminisce, I day dream and start to mull concepts over in my mind. But something tells me these ingredients can be utilized by anyone who needs a creative kick in the pants.
What are your ingredients for creativity? Share your tricks in the comments below.