The Care and Feeding of Your Creative Mind.
Every artist walks their own creative path. None of our journeys are better or worse—just uniquely ours. But one thing we all share is the need to stay inspired. Without ongoing inspiration, our creative energy dims, and our work suffers.
A big part of nurturing your creative mind is discovering what truly inspires you and learning how to turn that spark into creative momentum. Take time to really look at the things that move you. Ask yourself: How does this make me feel? What mood does it shift me into? What emotions wake up inside me?
My coach recently shared “The Seven Channels of Experience” by David Mars, PhD. It was eye-opening to consider all the ways we experience the world—visual, auditory, emotional, movement, energetic, imaginal, sensation. We all lean into different channels. My husband is highly auditory. I’m deeply visual. But even more than that, I feel inspiration as a shift of energy in my body—a sensation, a spark, a movement. When that happens, I’ve learned to stop and pay attention.
Inspiration is everywhere: nature, architecture, music, color, movement, the work of other artists. But it takes intention to slow down, notice details, and look from unexpected angles. When I do, something inside me wakes up.
For years, I avoided the studio whenever I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to create. I had this idea that I needed a fully formed vision before I could begin. But the truth is, creativity rarely works that way.
Here’s what I’ve learned:
• Action is magic, power, and grace.
• Small successes are worth celebrating.
• Exploration is essential.
• Consistency builds creative momentum.
Now I enter the studio with nothing more than a sense of curiosity. My starting point is often a simple question: “What if?” It invites imagination. It invites possibility. It helps me feel that shift of energy—the signal that I’m on the right track.
Before I start working, I have a small ritual. Nothing formal. I close my eyes, breathe, and set a quiet intention for my creative time.
But there are days when inspiration doesn’t come. On those days, I give myself permission to just putter. I paint the edges of panels. Add a base layer to a board. Test ideas on scrap pieces. Or simply scroll through images until something nudges my curiosity.
Caring for your creative mind means learning how inspiration shows up for you. Notice what makes your energy shift. Pay attention to what lights you up. And make it a practice—something you return to regularly, gently, and with curiosity.
Your creativity will thank you.
Tell me, what are your sources of inspiration and how do you work them into your creative mind?
Be well….be creative,
The most important message for me here is Pay Attention. Or PAY ATTENTION. I find inspiration on my daily walks and in the books I devour and all the Facebook Pinterest images from other artists and from the play time with my grandchildren. Your message to pay attention to that stirring and hold it in my hand and let it resonate is a piece I need to put into practice. Thank you.
Paying attention I’ve found to be the most important thing for me….and when I feel lost in all this craziness of this world we live in…..I try to center myself by paying attention. Just this morning I had a moment when paying attention was key to me receiving an important subtle message:)
THIS … is beautiful. Thank you for sharing
Thank you my friend.
I constantly try to practice the concept of “Do What Scares You”. It doesn’t make any difference if it’s going to a location to shoot images or taking a trip to off shore place that isn’t completely comfortable and had a completely culture and standards of life.
I must always remember it not the amount of time spent but the quality and focus of the time spent.
My challenges are self imposed and only hindered by my lack of gumption to simply get out there and do it. I never have been one to worry about what others say or what is socially expected. My work speaks for me no matter what form it takes.
Hopefully some day people will say they were glad to have know me. What more can one ask?
Feel the fear, and do it anyways, right? I love it. Usually when things scare me, I try to lean into them and figure out what is the real fear. Often it’s just an illusion of a past story I’ve told myself. And it’s a matter as you said to ‘simply get out there and do it’. I think people are already say8ing that they are glad to know you, for one I am. Your work is beautiful!
Inspiration is elusive for me – a shy creature who hides when I go looking for her, or maybe a trickster who likes me to play hide-and-seek with her. I have found for myself that Inspiration will find me if I just show up and start doing the work: take my camera on a hike (and maybe it’s just extra weight that gets carried but not used, or maybe Inspiration finds me and we play); go into my studio, turn on some music, light a candle or incense, grab a pen and open my journal (and maybe it’s just ranting that gets written, or maybe Inspiration joins me and we play); go into my studio and clean up the tables or pull a book from the shelf or open my art journal and glue something down (and maybe not much happens, or maybe Inspiration comes to sit next to me and we play.) If I wait for inspiration before I start to work, I’ll be waiting for a very long time. If I just show up, even when it feels like there is no point and that there’s a bunch of “more important” things for me to do, I just might be visited by Inspiration. I just have to show up.
Absolutely. Show up and start working, let it come. If we all waited for the inspiration first, I’m not sure much would get done. One of my other mantra’s is to start before I’m ready. Or as Nike insists, ‘Just Do It’. Inspiration can certainly be elusive, it’s tricky that way. But showing up is 80% of the battle, right?
People think that progress in other fields also happens by “aha moments”. Scientists sometimes have them, but more often than not, it is just showing up and playing in the lab, there is no aha moment. Why put that pressure on oneself? While it may be true that someone else will discover the truth or solution to a problem someday anyway, even if it isn’t the individual in question, someone still has to do the scientific work too. Play is the process to the aha moment.
I guess like most things in life…..you gotta show up. Nothing will happen if you don’t show up!
Great article and message, Clare! For me, this past year trying to heal from a near death illness and then my husband’s memory diagnoses, by the end of 2019 I felt drained and all my creative sucked out of me. The well was dry. I was angry, grieving, just not happy. I was allowing all this emotion to over run my life. I was going down to the studio to just sit and look and feeling uninspired. What to do?
Well, I sat and thought about the situation. I know it’s not going to improve, but I can improve on how I react. Once I made that decision, my excitement in creating again is coming back. My friend and I started making products for some shows this year – so that should keep me on task! And with that has come the spark of ideas for some art pieces.
So your message today is kind of spark to keep the momentum going. Thank you!
Oh I love this Bea. I’m so happy that I could be part of the spark to keep you going. It’s true, we always have power over how we react…..sometimes it’s just one day at a time:) Hoping that 2020 treats you with kindness.