Creativity tools

Everyone is, or can be, creative. It appears to be part of the human condition. Many of us would like to become even more creative. Here's a couple of things that have increased my creativity.

• Teach your non-dominant hand to do something new. If you are very dominant with one hand, this will be difficult, time consuming and frustrating. If you perservere, you will find a host of subtle benefits. Breaking my dominant arm forced this on me, which I don't recommend. Daily writing with your 'off' hand will work in a few weeks, if you do some each day. Which hand do you pick up your coffee cup with? Does it feel odd to use the wrong hand?
• Buy yourself some crayons and a sketch pad. Don't expect to produce 'art', but do enjoy exploring drawing or playing around with the colours. Abstract or photorealistic, the point is how it makes you feel, not what the end result looks like.
• Buy a drum, or use a found object such as a tupperware container, a bucket or a pot. Small Pringles (tm) potato chip containers are particularly nice. Explore the different sound effects you can make. Copy the beat of your favourite rock song - then see if you can improvise your own rhythmic line.

In each activity, your brain will forge or reinforce new neural pathways. When it comes to brains, more connectivity means more creativity.

What creativity tools do you use?

Enjoy!

As I type this I'm sitting beside my fire on a cool autumn night. (Note to self: get drapes made and hung.)

I'm enjoying the warmth of the fire, the comfort of my chair, my belly full of food, and the knowledge that bed is not far away.

It's easy to dismiss simple comforts and pleasures, and I don't really know why that is, when they're so precious as a source of enjoyment - literally things that make us joyful. We put our thoughts and our attention into the future or the past, we don't even notice now and that's a shame.

A hot shower, even when only 3 minutes, is a delightful thing. A toilet that flushes. Warmth when we're cold. Cool when we're hot. Food when we're hungry. Drinking water that doesn't make you sick, and doesn't have to be fetched. Sleep in a safe place (let alone a comfortable bed) when we're tired. These would have been the pinnacle of aspiration for the majority of humans, for most of recorded history and continue to be a dream for millions today (Note to self: make another KIVA donation.).

Today I've enjoyed the company of interesting and articulate people, I've done work I am passionately motivated to do, I've eaten three meals (and a couple of chocolate biscuits too). I've hugged my husband, and I've made music. Suddenly my utter failure to become rich, famous and powerful seem a matter of indifference.

And now I'm about to watch a DVD, then go to bed. I wish you joy, wherever you are as you read this.

This is post 10 of 100 posts in 100 days.