Creativity, inspiration and community
Photography by Danielle Ann Rose @bydanielleannrose
Recently I’ve been reminded how much I truly value creativity and community. Obviously, that’s something I know about myself in general. Still, it can be easy to slip into the habit of living life on autopilot and forgetting to actively choose things that make life feel fun and exciting
So when I got an idea for a creative project I wanted to start and natural motivation kicked in, I felt myself feeling more inspired to be productive in other areas of my life as well. It was such a beautiful and refreshing reminder to participate in life with more intention
I overthink a lot of things, but when it comes to my creative projects, I find it easy to let them flow naturally and be whatever they need to be. However, overthinking can impact that creativity before it even begins in the sense that, when my mind is busy overthinking how I was perceived by a stranger I’ll probably never see again, it’s not still enough to notice the inspiration around me or quiet enough to hear the creative ideas flowing through me. The amount of times I’ve had a good idea and forgotten it within minutes is honestly so annoying because I don’t think that would happen so much if my mind wasn’t distracted by unimportant thoughts
When I’m stuck overthinking I feel unmotivated, uninspired and bored but when I get into a creative flow I feel excited about new ideas and get motivated to do more with my days and be better in other areas of my life as well
It’s so cool to see how that one spark of creativity gained momentum, which shifted my mood and mindset. I’ve since had so many more ideas and exciting things happening based on that one shift
The connection and collaboration that this project has added to my days have been deeply beautiful, having people share their own creative voices, thoughts, and visions is something really special. To have people sitting together discussing different ideas and bouncing off each other to create something unique helped me to feel a sense of community and see the beauty in life again after not feeling great for a few months
On a similar note, the content I’ve been choosing to watch has been uplifting, funny and inspiring which adds to my creative mindset and encourages more passion and excitement for life because I see others enjoying themselves, making innovative content and spending quality time travelling and exploring the world with the people they care about, which ignites motivation to get out and do more things that give me that feeling as well
Self-expression is something I highly value and I choose to do so mostly, in creative ways, so you can imagine that when I’m not feeling great, the drive to put in effort, be imaginative and self-expressive takes a back seat and rest becomes the main priority. Which is intentional and needed for a time, but I tend to stay in that mindset longer than necessary, which is why this reminder has been so significant to me
I know this all probably seems very obvious but sometimes it can be so easy to forget to look up and actively participate in life. I know I certainly needed to be reminded to shake things up and get back out into life again
New ideas, new inspiration, new direction all of it is swirling around me at the moment and even though some of it is scary, most of it feels very aligned and I’m excited about that
