Yes, in all the madness of the move, I forgot to prepare the creativity challenge calendar for April, but that’s ok because my post from last week actually ties into the April challenge of decreasing stress and increasing play. I hope you enjoy April’s creativity challenge.
Like the last 2 months, it’s important that you continue with your daily morning pages, hopefully, it’s a habit you just kept going without me having to tell you in a calendar.
Your calendar this month focuses on destressing and playing. It’s hard to create when we’re stressed. But we also need to differentiate between good stress and bad stress. During the pandemic, I was feeling bad stress and having a hard time writing my blog posts. I was just repurposing old ones, sometimes missing, or worse, just phoning it in.
By turning to crochet, I was able to focus on something completely different. It required all of my attention to do and helped to destress me. In turn, I was able to start writing better blog posts again. I was experiencing bad stress.
But think about creatives who jam under pressure, under deadlines, and create brilliance. That’s good stress. So if you’re feeling under stress, try to determine whether it’s good or bad and act accordingly. Good? Keep going. Bad? Take a moment to think about what you need.
We’ll use some things from last week’s post, sprinkle in other play, and have some more fun with creativity prompts. There are 4 creativity prompts this month and all 4 are either about play or some type of physical activity.
The 3 daily morning pages still continue, as do the reading 10 pages per day. Next month we’ll move up to 20 pages per day, so if you want to slowly start increasing this month, feel free to. If you’re wondering where to find time to add in reading…you can do it in the morning after your morning pages or in the evening before bed. I have the Kindle app on my phone and read on work breaks and lunches. Also, waiting in Doctor’s offices gets me several pages into a book all the time!
I hope you enjoy this month’s creativity challenge. April Creativity Challenge.
Creativity is so important. I’ve just started my income taxes, so that’s stressful
Taxes can be stressful. I get them done as soon as I have all the information, whether I owe money or am getting it back. Otherwise, it hangs over my head and that causes me too much stress.
I find I need morning writing a lot these days. I’ve always kept a journal, but the world is so tense, I seem to need somewhere to let it out more than ever.
Yes, the morning journaling gets out a lot of shit, especially stress how the world.
It’s interesting that I never have those blank moments where I can’t access creative thought. It’s been especially important now that I am performing….
Very important, but what I see you doing all the time is filling your creative fuel tank, that’s why you never run empty.
I’ve been awful at reading. I have a bunch of books to read and they are sitting there staring at me.
Just start with 5 pages a day, then those books won’t be staring at you with their accusatory eyes…lol
Such great suggestions, Jennifer! My writing really suffered during the early years of Covid. Worry. You have to know I worry about my kids and grandkids at the very best of times. This hasn’t been the best of times. Sadly, I come from a long line of professional-grade worriers. Your suggestion: ‘So if you’re feeling under stress, try to determine whether it’s good or bad and act accordingly. Good? Keep going. Bad? Take a moment to think about what you need.’ is brilliant! I’m writing again now and it is wonderful! But the worry still lurks. I will look for alternatives to keep my creative juices flowing!
Seriously, finding something else to do really helped me. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have the crochet to distract me. It took enough of my attention not only while counting the chains but while watching YouTube videos over and over again to see exactly how they were doing it.