Tuesday 27 February 2018

The Creative Unsticker for Young People.

I started this list as part of my business course, but this weekend, I was working with sensitive teenagers and adapted it. I've had great feedback so far and wanted to share it with you. If you give any of these a go, I'd love to know what you think - whatever age you are.
  1. ·         Write a journal. Write thoughts that come to you, stories that you experience, goals, daydreams, ‘thinking out loud’ ideas. You could add intentions for the day, speculations for the future, or/and how you are feeling.
  2. ·         Change your space. Look around you and see what colours there are and the level of light. Try shaking things up to suit your mood and style. Can you add art, inspirational quotes/pictures or a music source that helps with how you feel?
  3. ·         A fresh perspective. Look outside your usual network for advice and a different frame of reference. Brain-storm your work and life objectives with someone, or research from different sources. Sometimes a complete change of environment can help too.
  4. ·         Daydream. Sit back, breath deep and imagine an ideal scenario. A holiday you can go on when the work is done, a mental image of you achieving an accolade, your life running exactly as you wish it a year from now. Put yourself in the picture and daydream about how it would feel and who would also benefit from this. Often when we see what we want, we enable it to become a reality.
  5. ·         Celebrate creative diversity. Listen to unfamiliar music. It can make a difference to your mindset and get things flowing. Look at art that doesn’t appeal and try to see what others may see in it. Go outside your comfort zone by trying different reading material, films and theatre performances. Listen to different languages and enjoy how they sound. Visit exhibitions, go to festivals and keep your mind open to find wonder and curiosity through creativity.
  6. ·         Play. There is a big difference between being ‘childish’ and being ‘child-like’. Compare some country leaders to some spiritual leaders - I am guessing there’ll be no shortage of examples here. Play can be through sport, being with children, time with friends or even time alone. Being playful, light-hearted and carefree can be life changing.
  7. ·         Find your creative passion. Open your heart to one thing you love. When you feel stuck, allow your emotions to freely experience a favourite song, watch a segment from your favourite film or comedy sketch or an actor’s monologue. Read a passage from a favourite book, look through some photographs or art collections and feel an emotional response down in your core. Within a few minutes you’ll feel different.
  8. ·         Create a greeting card poem. Turn a problem or sticking point into a daft rhyme with the aim that the last line will give you the solution.
  9. ·         Practice a creative endeavour. Ten minutes a day on something creative can be a life changer. The added bonus is that you can become rather good at your chosen subject within a year if you do this. Do something that you will enjoy and have a desire to get better at.
  10. ·         Walk the walk. When inspiration has left you, do a different task in the mindset and style of a future you. This ‘future’ version is confident, is on top of all jobs and is ‘on it’ in every way. Make a drink, pop down the shops or make a call. Be your authentic self, but a more brilliant and accomplished version. Have the ability to laugh at yourself. The more you ham it up, the more unstuck you will become.
  11. ·         Inspiration text. Pick up a book or magazine and open it on a random page and put your finger on a random line. See if this piece of text can answer your inner question and get you moving again.
  12. ·         Scary unsticking. Do something that gives you a healthy level of fear. Go outside and pick up a spider then set it free again. If that doesn’t bother you, walk down the street wearing something unusual or write to someone you admire. Do something that fills you with excitement and see what comes behind it.
  13. ·         Rehearse your mission statement. Either in the mirror or in front of trusted others, stand tall and clearly state who you are and what your values are. A good stance is to stand like wonder woman or super man and then soften by putting your hands in front of you and lessening the power legs. Announcing to the world who you are, can be really helpful.
  14. ·         Unstick a person. If you are struggling with another person, ask someone else to role play with you. First, ‘become’ the difficult person while the other role player plays you. See how it feels to step into the shoes of this person. Then run the scenario with the roles reversed. See if you can practice what you might say and do to overcome this difficulty. It is helpful to remember you can only really change your response to someone and not how they may be.
  15. ·         Breathing Techniques. If you are feeling anxious, work through the breathing techniques you have learned. You can use your fingers to breath up and down each one while saying helpful words (for example, up the finger while breathing in ‘I am…’ and down the finger while breathing out ‘relaxed’).
  16. ·         Express Yourself. Without disturbing too many people, sing really loudly, dance your heart out, laugh and run around. Use your body to express who you are. Smile as much as you can to feel good about yourself (remember the 30 second smile).
  17. ·         Puppet mascot talk. If you've been on one of my courses, you will have one of these. if not, choose something that can be your personal cheerleader that represents your values in life. Put it somewhere you can see it and use it as a sounding board. Bring it to life and talk to it. If you feel brave, make it talk back or whisper in your ear. Even if it just moves its head it will remind you of your positive inner voice. Keep a note of the values that it represents and use these values to move forward with an issue. For example, if you value love, find a loving solution to the issue that is bothering you.


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