Ebb & Flow of Daydreams: How My Creativity Works

Ebb & Flow of Daydreams: How My Creativity Work

Want to get to know me, on the creative side?
Check out 3 things that rev my engine, and the other 3 things that make me run out of gas.

What keeps me starstruck and wide-eyed:

Motion & White Noise

I gain traction in constant motion and white noise. When I come out by the ocean, reflecting on the depth, sinusoidal pattern, and the way the waves carve and pulsate in my ears, I cultivate deeper and fresher thoughts. I also frequent coffee shops, where the perpetual buzz of the environment eases me into a creative mindset as my mind hums with the ambient shuffle. In addition, learning choreography in a dance studio has a single-mindedness to it as I focus to move articulately with the beat, which alleviates stress and lets my mind wander outside its box. Listening to music on Spotify is a given; I can spend hours drawing, writing, or studying, revived by continuous sound waves.

Electrifying Challenges

I like a good challenge. Even with the initial hesitation that comes with uncomfortably new situations, when I step on new grounds, I feel happier for it. It keeps me on the balls of my feet and exploratory, I learn more about who I am and learn to be increasingly adaptable. This is probably why I enjoy performing (i.e: public speaking, singing, dancing); these circumstances always challenge my nerves when I think about each new and unknown audience who might or might not understand my expressions. I feel inspired when I look back on nerve-rattling experiences that have let me grow and change.

Getting to Work, Creatively

Putting in creative work is a two way street; I get inspired working on the project and then if I’m lucky I feel inspired revisiting the finished project. It’s like I’m able to save and give lasting life to a short spark of inspiration by acting on it, and creating something concrete out of it. I feel the most alive being immersed in the creative process. I like to feed my visual appetite with visual platforms such as Tumblr and Pinterest to take in new ideas and readjust what feels artistically exciting to me, and then I can use the updated vision as a basis for my own creative work. The process exposes me to so many unique possibilities from my ideas bouncing off of others in multifaceted tangents.

Here are a few things that leave me uninspired.

Superficial Ideas

Ideas without quality of content make me crazy. These fall with a thud on soil without growing roots into the ground. They are similar to status related products, or short-term problem solvers (alcohol) which offer temporary relief but do not really get you anywhere for the long-term. On the same note, it pains me to be understood at a superficial level, where I can’t make a genuine connection with someone, so I guess shallow relationships are also a no. People, things, ideas that focus solely on making a statement or grabbing undue attention do not usually drive my inspiration up the wall. Like products with brand values that are not grounded on product truth, the hype eventually fades without the respectability.

Status Quo

Ho hum, there is nothing like status quo that dampens curiosity for life. I feel uninspired when people tell me “that’s just the way things are” because that’s not a perspective I wish to adopt! A place where there are no gaps between ‘where you are’ and ‘where you could be’ is a dead zone. I think life is meant to be challenged and to be passionate about the right and wrong things, and to continually revise what you thought the world consisted of. I mean, this is why I’ve gravitated towards advertisement and copywriting; so I can in part show people that the world is in their hands.

When the ‘Lightbulb’ Turns Off

I know my creative limits, and I am not always on. Especially with writing, it’s a process I love but also makes me want to tear my hair out when waiting on the whim of good ideas. I believe I can write interestingly, but my words come out haltingly, until I’m on. Or sometimes I see myself trudging through material I don’t feel inspired in, trying to make it relevant to my existence. When negative feelings begin to snowball towards a specific task, even when I believe in the long-term goal, I start doubting where I am. This is when I have to step back for the larger picture, and remember that the light comes on at some point and that the work somehow always gets done.