Unlocking creativity

Since my teenage days, I’ve never really considered myself a creative person. I couldn’t draw to save myself (truly, I was hopeless) and I always looked on with envy at those who could just grab a pencil and flow with it over the paper, creating something artistic with what seemed like no effort at all. Indeed, I know some of you fall into this category.

By the time I reached my twenties, I was focused on my career and I never gave it any more thought.  I had already defined myself. I wasn’t one of those creative people who could draw or make something.  I was good at getting things done, a problem solver, delivering results, achieving targets.  And this just reinforced my own belief that I wasn’t ‘the creative type’ – I could only be one or the other.

And it’s a belief I held for a very long time.

Then, much later in life, I started blogging, started using a camera, started to observe and appreciate more than I had done in the past. I started getting comments about some of my photos. Then, I realised –  I quite enjoy doing this, I might like to learn a little more,  I might like to try and develop some skill.  And so, in recent months, I’ve joined an online photography club and with the monthly challenges, I am pushed to experiment a little, to create more interesting photographs, maybe even style a still life.

And, in doing so, I’ve realised that perhaps there is a creative streak in me somewhere, perhaps it was always there.  I’ve realised that creativity comes in all shapes and forms and I just needed to find the outlet, the medium that was right for me, to unlock it.  Perhaps, even more importantly, I’ve learned that spending time with my creative self – taking photos, faffing with flowers, creating pretty pictures, absorbs me. I get lost in the process. And that this is, for me anyway, a critical part of looking after myself, of self care.

And now that I’ve found it, I just need to go with the flow, enjoy it and not hold back for fear of, well for fear of what I’m not sure…

So, the lesson is this …let’s try not to limit ourselves, to put ourselves in a box,  to allow our negative self beliefs or what we perceive are our shortcomings to hold us back. Life is simply too short. We are capable of so much more than we give ourselves credit for. The important thing is to start the journey and see where it takes you.

Have a lovely Sunday…

Autumn is most definitely here x

You can find out more about the photography class here

ps If any of you are on Instagram, I would love to see you there. It’s a nice way of keeping in touch during the week…

https://www.instagram.com/type_writer_girl/