Creativity tips – Facing your creative fears – Insight from Week 3 of the Mandala Play Adventure

Posted on July 3, 2015 by Natalia

Here we are at Week 3 of my mandala play adventure!

After having such an experimental and rewarding time in Week 2, I began to face some creative blocks in this week. I was starting to feel scared that I wasn’t going to be as innovative or as exciting as I was the previous week.

The big insight that I came across this week related to facing my creative fears, taking risks and allowing myself to be vulnerable.

When I started this play adventure, the reason that I decided to post my completed image on Facebook was to create some form of accountability for myself. I really wanted to make sure that I would create a new mandala each day. And it definitely worked as a motivator for me, especially when I was feeling less than enthused, or had left it as the last thing on my ‘to do’ list for the day. (Luckily I always ended up enjoying it once I started.) So it was a positive, knowing that there were people that would see what I had created at the end of the day.

But, it was also scary to think that there were going to be people who would see what I’d created at the end of the day. What if the mandala isn’t any good? What if people don’t like it? What if it gets boring? What if people dislike my mandalas so much that they ‘de-friend’ me? and so it goes… Continue reading →

Creativity tips – How limits can be good for your creativity – insights learnt from Week 2 of my Play Adventure

Posted on June 25, 2015 by Natalia

Wow! It’s hard to believe how fast I hit the week two mark of my mandala Play Adventure (you can see how it all started here). This week I really tested the limits of what I could do through this exercise in terms of ‘colouring in’ a mandala every day.

This week’s mandalas were very different from what I created in week 1. I purposely didn’t try to colour within the lines. But I also tried to remain respectful of the original mandala form within the mandala colouring page. Needless to say, it created an interesting tension and dynamic between following the rules and wanting to break out of them.

So my key insight from this week related to the value of self-imposed limits in sparking creativity.

Inner Creative - Blog on How Limits Can Be Good for Your Creativity - innercreative.com.au

At face value, one might think that the opposite was true – that rules and limits would be counterproductive to creativity. But I think that it relates to the nature of the task and its timing.

Continue reading →

Creativity Tips – Creating a creativity habit – What I’ve learnt from Week 1 of my Play Adventure

Posted on April 13, 2015 by Natalia

Last week I decided to embark on a Play Adventure where I would colour in my Mandala Colouring Page every day for 30 days. Well, it’s been a week already! Wow! Seven days of play :-).

I’ve really enjoyed having this time to play. It’s been nice to have some downtime where I don’t have to worry about anything else and can just be free to be guided by my intuition and curiosity. I’ve also had the opportunity to try out some different mediums (such as my new pastel and Inktense pencils).

As expected, this commitment to creating a mandala each day has also raised some challenges. Consequently, it has also helped me identify (and reinforce) some creativity tips and what helps me be creative and find time to deliver on my commitment.

Here’s an overview of my first 7 designs.

Continue reading →

Embarking on my own ‘Play Adventure’

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Natalia

My previous blog about play and experimentation was inspired by an “I wonder…?” question of my own. Recently, I discovered my first mandala hidden amongst my old high school graphic folder. I was curious to see what it could look like with different colouring. So I created my own colouring page and tried out a different colour combination, and then another. Without too much trouble or planning I had stumbled onto finding something to play with.

The other day I started wondering about what the mandala outline would look like in orange and green, which subsequently got me wondering about how many different ways I could ‘colour in’ the colouring page. This train of thought then lead me to wonder if I could colour in the same mandala page every day for a week. In doing so, I reasoned that it would be a great test of my creativity and inventiveness, while also giving me plenty of discussion and blog fodder by exposing me to common creativity issues, like making mistakes, persistence and being open and comfortable with the unknown.

But then, a week didn’t seem quite daring enough. Would it really push my limits? So what about 3 weeks? Hmmm… What about 30 days? A 30 day challenge? But the term ‘challenge’ didn’t seem to convey the right spirit. I really liked the idea of playing around and seeing this as a fun exploration, but I really had no idea where this exercise would take me. And then it dawned on me – I’d call it a ‘play adventure’!

So starting Monday 6 April, I have embarked on a play adventure where I will ‘colour in’ my Mandala Colouring Page each day for 30 days (Just in time for my Exploring Mandalas class that starts on Wednesday 6 May 🙂 ).To make sure that I stay accountable and increase my likelihood of delivering on what I propose, I’m making this promise publicly on my blog with the intention of posting my daily efforts on my Inner Creative Facebook page. You can see my first day’s effort below.

Who knows where a little wondering and play will take me? Continue reading →