I recently printed these out for an event I presented at called “Confetti Night“. It was super-fun and a great reason for women to take time out of their busy lives and focus on themselves. I am going to share with you a little bit about what I spoke on, and then you can go ahead and download my This Little Light of Mine printable and put it somewhere where you might see it every day!
First of all, I was able to provide the make-and-take for this event with two of my favorite friends and bloggers, Staci and Natalie. As far as the presentation goes, I thought it would be fun to focus on being creative and how to ‘Ignite’ your creativity.
As a blogger I hear the words, “I wish I was creative, but I am not creative at all” a lot come out of the mouths of other women. Why do we feel this way? Every time someone utters those words I just want to shake them and say, “Yes you are! You are creative, I promise! You just don’t know how to bring it out of yourself yet!” I am always referring to a quote by a man who I admire a lot for his speaking, Dieter F. Uchtdorf. During his talk in October of 2008 (the whole talk is so fabulous, your must read it all!) he said:
“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before…Everyone can create…Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty—”
Everyone has the ability to create something beautiful, something that did not exist before. We mostly think of being creative as a talent in which we use paper, modpodge, and scissors. But we must remember that actually, we can be creative in many other ways with other talents as well. Whether you are a gardner and have an amazing green thumb (please give me lessons because I have already killed my cucumbers this year!), or you are an amazing painter. You may be great at taking photos, have an eye for home decor, or maybe you have a way of organizing things super-good. You might be one of those amazing people who has figured out a way to get all the laundry done, the house cleaned, kids ready, and dinner on the table all in one day before your husband gets home. Those are all ways that you have used your creative mind!
The way I see it is that all of us have a little flame burning inside of us, a pilot light if you will. This little light is our creativity just waiting to be ignited. Some people ignite theirs more than others, some people’s flames never get ignited. You have all used or heard of the term, “get your creative juices flowing”. Well, I am going to give my two cents of how I believe we can make “creative juice” and use it to ignite our inner flame.
What key ingredients are needed to ignite our creativity?
1. Talent/Interest: Find out what talent you want to create with. Maybe you would like to develop a talent first, this is where your interest comes in. If you want to become a great sewer than work on that and become your best at it.
2. Time: Come one, we all wish we had more time. Usually as busy mothers, wives, working women; we all leave time for ourselves at the very last, what’s left. We will never have time to create unless we make time. We have to make time or it will never happen. Tell your husband to put the kids to bed while you go do what you love. Have a neighbor girl come babysit for a few hours while you hook up with your girlfriends and scrapbook. Whatever you love to do, you must make time for it because you will be happy when you have made time for yourself.
3. Setting: You can’t create something when you are at your kitchen counter, the sink is full of dishes, and the kids are running wild. It will just never get done. Go to your happy place. Go somewhere bright and happy. Go somewhere that you can escape your every day routine. You must remove yourself from the ordinary to create something extraordinary.
4. People: We all have people in our lives who inspire us. Friends with the same interests, hobbies, or talents as us. It is so important for us to surround ourselves with these people in our lives frequently. When we want to create it is almost vital that we create with others. We feed off of each other, bounce ideas off of each other…encourage each other. Get a group of your favorite inspiring people together and create, and do it often. Which brings me to the next…
5. Frequency: We cannot expect our flame to grow bigger unless we keep feeding it and igniting it often. We cannot expect big things to happen if we are only allowing ourselves to create every once in a while. Be consistent and be frequent. Do it often and you will find that the more often you ignite that flame, the more ideas will keep coming to you. Sometimes as a blogger, I find myself in a rut. I go through dry spells where I cannot for the life of me think of a cute project to share with you all, or I am too busy to. And then I am forced to create somehow whether I have to do a TV Segment or create something for one of my sponsors. When I am forced to create and ignite my flame again, I find that suddenly my mind is overflowing with ideas. I have new ideas coming into my head that I have to write them all down and I cannot keep up with them. I’ll wake up at 2am and have this idea that I can recycle a toilet paper roll into a gift box! Once you ignite your creativity and keep the flame burning, the ideas will keep flowing, I promise!
6. Share: We live in a time where if you think it’s your idea, it’s probably not. I see this a ton, especially as a blogger! There are so many resources these days where you can gain inspiration for new projects. I am so grateful for all of these platforms and social media that allow us to share ideas with each other and feed off of each other. We all follow those people on social media that inspire us to create. Keep following them. But guess what, we not only need to receive inspiration from others, we need to share our inspiration as well. Don’t be afraid to share your ideas with the world over social media. Don’t think to yourself, “they will think I am bragging” – ever! I never think that about anyone. I love, love, love seeing peoples’ ideas. Sometimes people will tag me in their posts with something they have created, and I absolutely love to see that they want to share them with me! Be proud of your creations, share them with the world.
The author of Peter Pan, James Barrie said, “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.” If you want to be filled with light you must share light with others.
With that, let your light shine…
For the 5×7 copy of This Little Light of Mine Printable (without my watermark on it), click HERE.
Put this somewhere where you will see it often. Maybe put it in your creative space, wherever that is. By your computer, on your desk, in your craft room, by your sewing machine. Hang it on your fridge or frame it and put it on your night stand. Wherever you put it, look at it often and remember that you have a light inside of you that needs to be ignited and shared with the world.
The ingredients mentioned above will make the perfect “creative juice” for you to spray or drink to help your inner creative flame ignite and become something beautiful.
