2. Emotional Attraction… Everything that you create has an emotional attachment, and it influences the creator in you.

You attract whatever you Fear or whatever you Love of whatever emotion state you have chosen to be in. The things that you fear the most will attract you the most and you will experience it the most vividly. The more you think about your fears, the bigger problems you will CREATE for yourself, because constant thinking about a Fear will only allow it to grow out of proportion.

Thought is pure energy. Every thought you ever had, and will have, is CREATIVE.

3. Law of Belief… The Process of Creation must include Belief or Knowing. It means that you must have total conviction in what you’re doing to be able to create things. You must be without any doubt whatsoever to succeed. That is why you must try to keep away from negative thoughts because it only hampers your creativity.

We are three-folded beings because we consist of Body, Mind and Spirit. These are also called The Physical, Non-Physical and the Meta-Physical… Science calls this Energy, Matter and Anti-Matter. So the three aspects of you are called the three Energies namely Thought, Word and Action. All three put together produce a result of some kind. This results in our feelings or experiences.

The process of Creation starts with a thought for example something you visualize, and idea or a concept. It’s hard to belief but everything that you see was once someone’s idea. Everything was born as a pure thought.

The energy of your thought never ever dies. Your thought leaves your being and heads out into the universe… extending forever. All thoughts cluster which means that all thoughts meet other thoughts, criss-crossing in an incredible maze of energy. It then forms an ever-changing pattern of unspeakable beauty and unbelievable complexity.

We have, at an average, about 50 000 or more thoughts daily. This is our Creative Engine working. This is what creates our reality.
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About the Author: Caren Pretorius

Article Source:  The Three Laws Of Creative Thinking

Home Page: http://siqik.com

“I’m fine, just crazy busy. . .”

“I just don’t know when I can find the time. . .”

“I can’t really talk now, I’m running late. . .”

People used to be tied to things like families, communities, rituals, worship, curiosity, and beauty. Now we are tied to schedules, watches, datebooks, computers, and keeping up with the latest gadgets that start with i.  It seems like time is going by faster than ever these days, and we’re all exhaustively trying to find, chase, save, and manage time.

Time-management techniques, as well as the latest time-tracking and productivity aids, can certainly be of help to us on the practical level, but they are limited in their long-term effectiveness, since the true nature of time extends beyond the chronological hours displayed in our calendars, wristwatches and smart phones. Time management can improve what we accomplish but often at the peril of what we experience. Ironically, the more we desperately try to manage our time, the more fragmented we often feel.

Instead of exhaustively striving for time management, I propose a new solution of time metaphorphosis. Rather than simply managing our time, we can re-imagine time itself and completely reshape our relationship to it. When we don’t have time, we have to create it, and the incredible news is that we can do so with one of the greatest resources ever to exist on our planet: human creativity.

The concept of “creating time” is not just about adding more hours in our day, but creating a new relationship with time itself. We expand our sense of time by when we change the ways we think about, measure, and experience time.

Here are some good places to start:

1.      Change the Way You Think About Time

For most of us, being stressed or worried about time has become second-nature. The most immediate way to change these deeply-ingrained patterns is to become more aware of the words that you use when you think about and talk about time. Time reacts as if we’re yelling in a canyon; whatever we are saying about time comes back to us in our experience.  If we are saying, “There’s never enough time,” then our experience echoes back, “Yes! There’s never enough time!” If, however, we are saying, “I have all the time in the world. More and more, I see that I have all the time I need,” then our experience is reflected back with a more expansive, flowing sense of time.

Another simple way to shift awareness is simply to check the clock in a different way. The phrase, “What time is it?” inherently indicates that we do not have control of our time. By replacing this phrase with “What time does the clock say?” we take control of our time through the words we speak. The new phrase indicates that we respect the clock, but we are the ones in charge of our time.

2.      Change the Way You Measure Time

We measure time in linear fashion, with numbers on a clock and squares on a calendar to represent the movement of time. But what if we could interpret time as a qualitative entity instead of something just measured by quantity?  Instead of measuring how long something takes, why not measure it by how much we learn by doing it, or how much love we are feeling?

Think about the moments in your life that have meant the most to you. Those moments are not viewed linearly at all, but through a plethora of other measurements, such as intensity of experience, emotional depth, and even quality of color or the particular scent of the moment. We can learn from these experiences by applying a similar free-form perception in our everyday moments. So, in your day-to-day life, instead of measuring how long something takes, explore new measurements, such as how much joy you feel, how connected you are to other people, how grateful you are, how engaged you are in the topic at hand.

Incorporating these new “measurements” doesn’t mean that we are forgoing the linear methods entirely. Rather, we remain aware of both kinds of time (quantitative and qualitative), but it is the qualitative measurements that are, in the long run, more important. Our sleeping hours are a great example of this duality. Most of us would prefer to get six hours of deep, restful sleep rather than nine hours of tossing and turning. While we can be aware of the number of hours we sleep and even plan our schedule to ensure that we sleep a certain number of hours, we are far more focused on the quality of the sleep that we have achieved. Similarly, when evaluating our time, we can be aware of the hours and minutes passed, but the quality of those moments is what really matters.

3.      Change the Way You Experience Time

Instead of seeing time as something separate from us, true freedom happens when we become one with time, partnering with it in a new way. We can invite it into a relationship, a dance, so that we can fall into oneness. When we are truly at one with time, we reach a blissful state of being less aware of time itself but more aware of the present moment.

We can become more present through simple, easy actions. Expand the breadth of time literally, through deep breaths. Observe what each of your senses is taking in. Feel your feet on the earth’s floor. Express gratitude for all the “little things” that are easily taken for granted. Each of these is an example of a simple way to connect with the fullness of time.

Each moment you fully insert yourself in the present, you change your experience of time, shifting your focus away from how you spend time to instead reveling in what you receive from it.

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About the Author: Marney K. Makridakis

Marney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time. She founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at http://www.artellaland.com.

Based on the book Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life ©2012 by Marney Makridakis.  Published with permission of New World Library http://www.newworldlibrary.com

You Can Get it from Amazon!

Creativity is the cognitive process of developing a novel idea or concept.

Teresa M. Amabile, a creativity expert, argues that creativity is not a quality of a person. Rather, it is a quality of ideas, behaviors or products.

According to her, creativity has 3 basic ingredients:

1. Domain-Relevant Skills – These are skills associated with expertise in a relevant field (e.g., artistic ability, technical ability, talent, etc.).

2. Creativity-Relevant Skills – These skills include a cognitive style or method of thinking oriented towards exploring new directions, approaches that can be used to generate new ideas, and a work style conducive to developing creative ideas.

3. Task Motivation – Recent evidence suggests that a genuine interest in a task for its own sake, rather than for achieving external rewards such as money, enhances creativity.

So how can you develop your creativity? Here are 2 ways:

1. Provocative Operation, coined by Edward de Bono – This involves disrupting your thought patterns. It works with the premise that the more you are used to something, the less stimulating it is for your thinking.

Application: Insert “interruptions” into your day. This can be writing in a different room or area, reading magazines you wouldn’t normally read, tuning in to a different radio or television station, cooking and eating something different.

2. Forced Analogy – This method forces you to compare a concept, idea or problem with something else that it has little or nothing in common with. The results are new insights.

Application: Compare an emotion (e.g., elation, excitement, anxiety) with a tangible object (e.g., pen, chair, door). How is anxiety like a door?

When you need to tap the creative inside you, use these 2 techniques. Tap into your imagination and you enable yourself to create new things, come up with ideas you have never thought of before. Tap into your imagination and you awaken your creativity.

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Copyright (c) 2003-2004 Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

About The Author – Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

Shery is the creator of WriteSparks! – a software that generates over 10 *million* Story Sparkers for Writers. Download WriteSparks! Lite for free – http://writesparks.com

Right now, Marney’s in the middle a big Creating Time Book Event.   For all of you who haven’t been able to hear Marney talk about Creating Time personally, I thought I’d share the following Q&A with you!

Why did you write Creating Time?

Like most people, time has been a big challenge for me throughout my adult life, but it escalated to an extreme after I gave birth to my first child in 2008, and struggled in vain to find the time to “do it all”. I devoured every time management book I could get my hands on, but still found myself exhaustively chasing time. I finally put myself on mission to find a new solution, and began to explore ways that I could apply my best resource (imagination) to my biggest problem (time). I passionately researched and experimented with imagining, viewing, and experiencing time in new ways, and at last, felt time expand and change at my design. I created an online course to help others do the same and saw that other people had success with these techniques as well. After that, I finally felt able to sit down and write a longer work that developed these ideas much more fully. Creating Time is for people who feel like they don’t have enough time to live the kinds of lives they want to live. I want everyone to know: when we don’t have time, we have to create it, and the incredible news is that we can do so using one of the greatest resources ever to exist on our planet: human creativity.

It seems like time is going by faster than ever these days. Why do you think that is and what can we do about it?

As I researched the different elements that seem to affect our perception of the flow of time, I pinpointed several key factors, one of the most significant being the difference between focused and scattered time. When we are focused on just one thing, time seems to move more slowly; on the other hand, when our focus is scattered, time seems to move more quickly. These sensations seem to be true whether we’re talking about hours, days, months, or years. At this point in our planet’s social evolution, we are constantly taking in much more information than ever before on an internal level, constantly being stimulated with new thoughts, feelings and ideas. At the same time, we are being asked to multi-task on the external level, as more and more demands are made on our daily productivity. The result is a near-constant state of extreme scattered focus, which in turn makes time feel like it is moving very quickly. On the one hand, multi-tasking may make us feel more productive, that satisfying feeling is typically rather fleeting, as the very act of multi-tasking makes us feel like we have even less time, as our dispersed focus plays tricks on our perception. The solution lies in a blissful state of being less aware of time itself but more aware of the present moment. Connecting right here to this moment and focusing on one single thing, as if we had all the time in the world, makes time slow down and give us all that we need.

What does “Creating Time” mean?

To me, it means that there is amazing power held by each of us to imagine, create, and completely reshape the way we experience time. For too long we have been servants of time when in fact, time that can and should serve us. We can finally drop all the archaic view and limitations of time that have held us back from fully embracing the wild beautiful truth: time is not a defined line; it is instead a vibrant, completely moldable, layered, multi-faceted work of art that is in your hands to create and design, each and every day.

How is your book different from a typical “time management” book?

Time-management books, as well as the latest time-tracking and productivity aids, can certainly be of help to us on the practical level, but they are limited in their long-term effectiveness, since the true nature of time extends beyond the chronological hours displayed in our calendars, wristwatches and smart phones. I really wanted to dive into the psychological, philosophical and emotional aspects of time, to help readers come away with a liberating new view of self and a fresh perspective on the meaning of being human, empowered, and fully alive. So while the book is definitely filled with practical, hands-on tips for creating more time in your day, it’s also about finding a new way to experience time in its entirety, your full time on this earth…shifting our focus away from how we spend time to instead reveling in what we receive from our time. And, besides, most time management books won’t guide you to make collages and design offbeat new clocks and creative time-pieces! While intensely practical, I also wanted the 14 time shifting projects in this book to be a lot of fun and inspire a sense of playful abandon and freedom.

Professionally, you work primarily with artists, writers and creative individuals. Does someone have to think of him/herself as “creative” to benefit from your teachings?

Absolutely not! The conclusion of each chapter presents an “ARTsignment,” which is an art project designed to activate and expand self-awareness and transformation. ARTsignments, which are at the core of my ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through creativity, offer a powerfully effective way to internalize and absorb a process and truly take it in. I’ve discovered that engaging our minds, imaginations, and bodies through physically creating art catalyzes an unmistakable transition from simply reading a concept to absorbing and becoming it, and this is true for anyone, not just people who think they are creative or artistic. Through the creative projects in this book, absolutely anyone can enjoy the adventure of being transported through creativity, and this has very large and valuable implications regarding time “traveling” and time creation. Each ARTsignment combines a step-by-step introspective process; interactive journal questions; and a unique, hands-on art project that pulls you directly into the full dimensions of time, extending the breadth of its meaning and experience. You don’t need to be an “artist” to tap into the transformative power of creativity! In these projects, the emphasis is completely on the process rather than the product, and their transformation power holds true whether you are sketching stick figures on a paper napkin, making a collage of magazine cutouts, painting on a canvas, or creating an elaborate mixed media sculpture.

What are the main challenges with time that you’ve identified, and how does this book address them?

To personalize the reader’s process, Creating Time contains a “Time Diagnosis Chart” which identifies 14 of the most popular time complaints, and recommends which of the book’s tools are most effective in addressing them. I find it interesting that, while everyone’s specific time complaints are unique, they usually boil down to one very primal theme: I don’t have enough time to live the life I want to live. For most people, time is the biggest challenge in fulfilling their potential. Whatever improvements or changes we want to make in our lives, it often seems to go back to the topic of time; we need time to exercise and eat right, time to establish and strengthen relationships, time to pursue a meaningful hobby, time to follow a dream. Our perceived lack of, and limitations on, time affect all areas of our lives, especially our hopes and dreams. Time is the ultimate scapegoat when things aren’t going our way. But this book shows that time is also is the ultimate resource when we can tap into its expansiveness and partner with it in new ways.

How did you incorporate science into your book? What does science have to do with “creating time”?

From Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, to the modern quantum physics notion that the observer has an effect on the observed, to the scientific breakdown of how light reflection works…these are just a few examples of scientific studies that found their way into the book as foundations of the idea that we can, indeed, create our own experience of time. I even conducted a few creative time experiments of my own, and the book invite readers to try out the experiments for themselves, in addition to reviewing the data gathered. Art and science are the two pillars on which Creating Time is built. To use a metaphor of a clock, I see the art component in this book as being the face of the clock, helping us see what new time can look like. Science is like the clock pendulum, drawing us back to the earth, rhythmically keeping us connected to life’s mysteries.

Explain the concepts of kronos and kairos and their relationship to “creating time”.

The Greeks have two words for time: kronos (sequential, linear time; from this we get the English word, “chronology”) and kairos (non-linear, numinous time that is not measured or bound). These terms provide a helpful starting point for expanding our sense of time. Simply asking ourselves questions like, “Am I in kronos or kairos right now?” and “What might happen if I switched into the other state of time in this moment? What new ideas or insights does that bring to light?” is an easy, yet powerful way to start partnering with time in a new way.

What do you most hope that readers take away from this book?

I hope that readers will come away with a new sense of a time, as well as practical tools to put this new approach into action, both in their day-to-day lives and into their fuller spectrum of meaning and purpose in life. When we are not slaves to time, when we are not chasing time and wishing time was different, we finally set our souls free to live the lives we’re meant to life. We enter into a new realm of possibility, partnering with time to create a life filled with awareness and fullness, instead of an inherent sense of lack, worry and dread. Believe it or not, time is in your hands, and you can mold, craft, and create time to be just about anything you would like it to be.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time. She founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at http://www.artellaland.com.

If it’s true that 10,000 hours is what it takes to become world class, then most of those people have achieved that. Unfortunately only a handful continued their creative pursuits. The rest got pulled into main stream by the pressures and ‘responsibilities’ of life.

A large business drive continues to be innovation (for good reason), and within the context of Innovation, creativity is the fuel of any innovative process. Without it, there’s nothing to innovate with. Ensuring an organisation increases it’s ability to be creative is critical.

How do you increase creative ability? There are many hints and tips littered on pages all over the internet. Technical advice that can be useful in the heat of the moment. Things like, ‘take off your shoes during a meeting’, or ‘pretend you’re from another planet’. These techniques have the ability to help anyone think a little differently. I’d like to suggest that, while they may be helpful, they’re only really useful when you suggest them to someone who’s imagination and creative ability is well developed and practiced.

It’s a little like giving someone, who’s never played a particular sport before, technical advice on how to play. It’s often meaningless information unless the person has had the opportunity to play a little, get a feel for the game, and understand the basics of what is required.

Improving one’s creative ability, like all pursuits in life, needs practice and discipline. Time, energy and resource has to be invested over a significant period of time. One needs to carve out space daily to engage in exercises that summon our creativity out of us. I have found that there is no dramatic or noticeable change that happens, but over time you begin to notice subtle changes in how you engage with the world and others around you. It’s more subtle than profound. It is, however, worth everything you invest in it.

Creativity is fast becoming a business imperative. As the pace of change increases, all sectors of society require new approaches and new solutions to very new problems. We cannot expect old solutions and approaches to work. Imagination and creativity will be required to fuel the innovation machine. Practice we must. Today. Now!
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About the Author: Barrie Bramley

Barrie Bramley has been a Chief Imagination Officer for the past 10 years. He’s most at home when he’s being playful, and likes to think of himself as an adventurer of the great indoors.

If you’re looking for him in a digital space, here are two places you will find him:

- http://www.doobdoo.co.za

- http://www.about.me/barriebramley

Don’t Stifle Curiosity
Engaging in thoughtless activities is one way to shut off your creative side.  In stifling thought, you are effectively turning off your ability to think for yourself and giving your mind to another to control.  Think about it.  What thought goes into watching television?  More importantly, does curiosity play a part in something mindless like watching television?  The answer is no.  There’s absolutely nothing to be curious about because, generally, television shows answer your questions.  I’m personally a huge fan of the Office, but when was the last time the Office left anything to the imagination or provoked meaningful thought?

Pursue Thought-Inducing Activities
Instead of engaging in thoughtless activities, seek out those which entice your curiosity.  The most important discoveries and creations were born out of curiosity.  A lecture on electricity sparked Ben Franklin’s curiosity in electricity; from that curiosity, he began his unfaltering experimentation.  Would we know electricity as we do today if he hadn’t been curious?  Seeking spiritual enlightenment, something bred out of curiosity, Steve Jobs traveled throughout India for seven months in the 70s.  As a result of his experiences in India, he became a firm believer in Zen developed a countercultural mindset, that he said, impaired some people’s abilities to understand his mind; and it was his mind that allowed him to create.  Would we have seen the technological innovations we do today had Steve Jobs not experienced his curiosity-driven journey in India?

The idea here is to engage in activities that you are curious about because curiosity drives us all.  Read a new book, experience different cultures and religions (i.e. alternative realities), study philosophy, etc.  Do things that interest you and make you think.

Pay Attention to Your Non-Realities
What’s interesting about our minds is that we don’t always know or understand what goes on in them.  Thus it is imperative that you pay attention to your non-realities, like your dreams and daydreams.  When we’re asleep or lost in our own worlds, our minds access hidden thoughts, ideas, and curiosities that may be creative in themselves or spawn creativity.  Unlike our everyday thoughts, however, these thoughts are fleeting.  Always keep a notebook by you so that you can jot down any and all new ideas and never discount them; something that seems unimportant at the time may turn out to be the opposite later.

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About the Author: Gina Williams

Gina Williams brings us a guest post featuring tips for utilizing your curiosity to incite creativity.  Shocked by the incidence of motorcycle accidents and fatalities when compared to other modes of transportation, Gina has devoted her life to educating the public about motorcycle accidents and how to decipher good motorcycle accident lawyers from ones simply referring out cases.

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” - Albert Einstein

It’s easier than ever to be creative, to create, to imagine and make what’s imagined become reality.

It’s also tougher than ever, with distractions surrounding us in ways never before imagined.

No matter what kind of creative type you are — writer, painter, musician, marketer, blogger, photographer, designer, parent, business owner — you are likely always looking for inspirations, for ways to let loose your creative genius.

And while there are millions of creativity tips on the Internet, I thought I’d share the ones I’ve found most useful — the ones that I’ve tried and tested and found to be right.

Here they are, in no order at all:

• Play.
• Don’t consume and create at the same time — separate the processes.
• Shut out the outside world.
• Reflect on your life and work daily.
• Look for inspiration all around you, in the smallest places.
• Start small.
• Just get it out, no matter how crappy that first draft.
• Don’t try for perfect. Just get it out there, asap, and get feedback.
• Constantly make it better.
• Ignore the naysayers.
• But let criticism help you grow.
• Teach and you’ll learn.
• Shake things up, see things in new ways.
• Apply things in other fields to your field, in ways not done before.
• Drink ridiculous amounts of coffee.
• Write all ideas down immediately.
• Turn your work into play.
• Play with kids.
• Get out, move, see new things, talk to new people.
• Read wildly different things. Especially stuff you disagree with.
• Get lots of rest. Overwork kills creativity.
• Don’t force it. Relax, play, it will start to flow.
• Allow your mind to wander. Allow distractions, when you’re looking for inspiration.
• Then shut them off when you’re going to create.
• Do it when you’re excited.
• When you’re not, find something else to be excited about.
• Don’t be afraid to be stupid and silly.
• Small ideas are good. You don’t need to change the world — just change one thing.
• When something is killing your creativity, kill it.
• Stop reading creativity advice, clear away everything, and just create.
• Most of all, have fun doing it.

“Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” - Lewis Carroll

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About the Author: Leo Babauta

Leo Babauta is a simplicity blogger & author. He created Zen Habits, a Top 25 blog (according to TIME magazine) with 200,000 subscribers, mnmlist.com, and the best-selling books focus, The Power of Less, and Zen To Done.

When was the last time you stepped out of your everyday routine and did something totally different? Taking a dance class, going to a concert to experience something different than what you normally listen to on the radio, or even picking up a pencil and sketching the trees in your own backyard is creative action. Creative thinking and creative action start with a new decision about how you’re going to spend your time.

2. Create something with your own hands on a regular basis.

There are plenty of opportunities to express your creative side. Even mundane tasks like setting the table allow you to try something new. For example, instead of buying new napkin holders, my daughter and I made our own out of some extra wire and brightly colored beads. They turned out awesome. We were both so proud of them and they are treasured pieces we will use for years.

3. Express yourself through visual, performing arts, or creative writing, music, or dance.

You can turn off the television and do some creative journaling every evening instead of tuning in and shutting down. Create a play with the kids. Try lip synching to a new video on television. Take turns creating a different ending to a familiar fairy tale. Use your imagination.

4. Make creativity a habit.

If you already dabble in creativity, make it a habit by scheduling time on your calendar for it. Youre more likely to live creatively if you actively write down your intentions. You don’t even have to sign up for a formal class. Try it for 30 minutes every week and increase the time spent on these activities from there.

5. Display something in your home and office that you made yourself.

Your surroundings reflect your ideas. What better way to inspire more creativity, charm, and character than to include objects that you have made? Hand-made objects give you more to talk about, more vivid memories, and provide richer experiences overall than buying something similar. Over time it is also a visual reminder of how far you’ve come since your first started creating.

6. Visit creative spaces

Museums, art shows, gallery exhibits, theatre, performances these places remind us of our own innate creative abilities. Plus they’re fun to visit.

7. Take time to find new inspiration

Inspiration can be found in a variety of different places. Ask people you’ve known for years what creative stuff they do you may be pleasantly surprised. Research within your own family. I bet youll find someone in your family that is artistic and can be a source of inspiration for you.

8. Ask Questions

Stay involved with other creative people. Inspire others with questions about their progress in their own endeavors. Something they say to you could provide you with an idea that moves you in a new direction.

9. Provide a creative outlet for someone that is new to the idea of living creatively

Just when you’ve figured out some new ways to live creatively, share your knowledge. Give the information away to someone who is totally new to the ideas. They will undoubtedly have a twist on your information that allows you to learn something new and keep growing.

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This article is courtesy of http://www.centerofcreativity.com. You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.

1. Take a Break

Your brain is numb, you feel defeated, and you’ve got nothing. If you’ve reached this point, the best possible thing you can do is take a break. Travel if you can; traveling is known to be a useful step in the creative process. Through travel, your brain thinks outside of its normal self because you experience new surroundings, new social environments, new architecture, etc. These things cause your brain to think outside of its normal patterns. If you simply cannot travel when you find yourself in a rut, go out to experience new things in new environments locally. Go to a local band’s show. Go to a park or museum you’ve never been to before. Get out and do something new.

Being in a new environment is refreshing, helps you get outside of yourself and life, and makes you more observant of your surroundings. And experiencing new things may just help you develop new, creative ideas or solve the problem you couldn’t before that was halting your progress.

2. Brainstorm
Sit down and brainstorm. Think of ways to accomplish what you need to and then just start doing it. Even if you think it’s awful, it could turn into or inspire exactly what you’re hoping to create. For instance, if you’re a writer, just start writing; everything in the beginning may be terrible, but those beginning pages may encourage ideas that aren’t terrible.

3. Critique
After brainstorming, critique your ideas. Find the negatives of your work so that you can change those aspects, or solve the problems inherent in your original ideas. If possible, enlist family, friends, colleagues, and the like to help you with your progress. Present your brainstorms to them and have them mercilessly critique each of them. And listen intently. Don’t get offended by them because criticisms allow you to better your ideas. With criticisms, problems are solved, and new and better ideas arise.

4. Rinse, Repeat, and Stay Positive
If you make progress only to find yourself stuck again, repeat the process over and over again until you finally have a finished product. And throughout the process stay positive. Negative thought will hinder your progress; if you tell yourself you can’t do something, you won’t do it. Stay calm and rational; if one thing doesn’t work, try another.

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About the Author: Alexis Tate

Alexis Tate is a writer offering us a guest post with tips for escaping a creative rut. Alexis writes on a variety of topics, but her passion lies in law. After realizing that lawyers represent themselves falsely to citizens in need of legal help, Alexis began writing educational articles to help citizens through the car accident legal process.

Enjoy!

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Pay attention to the conversations of parents around you, and notice how often the subject of  time comes up:

“I’m fine, just crazy busy. . .”
“I just don’t know when I can find the time. . .”
“I can’t really talk now, I’m running late. . .”

People used to be tied to things like families, communities, rituals, worship, curiosity, and beauty. Now we are tied to schedules, watches, datebooks, computers, and keeping up with the latest gadgets that start with i. When you’re a parent, you’ve usually got multiple clocks ticking away inside your head, as you’re keeping track of everyone’s time. You’re likely to look to the latest time management tools or gadgets to try to help you gain control of all the spinning plates. Time management can improve what you accomplish but often at the peril of what you experience. As a result, the more that busy parents try to manage their time, the more fragmented they often feel.

The concept of creating time is not just about creating more hours in the day, but creating a new relationship with time that benefits everyone in the family. Here are a few ways to get started:

1. Become aware of different kinds of time

All time is not created equal. The Greek language has two words for time – kronos and kairos. Kronos is sequential, measured time (from this we get the word chronology) and kairos is non-linear, circular time. Simply being aware of which time state you are in expands your control of time. For example: you’re trying to get your child dressed and out the door for an appointment and the more anxious you’re getting, the more your child seems to be resisting. In this moment, you can recognize you are in kronos time and your child is in kairos. What if you were to join your child in kairos…what might that look like? Maybe pretending that his socks are wild tickle puppets is more important than getting there “on time”. Exploring the shift between kronos and kairos time is a powerful way to access new ideas and insights.

2. Change the way you talk about time

You are no doubt aware that your children is listening to and absorbing to every word you say. Every time you complain about not having enough time, or every time you rush around, your child is watching and learning what time means. Further, your own psyche is listening, too; time seems to reacts as if we’re yelling in a canyon, and whatever we are saying about time comes back to us in our experience. If we are saying, “There’s never enough time; I’m constantly chasing time and I can’t find it,” then our experience echoes back, “Yes! There’s never enough time; you’re constantly chasing time and you can’t find it!” If, however, we are saying, “I have all the time in the world. Time is fluid and changing at my design. More and more, I see that I have all the time I need,” then this is reflected back in your experience. When we talk and act as if we had all the time in the world, our perception of time does indeed slow down, and our children learn that time is a precious resource, rather than a cause of never-ending anxiety and dread.

3. Measure time in new ways

Time is measured in linear fashion, with numbers on a clock and squares on a calendar. But what if we could interpret time as a qualitative entity instead of something just measured by quantity? For example, instead of judging a family activity by how long it takes, try measuring it by aspects such as joy, connection, silliness, and meaning. Introduce these new measurements into your family:

“How many laughs until we go to the park?”

“How many memories did we just create?”

“Three hugs ‘til dinner!”

Ask each family member for new ideas for measuring time in new ways. Embrace your
children’s creativity and have fun learning how to “tell time” in new ways!

4. Play games to learn to “tell time”

As your family talks about new ways to think about, measure, and experience time, try creating a new “Family Time” clock that is calibrated to true time, the things that are most important to you, as a family. Cut out a circle from posterboard or find an old clock at a thrift store that you can alter. Ask each family member to replace the numbers with images or words that reflect the things that are most important to them. After your project is complete, place it in plain view in your home, to remind everyone to engage in a new relationship with time.

Each time we make a choice to work with time, instead of against it, we are expanding our sense of time. When we are not slaves to time and its perceived boundaries, our family relationships blossom. We also discover a liberating new view of self and a fresh perspective on the meaning of being human, empowered, and fully alive.

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About the Author:  Marney K. Makridakis

Marney K. Makridakis is the author of Creating Time. She founded the Artella online community for creators of all kinds and the print magazine Artella. A popular speaker and workshop leader, she created the ARTbundance approach of self-discovery through art. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Visit her online at http://www.artellaland.com.

Based on the book Creating Time: Using Creativity to Reinvent the Clock and Reclaim Your Life ©2012 by Marney Makridakis. Published with permission of New World Library http://www.newworldlibrary.com