Taking Care of Your (Relationship With Your) Creativity

Creating the Foundations for your creative channel to thrive

Nicole Justine Reid

We talk often about “taking care of ourselves” – which usually focuses on our bodies and our minds. But what about taking care of our creativity? What does this even mean? And how can we care for such a vital part of our being and existence in a way that truly nourishes us?

If you are called to create, taking care of your creativity is akin to taking care of your soul. It is a vital necessity that cannot be ignored. It is not something to “fit in” around other things – it is something to “bring forward” above other things.

You have a relationship with your creativity. How healthy is it? Do you and your creativity connect well and often with each other?

All of Life is Creation. Engaging in the creative flow – whatever it is that you are creating or bringing forth – is experiencing the Self expressing through the self

When we keep our attention on our relationships, and care for them, they thrive. So, it is the same for your relationship with your creativity – which, in essence, is your connection to Spirit, and to Life, and Creation itself.

To take care of your creativity, you must take care of your relationship with it.

So how can we do this? Here are some ideas.

1) Set an Intention Around Your Relationship With Your Creativity

First, as with anything, we must understand what the goal or intention is before we can move towards it.

For me, I desire to connect with my creativity regularly, easily, and joyfully.

My intention is to live lovingly in a space where creation flows through me and I can be a creative channel.

This can come in many forms, in terms of how my creativity is expressed, yet is the feeling of being in the flow, the ability to consistently allow and receive creative ideas, and the tangible creative action of bringing these creations into tangible form that I desire, and am creating, as a lifestyle. And this is all braided with my dedication to my creative path. It is one of the higher callings of my soul, and so I know I must do it.

So, take a moment and feel into the answer and let it unfold:

What is your desire and intention around your own creativity?

Also, check in with your dedication. This can show up in many ways, as well, but the essence of dedication is also a feeling. It is an embodied mindset, an “I’m doing this and I know it” feeling. If your dedication is high, the next steps become more about how to allow your creativity to thrive. But if your dedication is currently low, the first step is to examine why that is. What is going on for you? What are you needing? What is the block? What is your honest truth? Is this something you truly want? Maybe you need to adjust your intention. Feel into what is true for you.

Get in touch with your true desires, via your intuition and the sensations in your body, and always be honest with yourself. Do this first.

Examine your current relationship with your creativity and imagine what you would like for it to be.

How do you want to be in relation to the flow of creativity through you?

If this is a relationship you wish to nurture, to have a reciprocal, supportive experience with, then, when you are ready, hold your intention lovingly within yourself and consider these next steps.

2) Set a Foundation Within Yourself for Your Creativity to Thrive (Your Internal Environment)

Because creativity is an experience of the Self expressing through the self, it’s important to care for your being, as that is where the expression comes through.

So, for me, using my example above, it is first about feeling open and ready to receive. This means I need to be a clear channel. So, what do I need to do to support that? What needs to occur to set a foundation where this kind of flow can thrive?

This is where taking care of your body, mind, and spirit come in. But we must link it to our creativity to understand its effects on us and what this does for our creative process.

1. Body

If I am not feeling well in any of these realms, I will be preoccupied with getting those sorted, and my creativity will suffer. Think about it – if you have a cold or are sick, for example, all you want to do is lay in bed, rest, blow your nose and wish for it all to be over and you to be well again. Likely, you are not suddenly inspired with amazing ideas flowing through you and with tons of energy to follow through on them, right? That has been my experience.

So, I know that taking care of my physical body – with sleep, energy balance between action and rest periods, good nutrition, movement, fresh air, etc – not only does wonders, it literally creates the foundation for my creative wellbeing. We create through our bodies. This is how we bring things into being. And our bodies – and all physical reality – follow the direction of our mind and emotional intention.

2. Mind

Therefore, caring for your mental state – observing and directing your thoughts, thinking positively and encouragingly is essential because these thoughts reverberate throughout your body, activating emotions which are vibration – which is the language of the universe – directing the Energy to move towards that which you intend. Your thoughts show up as energy forms that then become your reality.

If you are thinking, “I am blocked, I cannot do this” – then that is exactly what will happen. Redirecting your thought forms towards supportive thoughts, such as “I am a clear, creative channel and I am open to fresh, creative ideas,” for example, can lift your energy and direct your emotions and actions to support that thought. This needs to happen at a subconscious level, so if you are needing support for that, there are healers and practitioners who can support you in this, and you can set an intention for them to come into your life if you so desire that support.

It is vital to keep a clear channel in both mind and body, and the ways you do this will be tailored to your unique needs.

How do you do this? Follow your intuition. Try things. Tweak them, until you get into a rhythm of a solid foundation that supports your wellbeing overall.

3. Spirit

This includes caring for your spirit, which comes in many forms. For example, meditation, walks in nature, following your dreams. And, I would even say that for those of us called to create, taking care of our creativity falls into this category of Spirit Care.

So, caring for the foundation of myself creates an environment within myself to be a clear channel for the creations that want to come through. Keeping my energy flowing and high vibration allows for the energy to be there to follow through and create them into tangible form.

And, because we live in a 3D reality, I also need to set up my external environments to support myself in making my creations a reality here on Earth. This is next.

3) Set a Foundation Around Yourself To Support Your Creativity to Thrive (Your External Environments)

So, we have started with setting up our internal environment – body, mind, spirit – to be a clear channel. To allow and receive. And now we set up our external environments – how we relate to our creative time(s) and creative space(s) – to support the idea to come through into tangible form.

1. Time – To Allow Inspiration to Breathe and Creation to Become

Let’s start with time. Are you allowing time for your creations to first, come to you and second, to be created? I separate these two things out because they are distinct steps in the creative process.

First, you need inspiration. It is very difficult to feel inspired if you are running around occupied by a million things. So it is good to allow time for inspiration to enter your energy field. This may look like quiet reflection time. An unfocused walk, where you are not listening to music or a podcast, but are focused on observing the environment around and within you as you move your body. Ideas often come to me and integrate during this time. It can be quite special. Baths and showers are also great inspiration times for some reason. I think it is because the water is clearing our energy field and we can access more as a result, like the crud is being wiped away and we become more clear. That’s my sense.

So, it is essential to dedicate spacious time in your days to allow inspiration to flow through to you.

Next, there is dedicating time to bringing your creation into physical form. Depending on what you are creating, this will take varying amounts of time. So, getting clear on how much time you need, and then scheduling it in your day – with clear boundaries to yourself and others that this time is not available for anything else – is key. I say “to yourself” first, because it is far easier to uphold a boundary with others if you feel solid within yourself about it first.

So, setting up your relation to Time by consciously allowing time for both inspiration and for physical creation.

2. Space – To Make Both Inspiration and Creation Easier

Next, we set up our Space. This means the places where you gather inspiration and the place where you do the creating.

So, you might gather inspiration in the shower, for example. Do you want to add some essential oil drops? Or, if you gather inspiration for a walk, what do you need to make it easier to go on this walk? Prepare your walking clothes ahead of time and put your walking shoes by the door? These are the kinds of things that we can do to set up our space to support us. These small actions add up to big results.

And then, of course, setting up your creative space. Make sure it is a place you want to be. Have all the supplies you need handy and ready. Keep tweaking until you get it feeling good. This, just like the creative process, is an ongoing process, so do not fret if you don’t get it right the first time. Let it evolve, as you do. Because what you need will likely change anyway. Dance with the tides.

For more information and ideas on this, you can read my blog on “How to Stay Focused While Writing: Sacred Space Matters.”

4) Nurturing your relationship with your creativity by regularly engaging with it

Finally, as you care for your being – body, mind, soul (an ongoing, shifting, dynamic process as you discover what works best for you) – and once you have intentionally carved out time and set up your space (both of which can also change and shift as needed), regularly engaging with your creativity is key to keep it flowing, talking to you, and active.

This means actually using the time you have set aside for inspiration and creation, and in the spaces you have dedicated to them (there can be several or many). And keeping yourself clear as a creative channel so your creations can flow through you and it into the world.

So, to recap, take care of your creativity by:

1. Setting your intention around your creativity – what do you desire in this relationship?
2. Caring for your internal environment (mind, body, spirit) to set up a solid foundation for you to be a clear channel
3. Setting up your external environment (time and space) to support your dedication – and allow both inspiration and creation to happen more easily
4. Nurturing your relationship with your creativity by regularly engaging with it

I hope this has given you some ideas and encouragement to nourish your creativity at a deeper level. There are always levels to which you can care for your creativity. Because, if you are called to be a creative channel and to fully activate that, your spirit won’t be satisfied until you are doing just that.

In essence, taking care of your creativity means taking care of you – on the fullest and deepest levels.

And the time to begin is now.