Keeping A Creativity Journal:
Inspiration Journal

There are many kinds of journals. Some people record their innermost thoughts and feeling daily. Others write a single poem or a few lines of an essay once a week, every few months, or simply “whenever,” The wonderful thing about journaling is that there are no rules or restrictions.

To get your creative juices flowing, start a journal to record inspirational thoughts and ideas, or keep track of an artistic project. Choose a blank book, preferably without lines, that appeals to you in color, size, and texture. Or make your own journal, designing a cover with drawings and photographs. Starting is the most important action. In the beginning, you might want to schedule journal time into your day… but even if you don’t, you know it is there waiting for you when inspiration strikes.

One of the best ways to encourage creativity is to try new things. Don’t let your preconceived notions of what a “journal” should be get in your way. Anything too formal or linear is up for grabs when flying with your creativity: write with your non-dominant hand, or write in a different direction – landscape orientation is a great start, diagonally, or even in a circle. When it comes down to it, you don’t even really need to write any words at all: draw, doodle, or paste a collage of images instead. The important thing is not to worry about your artistic skill in creating the journal, but to focus instead on your own expression. Anything fresh will do to kick-start your creativity: use different colored pens or pencils; fill your pages with colorful doodles; anything to keep you from traveling the same worn paths in your thinking.

Your journal can be about any aspect of your creativity. You may or may not believe it at this moment, but there is no such thing as a “non-creative person”. Any collection of fragments can be your repository of dreams, your prompt book for brilliant ideas, or the start of a larger creative endeavor. Don’t just spend time putting a journal together; every once in a while, take it down off the shelf and read it as if you just found someone else’s journal lying there (and that it was okay to look inside). The inspiration you discover may surprise you. ~ Madyson Taylor, Daily Om

You are creative. Yes, you! There is creativity in most things that we do. Whether it is cooking a sumptuous dish for dinner or rearranging the furniture in the living room, or creating perfumes, you are exercising your creative muscle. If you are like me, you deny that you have a creative bone in your body, because your idea of creativity revolves around writing, painting, drawing, designing, dancing or some other “artistic” endeavor. As a child, I was told that I wasn’t creative and for most of my life, I believed it. Almost two years ago, I gave in to my longing to draw and I discovered a part of myself that I’d never known — my creative side. Surrendering to it, allowed me to express my thoughts and feelings in a new and fulfilling way.

Drawing led me to painting and both blossomed into the passions that eluded me. I’ve even sold two pieces of artwork and have commissions for two more. Although it is still surreal when I refer to myself as an artist, I intend to become a working artist. Two years ago, I never imagined that my journey would take me to this place.

Creativity is different for each of us, but when you unleash it, you unearth a part of you that has been hidden for much too long. The creative journal is a small step toward recognizing your creative side that awaits. The creative possibilities are endless, but only you can access it. Just remember that :

[t]here is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. ~ Martha Graham

The output of your creativity is uniquely yours and no others. It is a blessing and sharing it is your gift to the world.