The creative process: exercise 1

Take a moment to pause where you are at. Take a deep breath, hold it for three seconds, then breathe out. One more time, breath as deep as you can, hold for three seconds, then breathe out again. I want you to slowly look around the area where you are currently at whether inside or outside. slowly turn in a circle like a second hand slowly makes it’s rotation around the clock. I want you to take note of what stands out to you; what kind of emotions, if any, are you feeling? I want you to keep doing this until you make a complete circle to where you first started rotating. now close your eyes and I want you to visualize everything you remember seeing, and like one of those slowly rotating, spinning glass doors or food displays, let each item rotate around and reappear in your head; repeating the objects name in your head. after you have gone through this process a few times, to where you feel confident in recalling at least 3 objects, now think of 3 memories in your life where that object is in. are they good memories? straightforward and simple or more complex and multilayered? assign a color, a 1-10 scale rating from enjoyable to abhorrent. think of a song you know that could be the soundtrack for that memory, lastly how would you best express that memory with a medium? Is is a skit or a music video or a documentary, perhaps a comic, or a sculpture; it’s up to you. now take a deep breath, hold for three seconds then exhale. One more time deep breath, hold for 3 seconds then exhale. Now I want you to open your eyes again and look around wheeler you are at , slowly rotating like you did the first time. How much more are you aware this time, are you noticing more detail, or less? And does everything have more or less meaning than it did before? Go and write a page journal entry reflecting on the experience. Take note of anything that stand out or perhaps you may have learned something new about yourself or remembered an aspect you had forgotten. Date it and put it in a journal binder. A huge part of creativity is about finding new ways to look at things, in order to generate ideas or connections that you haven’t experienced before, because new experiences and images create fresh perspectives and excitement

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