.˚✧˚₊ How To Be More Creative ₊˚✧ﾟ.

⋆ The Death Of Creativity Is Excess ⋆

You don’t feel as creative as you used to.

It’s getting harder to hear yourself think.

Somewhere between the constant stream of content, the pressure to keep up, and the endless noise of other people’s ideas, your own voice starts to get harder to find.

But your creativity isn’t disappearing.

It’s being drowned out.

‿︵‿︵‿︵‿ヽ(°□° )ノ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵

꒦꒷˘Drowned Out˘꒷꒦

Social media, movies, shows, music.

Every waking moment, someone is making something new and there is tons of pressure to stay in the loop. We get stuck between keeping up with it and finding our own voice. (。□°)/

For most people, the first thing we do in the morning is pick up our phones. Usually, there’s no real reason, just a few extra minutes in bed. Before we’ve even had a single original thought, we’re already consuming someone else’s.

The current social media climate is a very recent development. A literal endless stream of mostly meaningless content, each video indistinguishable from the last. The second you scroll, you’ve already forgotten what you just watched. It’s built so you don’t notice how long you’ve been there. ( ꩜ ᯅ ꩜;) 

Aside from social media, we have access to more media than we have ever had. Endless libraries of media, new and old, with more being released every single day. If you don’t feel the need to consume it all (⚈₋₍⚈), you, at the very least, feel pressure to keep up with whatever is trending at the moment, and that often changes just as quick as it’s begun.

All of this leads to one thing. Being burnt out before you’ve even started. When you’re constantly consuming other people’s ideas, it can become impossible to hear your own.

The Shower Thought Phenomenon

Do you tend to do your best thinking in the shower? Have you ever wondered why that is?

In the shower there’s a sense of relaxation. The warm water, white noise, and lack of distractions ଘ( ･ω･)_/ﾟ･:*:･｡☆. You’re doing something you don’t have to think about, in an environment without extra sensory input.

In situations like that, your mind finally has a safe place to wander. Activities like showering, commuting, or chores are routine enough for you to not have to focus on but occupy your mind enough so you don’t need excess stimulation.

Most people know that when stuck in a tough situation the most helpful thing to do is to take a step back. Taking a break lets your mind keep working without the pressure of trying to force an answer.

It’s not that the shower is some kind of magical idea box, but it’s the only time we get to be truly present with ourselves.

When you’re constantly surrounded by noise, doing nothing starts to feel uncomfortable, but it’s exactly where your ideas come from. Allowing yourself to be present in the moment, to be a little bored, to sit completely still, no matter how uncomfortable, is crucial for creativity.

There Was A Time When Creativity Didn’t Come From Having More ˚⟡˖ ࣪

It hasn’t always been this way. Never being bored is a very new phenomenon. Social media only appeared about 30 years ago and only started becoming so dangerously addictive about 5 years ago. So what was going on before that?

The 1980s were built on excessive ⋆✴︎˚｡⋆, opulent ⋆｡♡˚, and highly curated styles ⋆˚𝜗𝜚˚⋆. People paying top dollar for the biggest and the flashiest ⋆˙⟡. The end of the 80s also saw a stock market crash that left people with nothing and going into the 𝟡𝟘’𝕤 the youth⭒˚｡⋆🖁 were desperate to get away from the bold colors and commercial imagery.

Two trends emerged simultaneously as a response. Grunge .⋆♱⃓ and minimalism ✩.

Grunge offered an accessible way to express yourself. It was messy, it was eclectic ִֶָ☾, it was rebellious࣪ ⚠︎. It focused on clothing you could easily find at a thrift store or even make yourself.´ཀ` It took the hardships of the recession and turned it into a tool ࿔*:⋆.

Meanwhile, minimalism took a similar approach and did a complete 180 with it. It was also a rejection of excess, but instead offered simple, sleek, and refined comfort°｡. Using fewer pieces, neutral tones and intentional choices. Opposite to grunge’s focus on cheap self expression, minimalism offered a quiet revolution, focusing on finding confidence within ⋆⸜. Minimalism took the idea of nothingness and used it as the art instead ♡.

Both trends were defined by comfort and authenticity as well as pushing against the commercialism of the past. They took the financial situation of the time and made it work for them.

All of that creativity came from limitation. From being forced to make something out of what was already there. These movements weren’t born in excess. ☆⋆｡ They were born in defiance of it °‧★.

We don’t have that kind of limitation anymore.

The rise in micro trends and fast fashion born from influencer culture makes finding and defining your identity nearly impossible. Trends don’t last long enough to become identity anymore. They cycle so fast that nothing has time to settle, to evolve, to mean anything.

We live in a time where we have access to all of the tools, tutorials and inspiration we could ever need for any creative project, but most of us will never know what it is to make something.

Children make worlds out of nothing. Children don’t need materials. They make castles from dirt. Their only asset is their imagination.

˖ ݁♬⋆What To Do About It .˚𝄞

This is the hard part. What do you do when your world is actively working against you?

Start by doing NOTHING. Be bored on purpose. ( ◡̀_◡́)ᕤ

Try a twenty four hour content fast.

Go on a walk with no headphones, or sit in silence 𓇢𓆸. Let it be uncomfortable.

Better yet, try anyway ˙𐃷˙. Get your hands a little dirty. Experience trial, error, and imperfection. Your ideas aren’t gone. They’ve just been drowned out.

If too much input is the problem, then the solution isn’t more effort, it’s less noise. Give your mind the space it hasn’t had in a long time.

In The Quiet ⋰˚.☆

Your creativity was never the problem.

It didn’t disappear.

It just got harder to hear.

Somewhere between the noise, the pressure, and the constant need to keep up, your own voice got buried under everything else.

In a world that rewards constant input, silence starts to feel uncomfortable. Boredom feels like something to avoid.

But that quiet space, the one we try so hard to fill, is where everything begins.

The death of creativity is excess, and everything you’ve been looking for was waiting in the quiet you kept avoiding. ⊹˚.♡