We are all human; we all get caught up in the stories we create in our minds and we forget to treat ourselves with the same common courtesy that we usually offer our neighbors. How long would our neighbors be friendly if every time they saw us, we went off on tangent about everything they’ve done wrong this year? And yet, most of us treat ourselves exactly like that.

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One of the defining characteristics of creativity is its transformational power, the fact that glorious works of art can be created from the most unpromising and unlikely of materials. Those materials don’t get more unlikely than the states of ignorance and disillusionment – two concepts that come ready packaged with strong negative associations. And yet, when treated with positive creativity, these states can both produce extremely powerful creative results. Want to know how to turn them around to your creative advantage?

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We live in a physical, dualistic, relative universe. The concept of relativity is what allows us to experience the physical and the non-physical, the spirit and the ego, the seen and the unseen. To use this powerful tool of relativity and to experience what we know ourselves to be, spirit children of God with all of God’s abilities, we must first come to know the opposite.

When God created the physical world and the physical concept of relativity, he had to bring into existence the opposite of those aspects that define God. Love is at God’s core. This is what God is. In order to experience love, God had to bring into the relative world the concept of the opposite of love.

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The “Bed, Bath and Bus” theory of creativity. Some of you may have heard of it. If you haven’t, it’s the notion that the best ideas come when you least expect it, such as in the bath/shower, lying in bed or waiting for a bus.

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It slowly slips inside you, takes you over and kills your creativity before you even realise it’s struck, disappearing again with as little commotion as when it arrived.

It’s because of this ability to do so much damage silently that procrastination is so dangerous.

Here are 7 of the favourite disguises of procrastination and how they manifest themselves inside you:

1. Housemaid: Suddenly you feel compelled to hoover, dust, polish and wipe down anything that needs it in your home. And a few things that don’t, just for good measure. Even though you did the same thing when you came to create yesterday.

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I was having an interesting conversation with a friend this week about how abstract art can be interpreted many different ways, depending on the viewer. And in a clumsy attempt to figure it all out, that got me thinking about mirrors…

Mirrors are fantastic things. Love ‘em! The one problem is they only reflect the mere surface of the objects you place before them. Buff and polish all you like, they won’t delve any deeper.

For that, we need something more incisive. Yes, X-rays will get you some of the way, but they’re really quite dangerous if used more than a couple of times a year. I can only hope Superman didn’t stare at Lois Lane too often.

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I guess we all get stuck in a creative rut from time to time - artists whose variations on a theme have begun to lack, well… variety; musicians whose new songs sound a little too much like their old ones, or whose musical phrasings have become so well worn that they’re almost worn out; or writers who have settled for the easy.

And if what you produce fails to satisfy yourself then the chances are it will fail to satisfy your audience too. It’s time to shock yourself out of your creative rut.

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We live in a physical, dualistic, relative universe. The concept of relativity is what allows us to experience the physical and the non-physical, the spirit and the ego, the seen and the unseen. To use this powerful tool of relativity and to experience what we know ourselves to be, spirit children of God with all of God’s abilities, we must first come to know the opposite.

When God created the physical world and the physical concept of relativity, he had to bring into existence the opposite of those aspects that define God. Love is at God’s core. This is what God is. In order to experience love, God had to bring into the relative world the concept of the opposite of love.

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Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate.

Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.

1. Minimize Television Watching - This is a hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television, myself included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of exercise.

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A couple of years ago, I was writing maybe 2 or 3 creativity articles a month. And even this small amount didn’t come easy.

I’d spend hours at a blank screen, trying to come up with new ideas for the ezine or article that was due the next day.

Painful.

It wasn’t a very relaxing situation to be in, and of course not very conducive to creating freely and easily.

This last month I’ve written about 35 articles.

So that’s an increase of more than ten times what I was writing before.

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