get creative - The Lardner Report

I parked myself in the middle of our overgrown garden and just started sketching.

Get creative and watch your life bloom.

What a week. Separation from friends and family. Work halted. Eateries closed. Theaters dark. Gyms shuttered. And worse — no accessible Godiva Chocolate.

Kidding aside, I’ve heard from friends — especially those who live alone — that this kind of quarantine is threatening their mental health and sense of social inclusion. In short: many are anxious, panicked, lonely and sad. Science backs this up, as the second week of Coronavirus challenges our bodies and our brains. The CDC says extended isolation can lead to stress, insomnia, depression and even hallucination.

One solution? Make art.

Take 10 minutes. Grab a pencil, your kids’ crayons, or a felt tip marker. Smash a cardboard box, and make it your canvas. The supplies don’t matter. The exercise is about relieving you — even for a few minutes — of the fear that exacerbates our anxiety.

Try making marks, slopping paint, or ripping paper. See if you don’t feel a sense of joy — even accomplishment — in the middle of a tense day.

Sit yourself down in your garden — or if inside, in front of a window — and spot something that speaks to you in some way. See it, put it down on paper, and leave your self-criticism somewhere else. It’s not about the product — it’s about the process. If you totally let go— and just create — you just might find this to be an inspiring daily exercise.

For me, the beauty is truly being in the moment. When we stop, sit, and just draw — we get to make something from nothing. By doing that, we birth an idea and see it emerge from a blank page. Whether we keep the end product or not is irrelevant. It’s making it that matters.

How does creative expression reduce stress? Experts say typically artistic work requires focus, and this prevents us from being preoccupied with our uncertainty. In this way, creativity acts much in the same way as meditation.

To express an artistic vision you don’t need special supplies, you don’t need training, you don’t even need skill. You really only need two things: the desire, and the time. A global pandemic just handed you the time.
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(Pic #1) “Wormhole” gum wrapper drawing by Beau Hufford, San Diego

“Odd how the creative power at once brings the whole universe to order.” — (Virginia Woolf)

If you find yourself on empty or “stuck” at work — consider exploring a free, mind-altering drug that can change the way you solve problems, and even view life: creativity.

By stimulating the right side of your brain, you get to supercharge your thoughts, and release a whole new collection of ideas just waiting to be unearthed. If you consider yourself traditionally left-brained, or analytical — imagine operating on all 8 cylinders, not just 4 — by engaging your “other half.” There’s a power in twice the surge, and all it takes is a little trust — trust that stepping outside your comfort zone can lead to new discoveries about yourself, and your creative capabilities.

How? By starting.

Get honest about what artistic passion lies inside you, and allow yourself to play. Free yourself to be spontaneous, and explore new ways of expressing your thoughts. It may mean a few discordant notes, or an impulsive scribble (Pic #1), but the process can truly take you to new places.

(Pic #2) 10-minute collage

While it sounds like an oxymoron, the most “freeing commitment” I’ve ever made was to set a time for 10-minutes of art-making every day. I started last March, and haven’t missed a day since. The art comes in many forms: painting, collage, photography — and it’s now become a precious ritual that I hate to miss — even if I get to it a midnight. It happens to be my way of kick-starting the creative process. And I have since discovered these daily sessions have enriched my corporate work — and my life.

Creativity means business:

(Pic #3) Mary Reeves : “Creative Controller”

If “creating for the sake of creating” doesn’t get your attention, how about unexpected profits? Read on to see how one woman saved her company hundreds of thousands of dollars by jumpstarting her right brain with a Taylor guitar. Let me share:

My colleague Mary Reeves is an experienced corporate controller. (Pic #3) She recently ran the accounting department at a successful firm in Southern California that makes electronic components for computers and modems.

As controller, of course, it was her duty to find ways to save the company money, and improve its efficiency. She knew their products were in demand, and sales were brisk, but she didn’t understand why it took so long to get the orders xanax into consumer hands.

Electronic Brainstorm

She wondered if there were a way to cut down on the clunky system that had merchandise shipping from Hong Kong to California (through the company’s customs bond) then re-packaged before being sent out again to customers. She asked executives if they knew a way to expedite orders so that they could be sent directly to their clients. No one had an answer, and her frustration grew.

At the same time, at night after work, Mary began studying and playing music. She told me the process of playing guitar — which requires left and right hands working together while performing vastly different tasks — engaged both sides of her brain, and had profound consequences. Then, learning to sing — while playing — intensified the experience even more. She said it was a slow, awkward process, but in the end, worth it.

Then one day, Mary had a chat with the local Federal Express rep about her frustration with the company’s shipping policies, and the lights went on. It turns out FedEx has an International Priority Plan that ships through Alaska, and saves 5-days of delivery time. Mary pitched the plan to her company, and execs jumped on board. Soon, consumers saw the benefit of lightening-fast delivery, and the word spread. And oh, by the way, Mary saved her company over half a million dollars.

The connection? Our now “balanced-brained” controller says the only reason she was able to pull off this fantastic feat was that she expanded her thinking “by engaging both sides of her brain.” She told me she has no doubt that her consistent “play” led to her creative, successful wins at work. It’s also why she reveres Albert Einstein’s passion for the violin — as explained in an excerpt from his biography — “Einstein: His Life and His Universe” by Walter Isaacson:

Music was no mere diversion. On the contrary, it helped him think. “Whenever he felt that he had come to the end of the road or faced a difficult challenge in his work,” said his son Hans Albert, “he would take refuge in music and that would solve all his difficulties.” The violin thus proved useful during the years he lived alone in Berlin, wrestling with general relativity. “He would often play his violin in his kitchen late at night, improvising melodies while he pondered complicated problems,” a friend recalled. “Then, suddenly, in the middle of playing, he would announce excitedly, “I’ve got it!’”

Get playing.

Isolation = Artistic Opportunity

The Importance of Creativity: Unleashing Your Personal Superpower