7 Creative Ways to Make Time For Your Creative Hobby!

by Kristine Lewis

Having a creative hobby whether it is scrapbooking, knitting, sewing or painting is not only fun, but can offer you many additional benefits. A creative outlet is a great stress reliever, a self-esteem booster and a way socialize and make friends. Making the time to pursue your creative interest, however, can be a challenge in and of itself.



It's hard to justify working on a new quilt when you have a mountain of dirty laundry, a deadline at working coming up and cupcakes to make for your child's school party. But, if you don't make time for your creative hobby, you will quite simply never get around to it and will never reap the benefits. Here are seven great ways to make time for your creative hobby :
1. Schedule a block of time in your week for your hobby. Write the time block in your calendar or enter it into your PDA and commit to keeping that appointment.
2. Designate a place in your home which is devoted to your projects. If can be quite a deterrent knowing you have to get out all of your supplies and then clean them up every time you want to work on your project. If space in your home is limited, perhaps you could set up a small area in the basement, a closet or a small corner of your house for your projects.
3. Make a hobby date with a friend. If you set an appointment to work on your hobbies together, it will be harder for you to "blow-off" your creative time for that bathroom that's begging to be cleaned--not to mention, this is a great time to catch up with a friend.
4. Create a project plan. If you have a big project to do like putting together a scrapbook that details the first year of your child's life, develop a project plan for yourself, just like you would for any other big project. Break the whole project into a series of small steps. Focus on one step at a time.
5. Create a craft area for your child. If you have a hard time working on your projects because your child always wants to "help", give him/her an area in which to work (near you) and their own supplies to use. Encourage them to explore their own creativity and create their own beautiful projects.
6. Have a creativity party. Invite a group of friends over for a party in which you can all work on your projects for a block of time. Give the party a theme (e.g. a Mexican Fiesta) and ask everyone to bring a dish to pass which goes along with the theme. Not only will you make time for your project and time to visit with your friends, you may also be inspired by your friends' creativity.
7. Barter time with a friend or neighbor. Do you have a friend who also has a creative hobby? Perhaps she could watch your kids for two hours while you work on your hobby and vice versa.

Sometimes making time for creativity takes a little creative planning. The benefits you will reap from this time are certainly well worth it! Make time for creativity today!

This article is by Kristine Lewis from http://www.anorganized-life.com. An Organized Life provides tools, information and coaching to help people live and work better today by getting organized. Subscribe to our FREE weekly newsletter--it is chock-full of organization and time management tips you can apply to your life.

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How To Improve Your Creative Thinking

Want to know how to be creative? There are several techniques you can use to unleash your inner creativity. In this film brain guru Tony Buzan talks about how to develop your creative thinking, and apply it in many different ways.



Step 1 : Everyone is Creative
It's a misconception that some people are not creative. The brain has a million brain cells, and has huge powers of creativity. Many people are just not trained to tap into their brain's creative potential.

Step 2 : The Left & Right Brain
The left brain tends to deal with words, logic, numbers etc, and the right brain tends to deal with colour, shapes, rhythm etc. However, it's another misconception that creativity is purely right-brained. Real creativity involves both sides of the brain.

Step 3 : Speed of Thought
Training the brain think faster can help improve creative thinking. Exercise the brain with things like sudoku, crosswords, puzzles and chess, and try to do them as fast as possible.

Step 4 : Originality of thought
Try to think about things in as many different ways as possible. Think 'outside the box.'

Step 5 : Flexibility of Thought
Most people tend to focus on one way of perceiving the world around, to improve your creativity try to discover and explore as many perspectives as possible.

Step 6 : Imagination & Association
Great creative thinkers use their imagination, and then try to make links and associations between things. Find new connections between things is a way of creating something new.

Detail : http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-improve-your-creative-thinking

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12 Ways To Boost Your Creativity At Work

As workplaces continue to rightsize and downsize, we all find ourselves doing more with less. How do we stay ahead of the workload while staying sane? The key is to put your creativity to work for you so you can do more with less and shine like never before.
Just what is creativity? It is the ability to make, produce, cause to exist or bring into being; the ability to make something out of nothing or to make something better than it was before. Creativity is an inborn force that we all have: If you're alive, you're creative.



It needs to be said, though, that not everyone has the raw talent, creative vision and self-management skills to run out and make a living being an artist. But remember that artistic talent is only one way of potentially millions that you can express your creativity at home or at work.
In today's workplace, creative thinking, problem solving and innovation are at a premium. Here are 12 ways you can express your creativity more powerfully in any workplace :

1.) Use your values, interests, skills and aptitudes to express your unique perspectives, opinions and contributions.
2.) Take full advantage of the unique features of your personality to express your creativity in ways that are natural for you.
3.) Dress your body and your work space in ways that reflect your passion and energy.
4.) In what you say - either verbally or in writing - and how you say it, make sure you use word choice, vocabulary and communication style to showcase your uniqueness.
5.) Everybody works differently. Use your work habits, decision making and problem solving style to express who you really are.
6.) Everybody lives their lives differently. Use your personal habits, time management and outside interests to positively impact who you are at work.
7.) What are you passionate about? What kinds of things do you channel your energy into? What are you committeed to? Take all three to work with you and put them to work for you.
8.) Every creative act begins with a conception. Make sure you capture your workplace brainstorms in concrete ways.
9.) Every creative act develops through an incubation phase. Make sure you put safe boundaries around your own creative work time so it doesn't get overwhelmed with other responsibilities.
10.) Every creative act ends with a birth. Make sure you help each project grow to its next level.
11.) Celebrate your beginnings and your endings. Mark the big moments and look for reasons to play.
12.) Know when it's time to move on ? from ideas, projects and jobs ? then do it.

Still not sure you even are creative? Try reading the now-classic The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. If Julia can't convince you you are creative, then no one can!
Cheryl Lynch Simpson is a Spiritual Director and Solutions Coach who helps women discover and create the life they've always wanted to live. Cheryl is the author of over 30 print/Internet articles and the founder of Coaching Solutions For Women, a coaching website that produces and showcases career, business, and life solutions that improve the life balance of today's busy women.

Detail : http://www.wrapcandy.com/Creative/710.php
For a complimentary copy of her latest e-book, Ten-Minute Stress Zappers for Women Service Business Owners, visit : http://www.coachingsolutionsforwomen.com.

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BRIEF HISTORY OF FENG-SHUI

Several thousand years ago, ancient China's shamans, diviners, and sage-kings laid down the three building blocks of feng-shui: the compass, the pa-k'ua (eight trigrams), and the theory of change (as presented in the I-Ching). Legend has it that during the time of the Yellow Emperor in prehistoric China, the compass was originally used for navigation.



This navigational compass would be modified later for use in feng-shui.
At the beginning of the Chou dynasty (1122-207 BCE), King Wen first used the pa-k'ua to describe patterns of change in the natural world. By the eighth century BCE, the Chinese were using the pa-k'ua and the theory of change to promote the flow of nourishing energy inside a city or a palace and thus bring the kingdom harmony and wealth.

K'an-yu / Yin- and Yang-domain Feng-shui
The Han dynasty (206 BCE-219 CE) saw the founding of the art of k'an-yu (k'an means "mountains"and yu means "low places"), or the study of the energy carried in landforms. K'an-yu was championed by the Taoists Huang-shih Kung and Ch'ing Wu, who argued that geological bodies, particularly mountains and rivers, are filled with vital energy. The pathways of energy in mountains are called dragon veins, while those in waterways are called water dragons.
The ancient Chinese thought the land's energy could make or break a kingdom. For instance, if the capital city was built on land with nourishing energy, the country would prosper; if it was built on land carrying malevolent energy, the country would suffer catastrophes. Likewise, if an emperor were buried on or near landforms with positive energy, his dynasty would last, and if he were buried on or near landforms with negative energy, his dynasty would fall. In fact, k'an-yu was first used only by emperors and nobles to select propitious burial sites. Not until the Chin dynasty (265-420 CE) did everyday citizens start using k'an-yu to choose sites for houses (yang-domain feng-shui) and burial grounds (yin-domain feng-shui).

Detail : http://www.shambhala.com/fengshui/fundamentals/history.cfm

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