Based on my personal experience, and scientific studies, I truly believe that spending a little time being creative each day is as important for your well-being as nutritious food, daily exercise, and a good night’s sleep. Years ago, I wrote my Master’s thesis on art-as-meditation because I felt like we were most in touch with the world’s “creative source,” or however you prefer to name it, when we were being creative.

During my new e-course, Just for the Joy of It: 30-Day Creativity Practice for Busy People, you’ll be experimenting with three things to help you develop your creativity practice:

1. Find Your Creative Time(s)

Like training for a marathon, you’ll slowly increase your daily creative time over the 30 days. You’ll create for 5 minutes/day during the first week, 10 minutes/day during the 2nd week, and 15 minutes/day during the 3rd week. In the last week, you’ll create for the amount of time that works best for you each day (5, 10, 15 minutes, or more).

You’ll also experiment with finding the best time of day. You might discover that it is easiest to fit your creative time in early in the morning, or late at night, when the pull of other people’s needs is less. Or perhaps your schedule is so varied that there is no “ideal time,” and it will be more important for you find a creative medium that you can do anywhere when a pocket of time arises.

2. Find Your Creative Medium(s)

Some of the folks I’ve talked to about the course have said that they’re looking forward to using the 30 days to complete a big project they’ve had on the back burner. You can *totally* do this, but I would recommend that you also experiment with a variety of mediums and project sizes.

For example, you could decide to complete a sewing project that is easy for you to pick up and work on for short periods of time over the 30 days, or you could do something that can be completed in the moment like write in your journal, sing a song, dance in your living room, or draw/paint/collage something small.

If you travel a lot, or are never at the same place at the same time, you might want to experiment with a portable creative medium (e.g. coloring book and markers, journal and pen, knitting needles and yarn, an awesome playlist you can sing along to in your car or dance walk to on your way to work).

3. Find Your Creative Place(s)

Not many of us have the money and/or space to have our own She Shed (so cute!), or A Room of One’s Own, so part of developing our creative practice is to figure out where we can create. Is there a corner, tabletop, or comfy chair in your home that you can turn into your creative space? Or is it easier to create outside of your house in a cafe, or park? Or maybe you spend so much time at work, the best place to create is in your office with the door closed, on a train, or waiting at the airport gate, or bus stop.

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As you experiment with your creative time, medium and place, be kind with yourself when things don’t work out. It can take time to find your rhythm and then once you find it, things happen,  and you have to find a new one.

The most important thing is to be flexible, have fun, and don’t let your inner critic stop you because it doesn’t turn out perfectly. Try to focus on your creative process rather than your creative product. Create for the joy of it, however it turns out.

I hope you’ll be a test pilot for the first session of the Just for the Joy of It: 30-Day Creativity Practice for Busy People e-course.

Painting and photo by me ( :