Routine can be crucial for highly creative people

"You have to be ready when inspiration strikes"

Lovely sunflower,

"You have to be ready when inspiration strikes"

is something I thought was the only way we could express ourselves creatively. I used to believe that no creative person on earth could have a routine because that is the definition of a killer of creativity. But there’s a deep problem with that statement. I’ve discovered the creative, inspired, idealistic part of me is typically always “on” if I’m not actively trying to focus on something else. This causes some big struggles with the idea that we must live by our creativity and obey its laws. Well, if it’s always "on" it will cause havoc in our health and lives.

If I let my mind run free at night, I'd never fall asleep. I would just keep getting new ideas and thoughts about literally anything and everything. I don’t choose to think about them, they’re just flooding in without a heads up. But I’m allowing myself to open up to them. If I want to get any sleep, I even need a few hours of not allowing myself to get inspired by new thoughts and ideas before bed. I've only been able to do it by focusing on something tangible in my physical reality or something that doesn’t make my mind overly excited. It’s not just negative thoughts that keep us up at night, it's creative ones too.

I believe we all function differently. But just because we have a lot of structure in our lives doesn’t mean we can’t be creative. Sometimes that is (as in my case) a must. The funny thing is, if I allow myself to stay up all night and get creative insights, I will struggle to feel creative the following day. Because when we don’t take care of ourselves, our creativity suffers.

The times that I have been the most creative are typically when I feel the best physically, mentally and emotionally. It’s at least at those times that I’ve come up with ideas that will have a dramatic positive effect on my life in some way. It’s always the easiest to write on those days.

I still believe we’re all different and for some people that statement will continue to be true. They might suddenly get inspired and must take immediate action or it will just pass through them. But that doesn’t mean we all function that way. If you have an overworking brain that constantly gets new ideas whenever you allow it to run free, that could potentially be harmful for you if you’re not also having some structure around it.

I believe creativity differs from person to person. Taking action on inspiration whenever it shows up could be very beneficial for some people while others need routines or structure to not get overwhelmed by their own insights. Discovering how our own bodies work could be crucial if we want our creative side to have a positive impact on our lives without any major side effects.