Creating art is one of the most loving, healing things we can do for ourselves. It is a refuge in challenging times as well as uplifting times. So long as we approach our creative time in a spirit of love, play, permission, and partnership with a field of life larger than we are. So long as we remember to enjoy it as the gift that it is and enter into it with curiosity and openness. So long as we make one vital agreement with ourselves before we create each time. I’ll share that agreement below.
But first, I want to address the physical space in which you create.
One way you can support yourself in making your creative play a gift to yourself is by taking the time to make your creative space a sanctuary, a soothing, nurturing, inspiring place to make your art. Your space doesn’t need to be large or fancy. The changes you make need not be expensive. But they can make a difference in creating a true oasis where your muse feels encouraged to come out and play, where you feel inspired and can relax into that precious state known as flow, where we lose all sense of time and self-consciousness and are deliciously absorbed in the process of creation, rather than obsessing over the results.
Here are some suggestions to help you make your creative space a sanctuary. Take the ones that appeal to you and also invent your own.
Clearing the Space
Many of us use our kitchen tables or desks for our creative work. If that’s you and you don’t have a dedicated space just for art, one thing that can be very helpful to enticing your muse is to take five minutes before you begin creating to clear the space as best you can. Remove the dishes and old newspapers from the table and wipe it down. Stack the bills and papers on your desk to one side or put them on the floor. Open the space for creating and remove distractions.
If you do have a dedicated studio, sometimes a few minutes of clean-up or preparing your tools and materials is a perfect ritual to begin your creative time.
This will make your creative space feel more inviting and also signal to your muse, your inner creative spark, that it’s time to make some art.
Also, if at all possible, keep your phone in a different room or turn it off altogether. Tell the people in your home not to bother you. Shut out the possibility of distractions and disruptions.
Beautifying and Enlivening Your Creative Space
The furniture, objects, colors, and images you include in your creative space matter. Is the space fun, inspiring, beautiful? In short, does it stimulate your muse? Or is it boring, lifeless, overwhelming, distracting, or worse, ugly?
How can you bring more beauty and inspiration into your creative space? What objects or talismans might enliven your muse? Does she want it playful and colorful or for it to have a Zen elegance and austerity?
Is it time to paint the walls a new color or paint clouds on the ceiling? Get a colorful throw rug? Or put some new art on the walls? My desk has many special, small objects on it, as well as inspiring quotes and a rotating selection of images on cards. It feels bright, spacious, fun, and beautiful. But it does get cluttered with work-related things easily, so I usually take a few minutes to clear it before I start making art there.
Perhaps you might even want to make an altar to your muse with special objects that inspire her.
You don’t have to revamp your space all at once, but taking time to make it the way you truly like it is a wonderful gift to your muse.
Sounds
Playing quiet music, music that inspires you, or sounds that nurture you (recordings of oceans, wind in the trees, birds) is one way to carve out space for your creativity apart from the daily concerns and noises of the outer world. Kristin Tweedale of the Crafty Ass Female podcast—shoutout to her for inspiring this post with one of her own podcast episodes—loves her noise-canceling headphones, which allow her to shut out the outside world and listen to music she loves.
I rarely listen to music while creating, especially while writing, but I do use ear muffs designed to protect your hearing when using power tools. They are a godsend when my husband is home and listening to music in the other room or talking on the phone. They muffle the outside noise in a wonderfully helpful way. Just putting them on helps me feel I am in a special, secluded space, and it helps me concentrate. You can get a pair of these for less than $20.
Smells
Are the smells in your creative space pleasing and soothing to you? Essential oils and a diffuser are a wonderful way to bring scents into the space. Perhaps it’s just some fresh air you crave and can open the window at least a little. Find what smells invite, soothe, and nurture you.
Ritual
Having a simple ritual to begin your creative time is a wonderful way to let your muse know that it’s time for making art. It helps your consciousness shift out of the mundane mode into an open, receptive state.
A simple ritual that also helps you relax is excellent because we need to be relaxed and to feel safe to create our best work.
Taking three deep breaths is one very simple ritual you might try. You might do some yoga stretches or even go for a run—it’s great to enliven and relax the body before creating. Perhaps you turn on some special twinkle lights or other special lighting. Or, like someone entering an Aikido studio, you might bow upon entering. I like to light a candle, say a short prayer, and ring a bell. Sometimes I also wash my hands in a special bowl.
What helps you relax, shift gears from your ordinary tasks into a creative, receptive state, and feel safe?
Creating the Inner Space to Make Art
Creativity needs safety to flow. One key way to provide that sense of safety and invitation is to make an agreement with yourself every time before you begin that you will not judge the work. You agree to suspend judgment and simply invite what comes to come. You adopt an open attitude of permission, curiosity, and playfulness. You are willing to make mistakes and messes and bloopers.
Even when engaged in the refinement or editing process, you don’t judge your art. You cultivate discernment, not judgment. Judgment shuts the whole creative process down. It’s death to creativity. So make a promise to yourself to not judge the work, and if you catch yourself judging it—we’re all human!—stop yourself, apologize, suspend judgment, open yourself to surprise. Often, in the moment of creating, we have no accurate sense of whether the work we’re making is any good or not anyway. Some time and distance is needed to gain perspective and see what’s there.
Treat your muse lovingly. Be encouraging, as you would with a small child. And take some time to make your creative space a sanctuary. Your muse will thank you.
