Want to be more creative? Make it easier.

Shifting my perspective to make being creative easier

I tend to make things hard. Do you do that? "Finding time for creativity" sounds exhausting. Puttering around for a few minutes in the evening, making something that looks pretty and smells good? That's doable. I've started with the ending, though. Here's the story of how I shifted my perspective. 

My post-dinner routine had become stale. I read every night, binge watched TV periodically, and sometimes played a game with my husband and daughter.

So, I decided to look for something creative to do. It couldn't be work-related, and it couldn't be too hard, something in between couch potato and catching up on bookkeeping.

Maybe a light crafting project? Could I use things I already have around the house?

Rummaging under my bathroom sink I found essential oils and Epsom salts leftover from when we made bath bombs at my daughter's birthday party. Bath bombs sounded like too much work, so I settled on bath salts.

Now, for a recipe. I looked at lots of recipes before finding this on from Hello Glow - 9 Aromatherapy Blends for DIY Bath Salts. (You'll love this site, BTW. From their about page, "We bring you the best in do-it-yourself beauty – from natural skin care tips to beauty boosting recipes – to help you glow from the inside out.")

I worked on my bath salts for about a week, maybe 20 minutes a night, and I had to make a grocery store run to pick up sea salt and baking soda. In the end, I had three different scents, plenty for me, and enough to share.

And, here are my bath salts. I keep them in a vintage pressed glass compote dish next to my bathtub. They remind me that making something simple and patiently moving forward a little at a time, is creative. And, it's enough.

How can you make being creative easier? Can you take a big project, break it down into small pieces, and work on just the first step? Or, maybe find a partner to share the work? What about starting with what you already have - fabric, paint, paper - and seeing what you can make from it?

Just start.