I don’t know about you, but there are times when I can get into a serious creative rut. Nothing flows and I start feeling like I have the creative energy of a rock on those days.

I don’t let myself get too down about it though. Sometimes all it takes to get out of the rut is to find a new way of expressing myself.

Here are a few ideas you can use if you find your creative energy has decided to crawl under a rock for the day:

Redecorate a room in your house. It doesn’t have to be a major renovation project. A fresh coat of paint, or even just rearranging the furniture can be enough to stir the energy and get yours flowing again.

Change your wardrobe. Again, this doesn’t have to be drastic. Sometimes we slip into a rut with what we wear and don’t even notice it.

For example, at my least creative awhile back, my son pointed out to me that I hadn’t worn anything other than jeans and a black or grey t-shirt in years. We actually counted and I had over 30 black shirts in my closet. That’s a rut!

He dared me at that point to go a week without wearing anything black. So I went out and bought some new tops in bright blues and greens, and even a pink one. As soon as I changed the outward colour scheme, my inner energy shifted as well and I was able to start writing again. (And it was a good excuse for a shopping trip!)

Move your body. One of the easiest and cheapest ways to unstick your creative energy is just to get up and move your body. Turn on some funky music and dance for five minutes and see if whatever’s holding your creativity down doesn’t shake itself loose.

Use your imagination. Sometimes forcing the issue is the only way to move forward. But I’ve found that you have to be a little sneaky about it. :)

Some things you can do here are rewrite a fairy tale the way you think it should be told, or just write the silliest story you can think of at the time. No one’s going to see it but you.

My favorite thing to do when I’m really stuck is scribble. I have a nice big white board on the wall and when nothing else works to get my creativity flowing, I just pick up the markers and doodle and scribble all over the whiteboard. You’d be surprised at how often the seed of a new idea comes out of one of my scribble sessions.

Increasing your creative energy doesn’t have to take a lot of hard work or money to make changes. Most of the time you can get it flowing again by taking small actions that are just a tiny bit different than what you’ve been doing. The important thing is that you do take action and not let the lack of creative energy slow you down or stop you altogether.

Have a wonderful, creative day!