Increase Creativity - How To Become A Creative Gardener & Nurture Your Creativity For A Full Harvest

How green are your fingers?

I’m not asking if you have some unfortunate medical condition or are a distant relative of the Incredible Hulk. I mean are you good with plants? Do you enjoy gardening, being out in the open air, growing your own produce and getting dirt under your fingernails?

As creative artists, there’s much we can learn from our horticulturally passionate colleagues. Here are just a few tips on how you can become a better Creative Gardener and see your Creative Garden give an abundant crop season after season:

1. Sow plenty of seed. Some of your creative ideas and projects will always fall on stony ground and not come to anything, but some will shoot eagerly and grow into the equivalent of wonderful fragrant flowers and lush beautiful plants. If you only sow a couple of seeds each year, how can you expect to have a bountiful crop time and time again?

2. Give plenty of sunlight and water. Just as plants need sunlight and water to grow healthily, our creativity needs careful nourishing. Regularly top up your creativity in any number of ways that work for you, such as reading books, visiting exhibitions, galleries and concerts, attending/ hosting workshops and classes and forming creative groups with others who share your creative passions. And don’t be afraid of trying new ways to nurture your creative soul.

3. Weed regularly. Persistent and aggressive weeds can literally strangle the life out of smaller plants that have not yet developed. The weeds that stunt the growth of your creativity are mostly internal, such as negative and self-critical thinking, doubting your creative abilities and lacking self-belief. Pick them out and get rid of them before they do too much damage!

4. Protect from dangerous predators. Local wildlife can have a feast and cause absolute havoc on a garden or allotment full of luscious greenery and vegetables. For them it’s like an open invitation to an expensive restaurant and having a delicious 5 course feast will all bills paid! Learn to identify the predators that destroy your creativity, the people who attack, criticise and pull apart your work unjustly, even if they do it in more subtle and passive ways.

5. Share your passion, knowledge and produce with others. One of the most rewarding elements of gardening is meeting up with others on an allotment or across a garden fence to share ideas, tips and a few freshly cut flowers or just-picked tomatoes. As creative people, we too can get great satisfaction from sharing our passions and knowledge with others, in person, or online. Join a group, club or community for your favourite creative mediums and see how sharing enhances your own creativity.

Which of these areas are you an attentive and caring Creative Gardener in already? In which of the other areas could you look a little more closely, and benefit from taking a leaf out the gardeners book?

Creativity Coach Dan Goodwin is the author of “Create Create!”, a FREE twice monthly ezine for people who want simple and powerful articles, tips and exercises to help them unleash their creative talents. Sign up right now and get your FREE “Explode Your Creativity!” Action Workbook, at http://www.CoachCreative.com