Midway through my Corporate America career, I began aching to create. Having little pockets of time to create has always been my retreat when needing to unwind, & I realized I was having less and less time to do this in my cubicle. When I was little, creating came much more naturally. I didn’t care what others thought of my creations, and my imagination would scurry with ideas. Connecting to this inner child artist is now a goal of mine each day, as happiness always came from these pockets of imagination.

I recently read Julia Cameron’s book The Artist’s Way and took away many concepts; however, her approach to daily creativity and connecting to your inner child artist spoke to me more than anything else in the book.

“…The act of making art exposes a society to itself. Art brings things to light. It illuminates us. It sheds light on our lingering darkness. It casts a beam into the heart of our own darkness and says, "See?" …”

I now begin the majority of my days with a daily creative practice, and like any new habit, it takes time to really enforce. Whether you call yourself a creative or not, taking time each day to allow your imagination to flow is liberating.

1.) Environment

Having a designated area, that is clean and organized, is one way that has really helped my creative juices flow. We have a little coffee nook in the back of our house that has become my retreat for this daily routine. In order to take full advantage of this practice, I ensure that my bed is made and my surroundings are clean before I start anything in my day.

2.) Journal

This was one of the hardest habits to implement in my day-to-day practice, as I have never been much of a diary writer. Julia Cameron calls her journaling process the ‘morning pages’ and has her students write 3 pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing about anything. Literally anything. This process has been one of the best ways to clear my mind for the remainder of the day

3.) Play

In my clean environment with journal in hand, I set aside roughly 30-minutes to journal three pages and to ‘play.’ The playing process is to freehand draw. Draw anything you see, anything that’s going through your mind. Set up a vase and flowers, draw your breakfast. It doesn’t need to be pretty. You can also take your journal outside and draw what you see, or even get colors and a coloring book.

The ultimate goal of having a daily creative practice is to set aside time for yourself to connect and reflect. During this time, hopefully you’ll experience moments of joy, which will carry over into the remainder of your day. I hope that whether you begin to set aside time for creativity, that this helps inspire you to seek daily joy and beauty wherever you go.

Want to know what I’m up to on the every day? Follow along on Instagram at @cocozentner_art or on my Pinterest page. I love to post what inspires me, behind the scenes of my painting process, and my pup, Maudie!

Until next time,

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