🖼 TREE 437: Boost creativity using nostalgia
Mark Pierce is a multidisciplinary creative and super nice guy. He’s into music, design, photography and writing. His speciality is helping creative people get unstuck. Check out his studio and Instagram. Mark’s posts this week are taken from his latest book Brave Art.
I’ll be supplying the images and music choices.
Grow slowly
Jeff
One.
As someone who pays the bills by being creative every day, recent years have presented some intense challenges. So IÂ faced them head-on in order to learn from the experience.
One intriguing discovery has been the power of nostalgia to unlock creativity. This idea is backed by research, too. Psychologists at Southampton University have proven that reflecting on wistful memories before starting work tangibly improves creativity.
You can use this technique whenever you’re feeling claustrophobic or restricted – a condition the pandemic has imposed on most of us for long periods. This works because whenever we engage in nostalgic thought, our minds step outside of time and space, and we experience our creative world from an eternal rather than temporal viewpoint. This sense of spaciousness encourages us to widen our thoughts and explore with a more expansive outlook.
This is called reflective nostalgia, and implies a distance across time between our present situation and our sepia-tinged memories.
So, if you’re stagnating or feeling under pressure, end the struggle today. Retreat to a quiet place and bring to mind work you’re proud of, or a creative experience that brought you joy. Relax into the memory. Remember what it felt like when you were alive and artistically fulfilled. Notice the sensations in your body as they change to echo the memory. Then let the familiar, affirming emotions that arise ease you away from anxiety, and into a state of flow.
Then, when you are ready –
Go create.
Two.
Today’s DALL-E variations are based on Jessica the alligator from TREE 280. No question DALL-E was smoking the crack today.
Three.
If we’re doing nostalgia, I’m taking you back to 1990 when Christian alternative music was a thing and The Choir were at the top of their game. This song totally stands the test of time. Wait for the big change at 3:49 when the guitar and drums GO OFF. Also, the lyrics.