by Doug Smith

Is your creative spirit thriving? Or is it sometimes challenged in this busy world to stay viable, vital, and alive?

Life can be rough. Forces faces you, chase you, and even try to erase your artistic sensibility. You can survive, revive and thrive with some help of these durable creativity survival skills:

Laugh!
As serious as it can get, there's a laugh in there someplace -- find it and what was worrisom becomes material for your creative juices to flow toward your next great masterpiece -- or at least a moment of fun.

Listen
Every whisper, every sigh, every glance tells a story and every story starts another creative direction your way. Grab it!

Listen beyond the surface and hear that bird singing next door, those footsteps on the road, that bell in the distance, those children on the run. Listen to people, listen to life, listen to spark your next genius idea. Listen like your whole body was an ear.

Reframe
Do you see the whole picture or only just a piece? What if you move the frame a little to the right? What if you turned the frame on its side? What if you made the frame two sizes bigger? How much more could you see? What new perspective could you create?

Improvise
Is every moment of your life planned? Do things often feel a bit too regimented? Learning to improvise provides a sense of sponteneity and acceptance that is liberating. It frees you from the bonds of everyday sameness. It stretches your boundaries and encourages you to try new paths, new adventuress, new laughs.