When you’re bored at home, you might end up just wasting your time on social media, watching shows you’ve seen before, or otherwise not doing anything. While relaxation is good, you might feel happier and more satisfied by doing something creative. Here are four ways you can fuel your creativity while at home this summer.
Take Up Photography
The camera in your smartphone is as advanced or maybe even more advanced than any other digital camera you have ever owned. While you’re probably comfortable using your phone’s camera for selfies, consider a project in which you photograph everyday things. According to The Atlantic, this is an ideal way to practice your photography skills. Even if your day job has nothing to do with photography, being able to take great photos of anything is a skill that could serve you well in the future.
Start this project with items around your home. Bring out your inner Andy Warhol by taking photos of the soup cans or honey bear in your pantry. Try different techniques, such as black and white photos for contrast. If you have a balcony or yard, go outside and take some photos. Experiment with photography at different times of the day, and see how the diffusion of natural light impacts the finished results.
Learn an Instrument
Perhaps your only interaction with music thus far in life has been listening to it. When you’re bored, you can give your brain and your hands something to do by learning an instrument for yourself. If you’ve always dreamed of learning how to play the guitar like Brian May or the piano like Little Richie, now is your chance. Online music lessons are a convenient way to learn an instrument. You don’t have to leave your house, so there’s no need to lug around a big guitar case. Your instructor’s attention will be fully focused on you, just like it would be for an in-person lesson.
Learn a New Craft
Keep your hands busy by learning a new craft or technique. If you already knit, consider learning how to needle felt or spin your own yarn from fiber and a drop spindle. Consider learning Continental knitting if you already know English or Portuguese knitting. When you regularly paint watercolors, try your hand at oil pastels. If you write short novels, consider breaking into poetry.
Start a Multi-Part Art Project
Some creative projects might seem like they take too much time, or you might feel as if you have to start something and finish it all in the same session. This isn’t the case, especially if you start a multi-part art project with intention. There are many mindful project ideas you could try. For weavers, knitters, and crocheters, a popular multi-day art project is a temperature blanket. You choose the location, such as where you live now or your childhood home. Select a color palette in which one color represents a temperature range. For example, if you live in Ohio, which has a wide range of temperatures, you might use 10-degree increments. Each day, you weave, knit, or crochet a row for the high temperature or the low temperature. Over the course of an entire year, your rows add up to a blanket.
Some people don’t want a full-year project. Maybe a “knit the sky” is more to your liking. Once per day, you look outside at the sky. You choose a color of yarn that matches the color of the sky. Check out the yarn collections from Mary Maxim.
You could look outside at the same time every day or at whatever time suits your fancy. Each day, you knit or crochet a row. This project makes a scarf or similar small project.
Each of these four ideas helps you explore your creative side. Keep in mind that if you’re trying something new, it might not come out perfectly the first time you do it. There’s no need to feel frustrated or give up if your first attempt at one of these activities doesn’t turn up a professional-looking result. The experience of practicing creativity offers as many or more benefits than the finished result. These ideas will get you thinking differently, and they may help you with other aspects of your life in which you feel stuck or bored.
