Letting the creativity in…an insight into my childhood!

I have been an imaginative person for as long as I can remember.  I had a childhood full of made up games and let’s pretend.  My sister and I used to spend hours devising dances, creating costumes or making up stories to act out.  We LOVED the song ‘It’s ‘Orrible Being in Love (When You’re 8 1/2)’ and we used to make up our own choreography to it.  [Aside…I’ve just googled the song and it came out in 1986.   Gosh do I now feel old!!!] .  We also decided to follow the instructions for putting ‘the name upon your scarf’ by designing name labels and finding creative ways to attach them onto our scarves.  Although we did get the lyrics wrong and put our OWN names on the scarves, rather than a boys name!!!  Well, we were only 8 and 6 at the time…

In case you’d like a flash back of the song, or would like to know what on earth I’m talking about, here it is:

Our dad is a great artist in his spare time and mum was brilliant at giving us starting points and skills for developing our ideas.  We learnt from a young age how to use a sewing machine and spent hours drawing, painting and making papier mache.  Our TV time was restricted and we didn’t own a video player or computer so we had lots of ‘free’ time to let our minds wander.

Whilst it wasn’t a perfect childhood, it certainly nurtured my curiosity about the world and helped shape my creative responses to it.

I am fortunate that in my work and in my personal life I am able to continue using my imagination.

These are some of the everyday creative things I’ve realised that I do…

• Dancing whilst having a phone conversation
• Doodling whilst thinking
• Making up new words to existing songs (usually the tune of ‘she’ll be coming round the mountain when she comes’…)

And these are some of the activities I do that help me continue to be creative…

• Listening to a wide range of podcasts –  my favourites currently being ‘The Model Health Show’ and ‘The Minimalists’
• Reading – I’m currently half way through ‘Magpie Murders’ by Anthony Horowitz
• Walking / hanging out outside
• Journaling – this really helps me with blog writing
• Day dreaming (if I ever ignore you in the street / on the school run it’s probably because I’m day dreaming!  Sorry about that)
• Trying out new things.  This is a tough one for me as I often get very fearful about new things.  But I’m learning how to feel the fear and do it anyway.  Recently I have had to courage to try out indoor skydiving (amazing fun), do a triathlon and drive up The Struggle (It’s a very steep windy road in the Lakes.  Terrifying).

What activities do you do?  I’ve love to know what little things add to your everyday creativity and make life a bit more fun.

And what classic tunes did you enjoy as a child? #ThrowbackThursday