Hypnosis for creativity

Creativity can be expressive and liberating. Whether you’re actively creative, constantly flexing your creative muscles, or if you‘re more sporadic, moments of creativity in life bring freedom and inspiration. With such joy associated with creativity, it’s perhaps unsurprising that when there is an absence of it, we can experience feelings of frustration and disappointment.

Most of us are born with some form of creativity. From a young age, we will ‘draw’, clutching our crayons, making swirls and patterns. In time, this can become one form of how we may express ourselves creatively.

Some people are brilliant at turning their hand to all types of creative outlets, such as art, music or writing. But, outside of these traditional forms, there are many more ways we can experiment with our creativity: our clothes, the way we decorate our homes, the ingredients we experiment with or the flowers we plant in our gardens. These days, there is such a movement away from the bland – a calling to make a statement, have a style and do or be something quirky.

In some ways, this creative bombardment can be overwhelming and intimidating. For some, the relentlessness of changing fashions, tastes and styles can lead to them retreating to safer ways of decorating, cooking and dressing.

You can’t use creativity up. The more you use it, the more you have!

– Maya Angelou.

We all have the capabilities to be great photographers, with our phones often having more superior tools to capture a stylish snap, than making a phone call! Apps such as YouTube and Pinterest instruct us on how to create beautiful masterpieces with odds and sods we find in the home. Long gone are the days where acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills relied on some sort of formal training or expensive equipment. With the Internet at our fingertips, we are all able to practice a little DIY. 

But, with all this technology and possibilities for creativity, so many of us suffer from a sense of being stifled – thwarted in our creative outlets and opportunities. Why is this, and what can we do to unblock that creative dam?

There are some key conditions for creativity to flow and, thankfully, hypnotherapy can help with each one. 

Changing mindset

The first is all about a mindset to accept errors. If you are someone who strives for perfection, then visualising this process as a creative path can be enabled with hypnotherapy. It can be hugely liberating to see creativity as a journey where mistakes are inevitable. In fact, they are an integral part of the process where we try, fail, tweak, try again and finally see progress. All the while, honing our skills and developing our personal creative flare.

Salvador Dali embraced apparent ‘failures’ which led to his unique and unmistakable style. Without these errors, this world may have never had striking art, such as the melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory, thrust upon us. While this may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it is undoubtedly an outstanding example of creativity – breaking moulds, challenging perceptions and introducing new concepts. Dali himself is claimed to have said, “Have no fear of perfection, you’ll never reach it.”

Find your playful side

Another way of viewing this process is through playfulness. As we grow older, we often lose that desire to play. But really, what could be more joyful than messing about with tools and resources that you have selected to aid your creativity? Whether this is a paintbrush, pieces of Lego, exotic ingredients or seeds for planting – play, experiment and be prepared to make a mess!

So, with mistakes and errors in mind, hypnotherapy can support you in accepting the imperfect road that can become an expressive and liberating mindset. If this strive for perfection is something you know you are gripped by, then hypnotherapy can help by encouraging this acceptance of error to reach out into other areas of your life.

Being in control is a reassuring position to be in, but there is great comfort in knowing that, if mistakes are made, your world will not implode and you have the strategies to deal with it calmly and confidently.

Many primary school children are now taught about ‘Growth Mindset’. Simply put, it is an alternative way of talking to ourselves. So, rather than our inner voice saying, ‘I can’t do that…’ we can retrain it to say, ‘I can’t do that, yet…’

This shift in thinking can be hugely empowering and can support us in becoming more willing to simply try, whilst becoming more resilient to failure. Hypnotherapy can embed this way of thinking and help to retrain the way you talk to yourself – empowering yourself rather than putting yourself down.

Embracing chaos

Moving on to another condition for creativity – chaos! This may seem counterintuitive for a hypnotherapist to be suggesting, after all, we are advocates of relaxation and peace. However, for many, creativity is born of some state of agitation or chaos.

For example, lockdown saw many of us try new creative outlets in some attempt of distracting ourselves or channelling all our nervous energy. While our brain may not have the capacity to complete the task during times of disorder and high stress, by starting the task, we begin the process for us to come back to when we feel more settled. 

All the great minds acknowledge the importance of creativity. Einstein was disciplined and attentive over his theories and acquisition of knowledge, but creativity was not absent. He was known for having a restless soul. His messy desk is infamous and his rebellious nature as a young man saw him struggle to find employment in the academic world. His concept of creativity was that it was “intelligence having fun,” so let the restlessness in you be channelled in a creative way. Let it take shape through acquiring new skills, investigating new concepts and experimentation!

Achieving stillness

In direct contrast to the chaos, a trance-like state is also required for a prolonged period of creativity to take hold. This can be different for each of us – maybe minutes, or even days. We have all been in a waking trance: making a cup of tea, mowing the lawn or even driving a familiar route. How many good ideas have you had when in the shower?

It happens to us all, as these periods of menial tasks let the brain rest. We are engaged in something so familiar that it is second nature and needs no active thought, and this is often when we have a brainwave. It is this relaxed state that we want to achieve by allowing our creative side to take over.

To support these periods of prolonged creativity, hypnotherapy can help with this state of consciousness, enabling you to enter the trance state with greater ease and comfort. If it is something you have practised with your therapist, it is far more likely that you will find it easier to slip into when in your conscious, ‘every day’ world.

Like everything, creativity needs to be exercised. The more we try, the more we are likely to succeed. This leads to feelings of achievement and satisfaction, and, in turn, our confidence and willingness to experiment grows.

So, what are you waiting for? It’s time to embrace your creative side and let it flourish – whatever that means for you. Because the more you surround yourself with creativity, the more creative you will become.

Find a hypnotherapist near you

Are you ready to connect with a hypnotherapist? On Hypnotherapy Directory, you can search over 1,500 hypnotherapists working online and across the UK. Simply browse profiles until you find a therapist you resonate with, and send them an email.

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