Cultivating Creativity in Everyday Life

Bluemings was born from a very personal set of values and interests around purpose, wellbeing, and the desire to create something genuinely good. Something that could have a direct and positive impact on people’s lives.

And yes, we are fascinated by healthspan, lifespan, and everything that falls under the increasingly popular idea of longevity. But as much as we care about living longer and staying healthier, we are driven by  something deeper: the desire to live with purpose, meaning, and intention. We found some of that purpose in bringing forward some of thebest things Mother Nature has to offer. Exceptional ingredients that can support a healthier way of living, while helping us work toward a much bigger vision: a world where people live not only healthier lives, but more intentional and meaningful ones.

Lately, though, I have been thinking about the way we talk about wellbeing. We are constantly being told what it should look like and what we need to do to build a strong body, stay healthy, and hopefully live longer. And please do not get me wrong. There is no question about the extraordinary importance of nutrition, quality sleep, movement, exercise, and all the habits that support our health. I am probably one of their biggest advocates. 

Because for most people, maintaining healthy habits consistently is difficult. Not necessarily because we lack discipline or knowledge, but because health is so often presented as another set of rules to follow, numbers to track, restrictions to maintain, and boxes to check. At some point, the pursuit of wellbeing can become strangely disconnected from the very thing it is supposed to improve: the experience of being alive. 

I have been sitting with that thought for a while. What keeps us interested in our own lives? What keeps us engaged? What makes us want to discover, make, express, question, and imagine? 

There should be room for beauty, play, pleasure, and curiosity. And this is where cultivating our creativity plays a huge role for me. Creativity is seeing possibilities where other people see what already exists. Once you look at it that way, it starts appearing everywhere. 

Eating well, for example, can be much more than following the same healthy recipe every week. It can mean discovering an ingredient you have never cooked with before. Waiting for something to come into season and letting that decide what is for dinner. Changing one ingredient in a familiar recipe simply because you are curious about what might happen. Using yesterday’s vegetables in an entirely different way. Learning how another culture prepares an ingredient you thought you already knew. None of these things make the meal healthier on paper, but they can completely change the experience of eating it. 

Movement can work in much the same way. It does not always have to happen inside a workout plan. Moving naturally can mean taking an unfamiliar road home. Swimming in the sea. Working in the garden. Riding your bike somewhere you would normally drive. Walking a little farther because something around the corner caught your attention. Sometimes movement can stop feeling like something we need to complete and become a way of exploring what is around us. 

The same is true of the way we spend time with other people. Instead of meeting in the same place every time, cook together. Take breakfast somewhere outside. Invite people over without waiting for a birthday or a reason. Ask everyone to bring the dish they grew up eating. Walk after dinner instead of immediately saying goodbye. 

I could keep going because creativity can find its way into almost anything. But that is not really the point. The point is that creativity can live inside the very ordinary things we already do. In how we cook. How we move. How we gather. How we rest. How we work. How we arrange our surroundings. How we use what happens to be available to us. 

It can turn habits into experiences. That is one of the most interesting ways creativity can become part of our wellbeing: as a way of approaching the habits we already know are good for us with a little more curiosity and imagination. I have a feeling that when a habit becomes something you are curious about, something you can play with and make your own, it becomes much easier to want to return to it. 

That is what I mean when I talk about cultivating creativity in everyday life. Becoming more curious. Next time, just apply the following and see what happens: 

• Resist the instinct to do something exactly as we did it yesterday. 

• Look at something familiar and wonder whether there is another way. 

• Ask what might happen if we tried it differently. 

Creativity is a way of remaining curious about ordinary life. A way of participating rather than simply following instructions. 

I would love to hear where creativity starts showing up in your own everyday life and what happens when you begin looking for it. You can always reach me directly at natalia_piantaridou@thebluemings.com. 

Till next time.  xx 

Natalia