Conscious Creativity: A Guidebook for Living a Colorful, Creative Life

In Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create, Philippa Stanton takes your hand and leads you down a wondrous path. Throughout, she teaches you to experience a heightened sense of liveliness, curiosity, and openness as you explore the world around you in new ways.

Conscious Creativity is the perfect book to inspire a new year. It guides us through a mindful and introspective journey of self-discovery and artistic expression, providing practical exercises and prompts to connect with our surroundings and tap into our creativity.

Here are some quotes and ideas that jumped out to me as I read along:

1. Embrace a Creative Life.

“It’s almost vital to a continuing creative practice to find, invent or identify a personal passion, project, obsession or collection, because not only can it motivate and challenge you, it also means that even when you’re feeling uninspired you will always have a go-to subject to connect with.”
― Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create

Finding a personal passion can serve as a well of inspiration throughout the year. What jumps out for you? There are so many ways to embrace creativity in various forms, like writing, cooking, baking, photography, sketching, painting, collage, and crafts.

Embracing a creative life involves cultivating a mindset that allows you to tap into your innate creativity and make it part of your daily routine. Philippa Stanton’s book Conscious Creativity is a great resource for helping you find your creative path and develop a daily creative practice.

2. Creativity is a practice.

“Like any other discipline across the board, creativity is something that needs to be practiced and exercised; the more you engage with the practice, the more you will get from it, and you will learn to trust your way of doing things and your way of seeing the world.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

I love how the author makes creativity the center of everyday life. She makes it accessible to everyone; all we have to do is commit to the practice. Engaging in creative exercises opens us to exploring our innermost thoughts and feelings in a freeing and nonjudgmental way.

And the idea of having “our way of seeing the world” reminds us that we all have a unique viewpoint waiting to be further explored.

3. Boredom is an integral part of living a creative life.

“Boredom provides the exact nothingness in time that allows our minds to wander and invent.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

Sometimes, it feels like we’re living on a human-sized hamster wheel, fueled by the never-ending need to move and keep busy.

Again, Stanton enlightens us with this concept. When we slow down, our minds can find creative solutions to the questions we might seek. Addressing everyday concerns can help spark inspiration and rejuvenate creative practices by allowing us to reconnect with our surroundings and emotions.

4. Enjoy developing your own aesthetics.

“It is much more important to be able to work deeper rather than wider, and a passion is essential to any creative; it fuels curiosity, experimentation, input and output, and serves as a great anchor in the sea of constant ideas that can forever float around your head. Your passion or obsession won’t necessarily be your best or most lucrative idea, but it will be a rock and it will be YOURS.”
― Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create

Stanton explains that developing your aesthetics is about understanding your unique creative style and preferences. And there is only one you! You can become an astute observer and can gain insight into what makes you tick creatively.

Conscious Creativity encourages you to notice the small details in your surroundings, such as the texture of a painted wall or the scent of a friend’s house. The whole world opens up, and you can be dazzled by what you see.

A sample of one of many inspired, colorful images in Conscious Creativity.

5. Paying attention to your environment is a skill that can change your perspective on the world.

“Really paying attention to everything around you sounds simple, but it demands a level of curiosity and observation that most people are not used to exercising. And it takes time. But changing the perception of the world around you is incredibly exciting and insightful. It empowers you to see the truth rather than assumed knowledge. The unremarkable becomes something that holds the potential for endless new ideas.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

When you’re curious, you are engaging with a higher level of yourself. You are centered and away from the judging part of your brain.

In Internal Family Systems, Richard Schwartz identifies the wise self as having 8 C’s: Curiosity, Compassion, Calm, Clarity, Courage, Confidence, Creativity, and Connectedness. Both curiosity and creativity make the list! It’s impossible to be judgmental and curious at the same time.

So, even if you live 95% of your life trapped in a victim story of sorts, you can escape it even just for 5% of the time by engaging in creative pursuits.

Stanton provides lists of engaging exercises throughout the book that teach you how to walk through the world differently. These practical activities encourage observation and experimentation, allowing you to connect your emotions with your surroundings. Each section offers something different: you can explore your environment by looking for colors, shapes, shadows, textures, etc.

A sample of one of many inspired, colorful images in Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

6. Creativity helps us to overcome obstacles and fears.

“What has been ‘created’ might seem to be a complete mess, but it’s also an innocent and informative investigation. Artists and babies often both share that similar quality of freedom. They express themselves in ways relevant to who they are and how they feel.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

You naturally overcome obstacles and fears by tapping into a freeing part of yourself.

This is another situation where you can’t feel fear and be truly in the creative flow. The creative flow comes from the higher part of yourself, so you move into that place by clicking into the state of flow.

Fear is a state of mind focused on what could happen in the future. Creativity is about what’s happening right now.

While in the creative state, you don’t feel comparison insecurity. That may not be true after, but at least you can feel free.

7. It’s important to document your work.

“Create some sort of place to document your work, somewhere you can chart your ideas, observations, and even failures.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

I like this part of the book because it offers more structure and is a practical tool for embracing a creative lifestyle. Keeping your work helps establish a routine, and you may be able to look back and learn from your observations over time.

And I’m planning to start doing this today.

8. Imperfection is an inroad to more connection and creativity.

“We are bombarded with images of beauty and perfection, but it is the images of real life and subtle imperfection that will always resonate with us more deeply.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

I love this!

We relate to realness, not perfection. We can find inspiration in what’s real, not an impossible standard we can’t ever attain.

This idea of Stanton’s is also embracing ourselves exactly as we are.

9. Creativity connects us more deeply within ourselves.

“Creativity is about discovering your ways of working, your unique practice, and the confidence needed to accept that. It’s not about learning how to create something like everyone else; it’s about learning to acknowledge the true value of what you do.” – Philippa Stanton, Conscious Creativity: Look, Connect, Create.

We all have unique gifts, and the path and practice of creativity allow us to explore our uniqueness while building confidence in our abilities.

We can become so distracted by how others appreciate our work that we forget that what matters most is how we feel about it.

10. Share your creativity with others.

“Sharing your work publicly can be a source of inspiration for others. By sharing your creative endeavors, you can inspire others to pursue their own passions and creative projects. This can help create a ripple effect of creativity and innovation that can have a positive impact on the world around us.” Kieran Zane at Medium.

Sharing your creativity with others is an important part of the creative process. It involves recognizing that creativity is not just about personal expression but also about connecting with others and sharing ideas and inspiration.

My experience with creativity:

“Don’t wait for inspiration. It comes while working.” – Henri Matisse

So often, we’re stuck in the same story and see the world through storylines that limit our options. In fact, we might be so stuck that we fail to notice the vibrant teal roof on the building we walk past every day. We truly do see the world in our unique ways.

Being creative brings us squarely into the present moment. We can feel lost in time and free. This freedom allows us to see a situation in a new way for a brief moment. A door we previously thought closed suddenly has a small opening for us to enter.

I often talk about my vision book practice and how effective it is. Part of this is because of the creative element involved in acquiring images and visually creating the book. While engaging in open-minded exploration, more creative ideas can enter your mind. You can become clearer about what you want and how you want to feel.

The creative process reveals yourself to you.

It brings out your innermost desires and passions. It allows you to tap into the core of who you are and express it in a tangible way. And when we can express ourselves, we feel more connected and fulfilled.

Wrapping it up:

Practicing conscious creativity has the power to transform the way we experience and move through our world. When we commit to honing our innate skills, we can reap the benefits of seeing endless opportunities that we didn’t see before.

In Conscious Creativity, Stanton is a guide and a teacher (similar to the one she writes about) who unveils our hidden potential by exploring layer upon layer of creative possibilities.

This is not a book I’ve read and will place on my bookshelf to collect dust!

This is a book that I plan to reference often for daily work and guidance.

She has inspired me! I believe she’ll do the same for you!

Did you enjoy this story? Let me know in the comments below!

Also, forward this to someone who might enjoy a new creativity roadmap.

Learn more about Philippa Stanton and her work here.

And you can order her wonderful book here.