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.

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

1. 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 brings creativity into the center of everyday life. She makes it feel accessible to everyone. All we have to do is commit to the practice.

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

2. 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 neverending need to be moving and to keep busy.

Again, Stanton enlightens us with this concept. It’s in slowing down that our minds can find creative solutions to answers we might seek.

3. Paying attention to your environment is a skill that has the power to open up your entire perspective of 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.

Stanton provides lists of exercises throughout the book that teach you how to walk through the world in a new way. 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.

4. 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 a practical tool for embracing a creative lifestyle.

And I’m planning to start doing this today.

5. 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.

Realness is more important than perfection. We can find inspiration in what’s real, not in an impossible standard we can’t ever attain.

6. 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 a unique gift to offer, and the path and practice of creativity open us to exploring our uniqueness while also 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.

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 you know who might enjoy a new creativity roadmap.

Learn more about Philippa Stanton and her work here.

You can order her wonderful book here.

And follow her on Instagram here.