I have a friend with whom I love to go op shopping.
She has a remarkable talent of sweeping her eyes across the bric a brac and seeing it come together as a beautiful bird bath or an amazing plant stand.
Her pieces adorn my garden and her art is on my wall.
Those things are precious to me because of the time and effort she has given to make them.
Sometimes I find myself envying friends with creative talents and then I remind myself that I have my own creativity.
In fact, all of us have a measure of creativity. In the hectic pace of life our talents may be lying dormant, sacrificed for the urgent.
However, exercising our creativity is a necessity rather than a luxury.
Creative activity involves all five of our senses and puts us in a state of mindfulness, something we often lose in our busy lives.
Carving out time for creativity in our busyness has lasting benefits.
It increases our sense of wellbeing, contributes to stress relief and, if we are creating something for others to enjoy or doing an activity together, it brings meaning to life while strengthening our connection with others.
We invited a couple who are close friends to dinner.
They arrived with two boxes of ingredients and four My Kitchen Rules aprons.
We invited them to choose their course and the four of us got to work pretending we were cooking show contestants.
We still reminisce about the fun night we had.
So grab paint brushes and a canvas, write some poetry, design a spot in your garden, create a new recipe, craft a gift for someone, take up a new hobby.
We all have a unique gift of creativity so start discovering yours!
