In a recent post, I wrote about taking mini-adventures on your own. The power of taking yourself on holiday and how to get started if the idea of spending a significant amount of time (in a new place) solo is a little intimidating.
But when I travel alone now, I’m not just focused on learning to be by myself I also try to make my mini-adventures time to reset and rejuvenate my creativity. So, this is just a short optional add-on to those tips to help you turn a solo-adventure for adventures sake into a solo-creative-endeavour.
It’s long been argued that venturing somewhere new can help change your perspectives and ignite a creative spark. Travel allows you to draw on new source material new views, new encounters, new tastes and sounds. Travel is also one of the best opportunities to get lost and if we are to believe Keats that’s an essential part of creative thinking. He said a great thinker was someone who had negative capabilities, who was “capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” One of the times that plays out, for me at least, is when travelling. You can literally live in a space where you are uncertain full, a place full of mystery.
There’s so much literature on the power of travel for inspiring creativity, that I won’t dwell further on it here. Instead, I’ll point you in the direction of a piece illustrator Jean Julien put together for the National Geographic, which I read last year and has still stayed with me – so it must be good. He “set out on a classic American road trip along California’s central coast […and] documented [his] journey by placing paper cut-outs of [himself] on location and shooting vignettes” and he uses those vignettes to explain the lessons the trip taught him.
So, instead of writing ad infinum about the virtues of travel for creativity, I want to share a couple of the ways that I try to embrace the potential travel brings, because sometimes you have to work for it a little bit.
Rest & be bored
A lot of the time the reason we’re not feeling creative is because we’re tired and we haven’t given ourselves time to let ideas percolate. Being on holiday is the perfect time to rest up and ruminate. Sleep in. Sit somewhere and just watch the world go by.
Get lost
There are a whole load of cheesy wall stickers that say something like ‘only when we are lost can we find ourselves’. They’re corny and I wouldn’t be caught dead with one, but they probably have some truth. If we turn back to Keats and think about “being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” The best way to do that is to get lost, to wander without aim or bearings without reaching for a map for a little while. To see what we find as we walk (or cycle or paddle or whatever) and to see what finds us.
Do something different
Travel’s power to inspire creativity supposedly comes from being in an environment that jolts you out of your day to day. Being somewhere new forces you to see things with new eyes to set out of your habits and make conscious choices all the time because you’re not in the familiar. If you’re not in somewhere that feels completely different, or even if you are, try to do something a little out of the ordinary. You could try a new food or a new activity. You could mix up your ordinary routines. You could just wander and say yes to the first thing that comes along. Just try something new and see if it gives you a fresh perspective.
Make something with your hands
Whenever I go on a solo trip I like to make something. I’ve crafted rings and whittled spoons. I’ve sketched and collaged. Essentially I just like to make something outside of my usual workspace and get my hands dirty. There’s something incredibly liberating about being in a new space, with a new set of tools and just getting to play. You could even take a class. Plus taking home something you’ve made is always a brilliant souvenir.
Document it
In my mini-adventures post I wrote about the importance of documenting trips when you’re on your own because you’re not socialising stories and turning them into memories. That process of capturing what you see, hear and feel is even more important if you’re looking to use a trip as creative fodder. As much as you might set up a trip to be the perfect creative getaway, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to feel creative when you’re there. If you’re anything like me, your desire to make will come and go as will your inspiration. So taking a note of things that catch your eye, ear or heart as you travel means you have those memories and beginnings of ideas ready for later when you’re in a position to use them.
So, that’s it. Essentially, go away, embrace the new and try to make something. Of course there are structured creative breaks you can go on, writing and painting retreats. But if you’re just looking to make the most of a trip you already have planned, I think the only real thing you need to do is be conscious of that desire and honour it while you’re away.
