Learn healthy habits to align creative goals with the changes of spring to discover and develop your creative potential.
Spring is a season of creation. Nature begins to bloom and develop. People and animals come out of winter hibernation to enjoy warmer days and other benefits for happier and healthier living. For the creative mind, it’s a time to cleanse bad habits and start anew. Spring is one of the best seasons to support creativity and achieve your creative goals.
Detox and Cleanse
Winter is a time of preservation, maintenance, and inward exploration. Because of this, we can become stagnate and pick up unhealthy habits and toxins in the body. These can cause conflict when transitioning into a new season. To get the most out of spring and achieve your creative goals, try a detox and cleanse to refresh your system and start anew.
Spring brings growth, renewal, and change both physically and psychologically. It’s a greening season when we plant new crops and start new habits. To ensure you’re letting go of the winter and the previous year’s bad habits, align your mind, body, and spirit with your creative and health goals.
There are many ways to detox and cleanse the body, and it’s not always dietary. Even a digital detox can benefit the creative mind and get into a spring mood, especially with sunnier days and nicer weather for outdoor activities. Doing a detox can help release toxins from winter, kickstart metabolism, balance hormones, and more to support Spring habits for creativity and well-being.
Claimed Detox Benefits
- Reduces inflammation, leaving you with fewer body aches, stiffness, swelling, and fatigue.
- Improves energy and mood.
- Aids weight loss and digestive health.
- Strengthens the immune system.
There are many examples and anecdotes about the benefits of doing a detox or cleanse. However, research is still lacking. There have been many positive studies relating to drinking more water with the above-mentioned benefits, which tend to be a major part of detoxing.
Tips
- Research and even seek help to find a detox and cleanse that works for you.
- Stay hydrated and drink more water. Most detoxes are about eliminating foods for some time, so be sure you’re drinking enough water.
- Focus on Sleep. Sleep is the most important time for the brain to reorganize, recharge and eliminate toxins in the body.
- Reduce or eliminate your intake of sugars, processed foods, alcohol, and salt.
- Get outside and get active. Physical activity helps lower inflammation and supports the body’s detoxification system.
Shake Up Habits and Routines
Spring is a time of new beginnings. With new life and regrowth, it’s a perfect time to start new habits and mix things up. What makes this season so great for starting and mixing up habits is the support one can get from nature.
Longer days mean more time in the sun which can boost mood and support a healthier circadian rhythm. The better weather also supports activities for happier moods and greater health. Finally, there’s nature.
Nature has many benefits for the creative mind. Countless studies show that spending time in nature or adding plants to your creative space can support creative thinking, focus, productivity, and many more benefits.
Because of these creative benefits from nature, spring is the perfect time to start new habits and mix things ups. Habits can be challenging to keep, especially when outside events can distract and affect mood. By stacking new habits with a season that supports growth, you can instill a healthier creative life for the rest of the year.
Tips
- Start small and link activities.
- Seize the longer days by waking up earlier with creative morning habits.
- Learn daily habits that support creativity.
- Try creative ways of getting in shape.
- Gamify your habit building.
- Know your why. Find your motivation and have a goal in mind.
- Be compassionate and befriend failure by practicing a beginner’s mind.
- Start hobbies that support creative skills. Like some of these hobbies from famous creative minds.
Simplify and Declutter
Just like the mind that can feel overwhelmed, anxious, and even defeated by the clutter of negative thoughts, so can the home and creative space become cluttered with distractions and obstacles that can break the creative flow.
Creatives are sometimes known for their messy spaces and collection of materials. This can be helpful in some ways and harmful in others. Learning to simplify and declutter your creative home and space doesn’t have to be about breaking the creative process but freeing energy to let it flow.
Benefits of Decluttering Your Creative Life
- Better Focus and Less Distraction – Clutter makes it difficult to find what you need.
- Better Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Skills – Finding creative ways to organize and decide on what’s most important can strengthen creative skills.
- Reduces Anxiety and Stress – Studies show clutter can trigger stress and avoidance, leading to bad habits.
- More Autonomy – With less stuff, you have more time and space to be free and let openness guide creative thinking.
Tips
- Use the Maria Kondo Method to guide your decluttering and help you determine which items in your house “spark joy”.
- Try the 12-12-12 challenge.
- Locate 12 items to throw away, 12 to donate, and 12 to return to their proper place.
- Start a desk clearing habit to keep your creative space clear and ready for work every day.
- Convert papers, notes, and other items to digital format for better organization and less clutter.
- Be mindful and find how you flow in your creative space and home. Find obstacles and points that bring up negativity, distractions, anxiety, etc.
Connect With Nature
Last but not least is a spring habit that’s easy to stack with others, especially getting active. Nature has many health and creative benefits making spring a great time to get an inspiring boost and transition out of winter. If you experience winter blues (SAD), you probably wait for this moment.
Creatives have always sought nature as a tool for creative inspiration and well-being. Hemingway would design his days around creative work in the morning to enjoy the second half of the day in nature. Countless famous creative minds would go on long walks and hikes. Many would also pair creative hobbies with their love of nature to support well-being and creativity.
Why Is Nature So Important for Famous Creative Minds?
Studies show nature can enhance creative ways of thinking, decreases anxiety and rumination, improve focus, mood, and more. Getting outside boosts vitamin D levels which may regulate mood and reduce depression, as well as other health benefits. The list of benefits goes on.
Tips
- Try creative hobbies that connect creativity with nature, like gardening.
- Take your brainstorming and creative work outside.
- Use nature to train your creative skills and support mental health. i.e., Observing nature through the five senses, following curiosity, and more.
- Plan a creative retreat based on nature.
Get Active
Perhaps the most important spring habit to practice in support of creative living is getting active. With warmer weather and nature blooming, it’s time to get outside and enjoy the wonders of nature.
As mentioned, there are many creative and health benefits of connecting with nature. These benefits of nature are also a great way to support new healthy habits. It can be challenging to start and keep healthy habits during the winter because of demotivating elements. In spring, the opposite is true. Using the many benefits of spring, you can create healthy habits and routines that can last the whole year, which makes this season perfect for starting new habits.
How Does Getting Active Support Creativity?
Exercise can improve convergent thinking, brain health, sleep quality, and more. There are also many creative ways of getting in shape that can help train creative skills. The best part is there’s no one right method of exercise to support creativity. This allows space for personalization and self-discovery to help build stronger, lasting habits.
Whatever active habit gets you moving and gets you active can boost creativity and support a healthy lifestyle.
Tips
- Stack creative habits with outdoor activities like a brainstorming run, walk, or hike.
- Join new communities based on your creativity and activities to meet new people in active ways.
- Learn a new hobby to express yourself and your creativity.
- Start small and work up to longer active times.
- Studies show that 120 minutes a week is enough to start gaining the health and creative benefits of nature.
Zach is an international writer, photographer, filmmaker, martial artist, and creator of Creative Enso, the Zen art of creative living. His goal is to empower and inspire creatives to live healthier, happier, and more creative lifestyles.
