Sometimes it’s hard to stay focused on your creativity when there is so much going on around you. Do you know what I mean? There are so many distractions, so many happenings. Sometimes we can get pulled into believing that these other things are more important than creating. Of course something may need to take a priority from time to time over making art, but don’t fool yourself to thinking that this means creating art is not important.

On the contrary, art can help you through it all. It can support you and anchor you when life around you feels overwhelming. What would you do without your art after all?

Sometimes it’s hard to focus when there are so many things going on within your mind. Deadlines (an appropriate name given the stress they cause), invade a peaceful mind. Tragedy in the news. To do lists longer than time itself (or so they appear). At what point does one say “Stop! No more of this mind clutter!”?

I think that this is something many of us struggle with. Turning off thoughts or rather turning the volume down can be a challenge for many. I have many more conversations inside my head than outside my head. Yes, I can be quite the chatter brain. Which is a sure way to get distracted from doing my art among other things.

It’s not so much that thoughts should be turned off, but rather tamed so that they don’t interfere with the actual living of life. Thoughts need an outlet. A place where they can be safely released without the burden of fully engaging them. You know those thoughts that keep yammering on about all there is to do, or all that was not done, or not done correctly, fears and critical comments that serve only to intensify any worry we already have. Thoughts need to be released in a way that they don’t become overbearing.

Some people like to do morning pages as suggested in Julia Cameron’s Artist Way. While I have tried this, I find that the one thing that helps me get the expression of my thoughts out without the need to interpret, without being sucked into an endless rant, is doing art. Free spontaneous art where anything goes, stream of consciousness art.

Art allows for a release of what is inside with the added bonus of transformation. The thoughts words images are transformed before your eyes into something new, beyond words whether drawn painted or sculpted. Art shifts that inertia without need for explanation of what has been made or elaborate interpretations and “whys”.

So next time you find your mind is bogged down with too many thoughts, draw, paint, sculpt, whatever it takes and feel the shift. It can be a doodle, with intricate details, or a “messy” array of lines. The point is to focus on what you are doing. Will you still have thoughts? Of course, but they will come and go more easily as you return your focus to what you are creating and allow release through the art.