Creating music is a complex task that requires time, knowledge, and talent. To create a song that is pleasant to the ears, it takes hard work.
It might explain why we’ve witnessed of plagiarism that has resulted in lawsuits. Plagiarism, in this case, refers to the use of music that you don’t own without the consent of the owner. It’s lazy and it can lead to unwanted consequences.
Nowadays, it’s rather common to take a sample of a song and mix it with your own song. This is called sampling and it is legal if you have consent from the original song owner.
We know it is hard work to create a brand-new melodic composition, with unique lyrics, but to avoid the sampling temptation and potential pitfalls associated, you should find your own creative inspiration.
When finding your muse in nature, you want to make sure that you’ve got a nice set of earbuds or headphones. If you’re on the lookout for headphones, then AudioStance is the perfect place to go and learn about specs and read reviews.
So, if you want to keep writing more music, you need to stay creative. Let’s look at why this can be a challenge.
Staying Creative Can be a Real Challenge!
Music is art. To create art requires creativity, not just time and effort.
Creating something new and original on command is virtually impossible. Artists feel inspired at times and uninspired at other times and they can’t necessarily control this. Most artists will experience writer’s block or other creative blocks at different times.
Creative blocks are frustrating. Unless you’ve got a bit of a runway, they can lead to financial issues and other career-related challenges.
These blocks occur for a variety of reasons, whether mental or emotional. A sense of overwhelm can easily leave you feeling less than creative.
But other things can also impact creativity levels, like personal problems. The fear of success or failure can weigh heavily on one’s shoulders too.
All these blockers prevent you from reaching your full potential.
Here Are Several Ways Nature Can Help You Stay Creative
So, with all these challenges in mind, here is how you can tap into the power of nature to stay creative.
Healthy Lifestyle Choices
What artists often forget is the importance of healthy food and a good night’s sleep. Even breathing the right way can make a huge difference.
Even though music is beneficial for your health, one should always strive to attain a balanced diet. Low energy, exhausted body, bad nutrition, not enough water, bad sleep or no sleep at all can impact your creative side. If you are feeling low on energy, you won’t have enough of it to create something.
That is why you should consider changing your diet. Eat enough fruits, vegetables, grains, and proteins in order to boost your energy and also regulate your sleeping habits.
Many artists have their own little rituals for overcoming a creative block. It can be meditation, a workout, complete silence, watching a movie, getting off the internet and technology in general, taking a break from trying, etc. Some artists prefer meditation early in the morning, at about 5 am or 6 am, to use that period of time when the city is silent and they can concentrate on the meditation.
And sometimes these methods work, and sometimes they don’t. When something like that happens, don’t let that beat you down because the answer for any creative block is out there. If your usual routines don’t work, try something new. If those still don’t work, you can always go back to the thing we always come back to when we are in trouble or we are down – nature.
Raw Nature
People often work so much that they forget to connect with nature every once in a while. Sometimes, we don’t even remember when was the last time we walked on grass or in the woods or by the lake. Today’s fast pace of life requires us to live fast. They go from their pajamas to their car, and drive to work.
Basically, it is concrete all over, and sometimes we see a couple of trees on our commute, that is about it. We hide deeper and deeper into the cities, cutting ourselves away from natural surroundings.
This is not good for the body and the mind and it affects our physical state, problem-solving skills, multi-tasking skills, attention levels, and, of course, our creativity. Scientists have done a study that showed that if we move away from the technology and connect with nature for just four days, our cognitive functions important for creativity and problem-solving skills immediately improve by up to 50%.
That means that our brains react positively to spending time in nature in a way that our functions are significantly improved. Now, you won’t do any good if you go into the forest and look at your tablet or your smartphone all the time.
Spending time in nature is healing only if you get rid of the technology. The reason for this is that technology is interrupting our attention, and pulls it from more important things, like creative work.
Nature is good for our health in general, impacting both our physical and mental health. It takes only twenty minutes in nature to reduce tiredness and fatigue and increase our energy. It has positive effects on mental issues and disorders, like depression.
One study showed that if you live surrounded by trees, flowers or even grass, you will be less stressed, anxious and depressed. We can drain the maximum effect from the so-called green-blue environment which is a combination of green nature like trees or grass, and blue nature like lakes, streams or any other water in nature.
Nature can really enhance our creative thinking and idea development skills. If you don’t have enough time to spend extended time in nature, figure out what you can do on a daily basis so you can get in touch with nature.
You can make it a morning ritual to walk a bit in the park, or walk your dog, or simply drink your coffee or tea in the garden if you have one. If you have outdoor activities that are not so far away from home, why wouldn’t you walk to the store or the post office and walk through the nearest park?
Make Time & Innovate
If you have a daily 8-hour or 4-hour job, you can take your break in the nearest park. It doesn’t take that much time in the green space before creativity increases. It takes only 25 minutes before things start rolling in your brain and your cognitive functions start working again. Then your mind is prepared for innovative thinking because it has gone through new experiences and adventures.
However, the best way of rejuvenating your body and mind is to spend extended time outside, the whole weekend, a week, or even a month. Since we are a part of it, we humans are in the same rhythm as nature, so it is crucial for us to synchronize with it every once in a while.
Benefits of Seclusion
Disconnecting from technology and moving away from your everyday life in order to observe nature and connect with it can bring many benefits to your life in general, but also your life as an artist. The time in nature can help you even when you return to your regular life. You can capture those images, scents, and feelings nature evoked in you. You can think of them and use them to get inspiration.
In Conclusion
This is what that time in nature can do for you:
- Inspiration – When we are locked in our homes or offices, we always feel the pressure of time. We need to respect the deadlines, we never have enough time and there is always pressure and it can ruin our inspiration. When you are in nature, you lose the inhibition of time, doing or being somewhere on time, you can relax and be stress-free which ignites the inspiration for creativity.
- Brain functions – Once you lower your stress and fatigue levels, your brain will start to work at its full potential.
- Memory – After spending some time in nature, memory improves and it can provide you with the brand new ideas and creativity.
- Mental Health – If you are suffering from mental disorders, it can make the creative process significantly harder than it should be. If you are depressed, it will be difficult write a cheerful song. So, spending time in nature will ease those mental health issues and once they decrease, your mind can start working on the new ideas.
- Creative block – As we mentioned before, creative blocks can be frustrating but they can be overcome if you spend some time in the healthy surroundings. You will relax your body and mind, which will allow your creative expression to become instinctive again.
I’m way tougher than what I may look like!
- How Nature Can Enhance Your Creative Capacity - November 22, 2019
- The Effects of Listening to Music at Work: Pros and Cons - November 15, 2019
