As the Founder of Artella, Marney Makridakis has created a play land for artists, writers, and creative spirits. Artella’s creative Isles gently invite your inner child to come out and play.

Children are naturally creative, and one of the best ways to fill your own grown-up life with more creativity is to infuse your life with some kid-like wonder.

Marney shares 10 ways to cultivate creativity by bringing out the child in you:

1. Break the Rules – and the Crayons: Buy crayons and a coloring book at a dollar store. Purposefully and intentionally color outside the lines. Scribble, break the crayons in half and smash them into the page. In the margins of the coloring book, write about how it feels to break the rules.
2. Re-Discover Love: Spend some time thinking about what you loved as a child. What colors, clothes, games, toys, activities, and dreams did you enjoy? Which of those elements are currently in your life? Which ones haven’t you seen or enjoyed in years? Make a plan for how you can rekindle some of your childhood loves in your daily life, today.
3. Change Your Workout: Children naturally create with their bodies. They want to run, play, jump, dance and catch fireflies; play at the age before body image questions come into question and before sedentary activities become more engaging than the natural world. Take this wisdom to heart; take a break from the gym and instead work out at a local playground. Hopscotch, pumping legs on the swings and jungle gyms aren’t just for kids! Or try other outdoor activities like gardening or hiking to cultivate a kid-like connection with nature.
4. Draw Your Goals: Grab some crayons, markers, or colored pencils. Think of a goal that you’d like to meet in your life, and then draw a picture of what it will look like when you’ve reached that goal. Make the drawing detailed, vivid, and kid-like! This isn’t about drawing skills—it’s about representing a vision in a fun and uninhibited way. When you’re done with your drawing, hold it up proudly and say out loud, “I DID THIS!” and then tape it up to your refrigerator.
5. Stack the Deck: Make your own set of kid-like “trading cards”! Start by cutting out images that you love from catalogs, magazines, greeting cards, etc. Focus on images that make you feel full, alive, and truly happy. Glue the images, collage-style, to cards in an old card deck. This is a project you can work on a little bit at a time until you have a whole deck of cards that inspire you to dream big and live your fullest life! Don’t forget to collage the outside pack, too.
6. Create Whimsy: Walk through your living space and see if there is an area – even just a small one – that could use a little bit of child-like whimsy. Maybe a children’s book belongs with the serious coffee table books. Perhaps you could make some pipe-cleaner flowers to go in a tiny vase on a kitchen shelf that you see when you do the dishes. Just think about the corners where a little smile could go a long way.
7. See With a Child’s Eyes: Find an interesting image from a magazine, and tear it out. Place it on a flat surface, and then turn it upside down. Squint your eyes a bit to see what you can see in the new, upside-down image. Try to find an image, activity or story in the lines and spaces. If you’re having trouble seeing anything, ask yourself, “If I were a child, what might I see in this picture?” and go from there. Take markers and pens and start doodling to expand on the picture to illuminate your images. Add words to the page, if you are drawn to do so.
8. Draw a To-Do List: Replace your regular “to do list” with two big pieces of poster board that you tape on the wall, on which you will write a list with markers. With your non-dominant hand, use really broad, child-like writing to create your traditional list of things you need to DO. On the other poster board, write a list of things you dream to BE. Allow yourself to move freely between the two different lists, allowing a free-flowing relationship to develop between them. What do you find that you learn about yourself, and your current priorities, through the different lists, allowing a free-flowing relationship to develop between them? What do you find that you learn about yourself, and your current priorities, through this exercise?
9. Change the Game: Find a board or card game from your childhood in a thrift store or your own closet, and have fun re-writing the rules. What if CLUE became a game about decorating the rooms in Fun House style, rather than solving a murder mystery? What if Twister was a massive canvas for art? What if chess pieces were purple and pink and polka-dotted and the game was about moving across the board together, instead of in competition? If possible, alter the actual game board and pieces to celebrate your rebellion against the rules. If that’s not possible, write about your re-write in a journal, relishing the thought of reigning creativity.
10. Engage Your Senses: Go on a nature walk with child’s eyes. Challenge yourself to make all of your senses more open and aware, in the way that a child can take in the world. Gather interesting leaves, rocks, little flowers, and then bring them home and arrange them to create your own little nature shrine.

Photo by John-Morgan.