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" Whether you&amp;#039;re knitting a scarf or starting a blog, creating something is one of the most delightful ways to enhance happiness. When you collect ideas and combine them in an original way, you can&amp;#039;t help stretching yourself. And when you do it with others, you strengthen your relationships \u2014 one of the best ways to increase joy. Except, most people \u2014 busy women especially \u2014 don&amp;#039;t take the time to be creative. For one thing, creating means pausing, playing, and sometimes failing. It doesn&amp;#039;t always feel productive, and it&amp;#039;s tough to justify activities that don&amp;#039;t pay off immediately.  Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike (which can be guilt-inducing, since it looks like doing nothing), spark ideas with these techniques and watch the happiness flow. 1. Take Notes I used to fight the urge to jot down things that weren&amp;#039;t related to a project, but now I record any bits that catch my interest, or I make strange lists for no reason. In fact, my books have really been ways to justify my taking the notes I most wanted to take. So grab a pen and go to it. At first, it might feel as if your notes have no purpose, but eventually you may find a use for them. Even if you don&amp;#039;t, the process itself can be deeply satisfying. 2. Follow Your Whims I&amp;#039;ll devour everything that&amp;#039;s been written about St. Th\u00E9r\u00E8se of Lisieux, or anything Gary Taubes has ever said about nutrition, just because I feel like it. If you let yourself wander freely, you never know what interesting place you might end up. 3. Buy Fun Supplies A beautiful set of colored pencils can get you excited to create. Visit an art store and see what you bring home. 4. Embrace Your Failure I want to succeed at everything. This makes me anxious \u2014 which isn&amp;#039;t conducive to creativity. So I remind myself to enjoy the &amp;quot;fun of failure&amp;quot;; it makes me more lighthearted about taking risks. I took drawing classes recently because I couldn&amp;#039;t draw. I didn&amp;#039;t get much better \u2014 so, in a sense, I failed. But it was so much fun that I consider it a success. 5. Become a Collector Reading Twyla Tharp&amp;#039;s The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life, I was fascinated to discover that when the choreographer has a new project, she collects everything that inspires her \u2014 from a toy to a CD \u2014 and drops it in a file. &amp;quot;[It all] feeds into my creativity,&amp;quot; she writes. &amp;quot;But...without the time invested in getting ready to create, you can be hit by a thunderbolt, and it will just leave you stunned.&amp;quot; 6. Start a Blog or Journal I used to worry that blogging daily would drain me of ideas. Instead, I&amp;#039;ve found that pouring out ideas is better for creating than doling them out drop by drop. The more you create, the more you&amp;#039;ll want to create \u2014 and the more ideas you&amp;#039;ll have. 7. Draw a Mind Map The idea of a mind map was developed in the 1960s by the educator Tony Buzan, and I love it for brainstorming. You start with a concept at the center of the page \u2014 say, I need more energy! \u2014 then draw curvy branches from it with related thoughts that help you see new possibilities. To do it yourself, follow the how-tos here.  Problem? Map Out the Solution  Tapping into the visual part of your brain can crank up creativity. Grab a large sheet of unlined paper and go wild. 1. Turn your paper sideways and, in the center, write a word or phrase (or draw an image) that captures what you&amp;#039;re after. Crave more get-up-and-go? Simply write Energy. 2. Using different colors, draw curvy branches from your central phrase or image, each connecting to an idea related to your theme (e.g., friends or exercise). 3. Draw more branches from those initial ones, and feel free to use different colors to indicate various types of ideas. You might use red, for instance, for each activity that&amp;#039;s free (A.M. walks!). Soon you&amp;#039;ll be making novel associations that will lead to more colorful thinking. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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