What's your guilty pleasure?
Do you like mindless TV? Reading less-than-intellectual magazines? Scrolling through meme after meme on your phone while you eat cereal for dinner?
Whatever it is you enjoy, most of us have absorbed the message that we need to feel guilty for certain things we like. As if they're a waste of time, or are even detracting from our creative work.
But what if the opposite were true? What if every single thing you take pleasure from factors into your creative process in important ways?
Because it just so happens that's the case. Here are four vital
reasons there's no such thing as a guilty pleasure:
1. It’s all fodder
Every stimulus you take in contributes to your understanding of the world. Everything you see, hear, touch, taste, or smell enters into your experience and informs who you are and what you create.
Regardless of whether what you read, see, watch, or listen to is considered high-brow, it still factors into the ecosystem of your creative work. Creativity grows from fertile ground, and the most fertile of all soil is created from diverse sources.
The same is true of what you find entertaining and enjoyable. It all counts! So why not enjoy it?
2. It fires up your creativity
Speaking of which, taking in information from diverse sources can also actively stimulate your work. Creativity is essentially combining disparate things from various sources to make something new.
When you diversify what you take in, you ignite your creative urges and begin to combine things in new and unusual ways.
3. Also? It's fun
Pleasure is pleasure, especially when it's genuine, tuned-in pleasure. Whatever you like, it brings you joy to be around it.
Creativity gravitates towards enjoyment. Think about it: when are you feeling more creative? When you're stagnant and mired in something unpleasant, or when you're excited by the enjoyment of what you're experiencing?
Bringing more genuine fun, enjoyment, and pleasure to your life boosts your creative capacity and your urges to make something new.
4. Rest
And for what's perhaps the most countercultural and rebellious of all these points: so-called guilty pleasures help you rest. That's why you like them! They let your mind relax and allow you to just be.
Rest is an essential component of creativity. It's neither possible nor healthy to keep grinding all the time. Like all living things, our bodies and minds need time to do things that are less challenging and more nourishing. Relishing the activities we enjoy is a huge part of that.
Next time you're tempted to think of something as a guilty pleasure, consider how it serves you. Remember how it helps you relax, have fun, boost your creativity, and feed your creative memory stores.
So go on and enjoy without guilt!
If you'd like some company in your creative process, join our weekly Co-Creation Time sessions and enjoy the fun of creating in a vibrant, friendly atmosphere.
Things people say about Co-Creation Time:
Check it out over here! We'd love to have you join us!