My all time favorite Life Hack for Creativity has to be my “Letting Go Box”. In my experience, it works wonders for just about everything - including that pesky inner critic that keeps so many people away from doing creative things they love to do. Let me explain: We all have times when we are filled with doubts about our creative abilities. We also have worries and concerns that can take all our attention even if there’s nothing we can do about them. I used to spend lots of precious energy worrying about so many things over which I have no control - other people’s problems, situations or circumstances that were out of my reach. My “inner critic” would even shame me for trying to paint or create when difficulties were afoot - even when there was nothing I could do about them! I developed a terrible habit of negative self-talk that kept me from allowing myself to draw, doodle, paint or even explore. Eventually, I stopped being able to create anything at all. I wanted to feel better. I was tired of being “stuck” and unhappy, tired of not being able to draw or paint anything. I began paying attention to my inner thoughts and realized how negative they were. I noticed how often this worrisome and critical inner talk ran through my mind on auto-pilot, repeating the same old phrases over and over. I started to question these negative thoughts. Were they really true? Did I really think that? I discovered that I did NOT agree with those thoughts anymore - and most were certainly NOT true. I decided I could and I would learn to “change my mind”. I found that just by writing the words and phrases down on little slips of paper, they lost some of their grip on me. I could see them more clearly and I didn’t believe them anymore. Then I got a little box, like an old jewelry box, and I started putting the thoughts I wrote down into the box.