Friday 8 April 2022

Inspiration: Mantras and a Bead Necklace to Get Creative

Here's an inspirational idea I tried when trying to do some creative writing. It worked.

About a month ago I had decided to enter a short story competition but was really struggling to get into the right head space. I had a basic plot I liked, and had written the required number of words, but I wasn't happy with them. I just didn't seem to be able to get into the creative mood to produce a quality of writing I felt was good enough to enter into a contest.

I asked friends for tips and suggestions. Several bits of advice were offered included meditation, going for a walk to refocus, and just carrying on bashing out words on the keyboard until something good emerged. I tried the first two, and they helped a bit, but I'm not the kind of writer who's cheered up by looking over pages and rubbish I've churned out, so I didn't actually do that last one. I know it works for some, but it never has for me.

What really did help me was closing my eyes and passing a set of beads through my fingers while saying a creative mantra. The words were simply: "You are creative. You can do this." 

It was a form of meditation in which the affirming words I was saying to myself, in conjuction with the tactile feel of the beads, shifted my mood. I got in the right creative zone, finished writing the story, and submitted it. I was delighted to later learn that I had won a runner's up prize in the contest - so it must have worked!  I also put the short story on my blog and here's the link if you haven't read it already.

To take this idea further you could create a set of rolled paper beads especially for this kind of purpose. I've blogged in the past with instructions for making a magical charm bracelet from upcycled paper. You could use the same process but write inspiring phrases on each piece of paper before making the beads, as well as saying them as a mantra and using the beads as a meditation afterwards.

You could also use a necklace of crystal beads, especially if you already have crystal jewellery with the right magical correspondences. Quartz is versatile and good for most spells and psychic work, but other crystals associated with creativity include amethyst, apatite, carnelian, citrine and tiger's eye. If you have an amber and jet necklace, that could also be used because it is particularly witchy.

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