10 creative ideas to emerge from COVID-19 ennui

Please tell me I’m not alone in feeling a lack of creative spirit these days.

Sure, some people have taken up baking sourdough bread or learned to play guitar or are singing arias from the balcony every evening. I keep reading that Shakespeare wrote “King Lear” and other plays while quarantined during the plague, and Sir Isaac Newton supposedly did some of his best work during quarantine as well.

But as the pandemic stretches on (and on), spirits are definitely drooping. Here in Ontario, we’ve said goodbye to a hot summer with open patios and lots of chances to be outside. The weather is getting colder, the days shorter, the skies less sunny. People are starting to feel stuck. Creativity is flagging.

Waiting for creativity to spark on its own is questionable at the best of times. During COVID-19? You need to work at it. Here are some ideas:

1. Get outside. Dust off that Fitbit or log into your Strava app, and start counting steps or tracking bike rides. Don’t compare yourself to others, just compete with yourself. Let the air clear the cobwebs from your brain.