5 Gentle Ways to Add Calm to Your Creative Routine

I’ve noticed that when I come to creativity in a stressed state, it often shows up in my art. I end up feeling frustrated and worse than when I started. But when I let creativity become a way to find calm, it changes everything.

Here are five gentle practices that help me bring calm back into my creative routine — maybe one of them will work for you too.

1. Start Small & Slow

Sometimes you just need a way to get your hand moving and ease into the process. For me, one of the most soothing ways is through a zentangle.

Start by drawing a simple line — a squiggle, a curve, whatever your hand wants to do. (If you’re feeling really stuck, look away from the page and let your hand wander while you listen to music or watch something gentle.)

Once you have your line, divide the page into sections — no need to be neat, uneven is often more interesting. Then fill each section with repeating shapes: spirals, leaves, dots, waves… anything you feel like. Slowly the page fills up, and so does your sense of calm.

2. Create a Cozy Atmosphere

Setting the scene makes such a difference. A warm drink, candles, music or an audiobook, blankets and comfy clothes — all those small touches tell your body and brain: you’re safe, you can soften here.

My studio changes with my energy. Sometimes it’s fairy lights and a soft lamp, sometimes it’s a blanket in my rocking chair, and other times it’s a cushion on the floor (somehow I do my best thinking on the floor!). On slow mornings I often work from the sofa with a portable desk and a cup of tea in hand.

The important thing is letting your space either move with your energy or gently shift it. A cozy atmosphere invites creativity to arrive in its own time.

3. Make It Playful

Remember cloud-gazing as a child? Looking for shapes in the sky? This is just like that.

Grab a paintbrush, splash some colours across a page, and let them dry. Then go shape-spotting. What can you see hiding in the splatters? Draw them out over the top, or simply outline the paint shapes and fill them with doodles or zentangles.

You don’t need a plan — it’s all about curiosity and play. (Reverse colouring books can be fun too, though I love the looseness of making your own splatters.)

4. Pause and Breathe

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your creativity is to step away.

The other day I spent hours on an illustration and by evening I hated it. Everyone else liked it, but I just couldn’t see it. After a night’s sleep and fresh eyes, I realised I actually did like it — I just needed space.

For me, pausing often looks like a nap, or if I have the energy, a walk in nature. I’ve solved countless problems by rambling through the woods, either chatting to a friend or talking my thoughts into a voice recorder. Giving your brain a chance to reset can shift everything.

5. Honour Rest as Part of the Process

This ties in with pausing, but goes a step further: sometimes the most creative thing you can do is rest.

There are days when ideas just won’t come, and it feels like they never will. That’s usually a sign of burnout. If you need a week off, or even just an evening away from your work, that’s okay.

As Julia Cameron says, it’s how we “fill the well.” Stepping back, doing something that restores you, gives your creativity space to breathe. Then, when you return, you can bring fresh energy with you.

Over to you:

What’s your favourite way to add calm into your creative process?