It’s the last day of June already – my month of thinking about inspiration went by really quickly! I wanted to share 10 tips to help get inspired when you are in a creative funk.

1. Take a walk (or go to the gym, or do yoga, or anything active). Nothing too strenuous – the point here isn’t to get exhausted, it’s to get moving a little bit, which helps your brain release feel-good hormones. Sometimes that’s all it takes to get inspired again! Also, this helps a lot of people (me included) clear their heads, which is always helpful if you are in a rut.

2. Listen to some good music. I love Pandora radio for this – I type in a band or singer I like and it plays songs it thinks I’ll like based on that selection – I’ve discovered lots of great music this way! Youtube is another good place to find music, but I find watching videos more distracting, where just having music on in the background allows me to be creative while listening.

3. You know that horrible task you’ve been putting off doing? Finish it. I get into a rut every March, and I don’t recover until my taxes are done. As unpleasant as these things are, finishing a project that you’ve been stressing out over will feel SO good. So quit procrastinating and do it – your creativity will probably be back in no time

4. Go to the bookstore (or the library). Browsing art and craft books and magazines always gives me the urge to go make something. And if I’m really in a rut, finding a good mystery novel or other fun fiction book is a great distraction, and I usually find that I’m ready to work on new projects again when I finish reading a good book.

5. Freewrite for 15 minutes or so. Grab a piece of paper or notebook, and whatever you like to write with, and just go. If you can’t think of anything to say, make lists of things. This is one of the most effective ways I know to refresh. I recommend doing it every day, or at least a few times a week. It doesn’t matter what you write, it’s the act of doing it that will help you get inspired. When I’m in the habit of doing this every day, I usually find I have so many ideas that it’s hard to narrow things down!

6. Start something small. Do a little project that doesn’t require inspiration. For me, this would be something along the lines of making earwires, that I can almost do in my sleep. But the act of creating, even something that doesn’t feel creative, often gets my brain working and new ideas coming.

7. Take a break. If you are obsessing about being stuck, give yourself a few days to do something else. Have fun – go to the movies, the beach, whatever you do to relax – and get lots of sleep. It’s hard to be creative when you’re stressed out, so making time regularly just to de-stress can work wonders.

8. Cheesy creativity exercises work – so grab a book about creativity, and do one of the exercises. Or try this one: open a book to a random page and with your eyes shut, point to a spot on that page. Read what it says where you are pointing, a word or phrase, and use that as a journal prompt or a theme for your next piece of art.

9. Make lists of things that inspire you, and keep them somewhere handy, so that when you aren’t feeling inspired, it’s easy to find your favorite quotes, blogs, books, photos, and whatever else you turn to for inspiration.

10. Decorate your workspace with inspiring images. These could be photos, magazine pictures, even just blocks of colors you like. If your space is beautiful, it will be so much easier to spend time there working.