time required: 5+ minutes 

Gathering inspiration is a direct way to get in touch with your authentic point of view. Today you will create a mood board or collection of things that inspire you. "Identifying things that resonate can focus your thoughts and ideas, and provide clarity," explains Daily Creative Co-Founder Blythe Harris, "Clarity will activate motivation and even spark creativity." Blythe has made moon boards for inspiration for decades and shares a recent one she created above. Mood boards can include photographs, images from magazines, post cards you have saved, poetry, colors, and meaningful items. Anything that has resonance for you will work and you can incorporate things you have made on this journey. When you see everything together, the common threads will lead to deeper understanding and discovery.

Pull together what you have noticed and collected on this journey. Pay special mind to the things that have stood out for you, making note of any common themes. Gather additional inspiring items - photographs, photos, words, post cards of art or places you love. You can tape them on a wall, arrange them on a table or paste them in a journal. You can even create a digital board on Pinterest, or arrange three dimensional objects on a table as a creative altar. The purpose is to bring the things that have moved you into one place so that you can identify the connective threads. This will lead you to a deeper understanding of your point of view and establish a foundation from which your creativity will flourish. 

Painter, textile designer, & creative Serena Dugan (above) shares her mood boards practice with us. She says the process “fans the flames of what inspires you. This is the source that propels your expression and it can illicit your ‘you-est you’…. It pulls me into a state of being that is a place where I can naturally and intuitively create from.” Watch the video to learn more about how she uses her mood board practice as a launch pad to get to the core of her authentic point of view. The results of this practice can be seen in her latest venture, Serena Dugan Studio, and her former as Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Serena & Lily.