Does Weather Influence Your Creativity?
On an especially rainy, chill day (where the view from my window echoes the one pictured), I’m pondering the mystery of weather’s effect on creativity. Do we become gloomy and incapable of putting pen to paper, or does rain somehow stoke the creative engines with its claustrophobic embrace?
Will you help answer this question by taking this short quiz? There’s a write-in section in case none of the multiple choice answers nails how you feel. I’ll follow up later with another piece on the results. Bonus There’s a deadline, something that always motivates creative types: The poll ends a week from today.
[polldaddy poll=8602292]
Thanks for your responses. If taking a poll doesn’t suit your sensibilities, feel free to chime in below, in the Comments section. ♣
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Rainy days are great. Especially where I live.But they also tend to dull the senses or at least my senses a bit. And sometimes my waistline feels the effect.
Dulling the senses: That’s the perfect way to put it. Thanks for taking a moment to respond.
Yes, with each change brings some sort of flow.
Flow, as in a flood of rain, or a flow from the creative spigot?
Rain and gloom allow me to flow and write. Sunshine allows me to flow with my camera lens 🙂
Isn’t it great to have all bases covered? Thanks for the feedback, Jennifer.
It’s nice to have a fall back plan that depends upon the weather. Thank you!
So it looks like at this point in time “other” is ahead with 27.27%. Will you tell us what “other” is?
I’m one of the rainy day photo editing people. I get hot and bothered taking my camera out in the rain! I hate being rained on. Now I’m in a funk even thinking about it…but shouldn’t have to worry….we’re back in a dry spell here in NorCal.
Sorry to upset your applecart in Cali, Angeline, here in Austin we’ve got tons of rain and I’m enjoying it, uncharacteristically, in a cocooning-creative surge. That’s because it’s feeling so warm and cozy indoors, and I have no need to be out in it. “Other” is the chance to comment freestyle in the last poll option. Put yours there!! And thanks for the comments.
Well, does Austin normally get much rain? Vancouver gets many hrs. of rain in 1 winter day. Like now.
In Calgary (prairies) it’s much less rain. It’s deep cold in winter with snow and ice. However right now it’s unseasonably warm.
Austin is one of the sunniest cities in the US, and has been in drought mode for quite awhile. We recognize and appreciate rain when we get it. That said, we’re lulled into sunny days with the bluest skies on earth, so the grey days can really shock the system. We are mere babes in the weather woods, though, when it comes to Canada.
When I think of all of the cycling you manage to fit in, Jean, as you describe the hours of rain there, I am in your awe. So glad to hear from you, thanks for your comments.
For some reason the poll wouldn’t come up for me – probably my browser. Anyway, I don’t find that rain or sun affect my creativity per se, but the weather does affect the type of work I feel like creating. I am much less likely to write humor when the weather’s bad, for example, and less likely to want to work on something depressing when it’s warm and sunny.
That’s an interesting insight, Lori, about the type of work you’ll do in sunshine v. gloomy weather. Has to do with mood, I’m guessing? I’m glad you shared this, so I can work it in with the results when I write it up.
I must be the odd one out, as I get more energy when the weather is cooler and I especially love rain, mist and snow. But then, I don’t have these very often, and I live in the sub-tropics, so I guess that is why.
A cast-over sky leads me inward, not bad for writing, a sunny day draws me outward, I feel more like communicating, like today, in the UK. Whatever the wheather, if there is a special light I’m inclined to catch moods with my camera.
You’ve hit on my feelings, exactly. Amen to whatever the weather, it’s the light that excites me to photograph. If it’s not there, I’m not moved to shoot. I’m nearly always moved to write. Upbeat weather encourages the imagination to flow, I think. Thanks for your insights—I’ll do a followup to this once the voting ends!