Yes, I know that the subject line might come across as rather inflated, bordering on gross exaggeration, but bear with me.

By now you’re familiar with Instagram, you probably have your own account and are merrily snapping away, presenting the world with fragments of your day as you go about working, playing and sleeping. Ok, not sleeping, but you get the picture (poor pun!).

So just how did Instagram save my life? Simple. It opened my eyes to new thoughts, ideas and creativity by reconnecting me to a creative social circle, well I’m not sure circle is the right description, but it’s the best I can do.

If you’ve been following this blog for any length of time you’ll know I’m a stay-at-home-dad, or if I’m lucky a work-from-home-dad, though of late the former seems to be the case.

When you are running after a toddler and expecting a newborn in under a month your world changes, you change, you adapt, you make sacrifices, it’s what love does. I don’t believe you lose your identity, it’s just re-purposed and you need to find yourself in that re-purposing.

That said there are moments when you become isolated, disconnected and quite frankly sometimes rather lonely, it tends to happen when your only company can only count to 10, skipping over a number here and there.

I believe creativity thrives in the mutual expression of ideas and thoughts, it can die a little, or a lot without it.

So how does Instagram come into play? Subconsciously it has reconnected me to network of like minded creatives. Some of whose work I’ve been a fan of for ages, some I’ve just met, but it gives insight into their lives and allows me to experience both their joys and frustrations alongside them.

I follow photographers, stylists, interior designers, store owners, crafters and illustrators, all of whom inspire and many of which I’ve built up close relationships and in some cases deep friendships with.

A week ago I was invited to attend a workshop on creative entrepreneurship, one of the guest speakers was the lovely Heather Moore of Skinny LaMinx. Heather shared a bit about her rise to fame and how she had a part-time job that allowed her to rent a space that she could just be creative in, not confined by assumptions, but a place to experiment with creative ideas to see what stuck.

Now while our circumstances are different there is no reason I can’t approach the downtime with a similar mind shift.

I’ve since cleaned my desk, bought a bunch of markers, pens and craft supplies, heck just this week I made a paint chip garland cake topper and am using what little free time I have to being creative again.

I’ve committing myself to make friends with my Wacom Bamboo, even if it kills me, or I it and trying to familiarize myself with the inner working of Adobe Creative Suite.

Daily, hourly my Instagram timeline is filled by amazing images of creative people that inspire me to do something, anything, to go create. Where will it lead? I’m not sure, but right now that’s good enough for me. I’m taking baby steps.

If you want to share in my Instagram life you can find me there as @mattallison and I’d love to hear how Instagram has impacted your own life?