Creativity
can be the key to a fuller, more enjoyable life. One dictionary (Microsoft’s Encarta) defines it as “the ability to
use the imagination to develop new and original ideas or things, especially in
an artistic context.” Writing for Psychology
Today online (posted March 30, 2009) Dr. Shelly H. Carson noted “the aging
brain resembles the creative brain in several ways…more disinhibited… [and more
likely] to make novel and original associations.” Whether harnessed for art or literature or
music or simply for living day-to-day, the creative brain finds novelty where
others miss it.
Recently, an excellent book by Scott
Barry Kaufman and Carolyn Gregoire, Wired
to Create: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Creative Mind, summarized ten
habits research has revealed are typical of the creative mind, habits we can
cultivate in ourselves to improve our own creativity.
Imaginative Play
Creative
minds often ask themselves, “What if?” Like children at play, they put themselves
into unusual, fictional situations. The Wired
to Create authors quote George Bernard Shaw, “We don’t stop playing because
we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” Our roles as parents, aunts,
uncles, grandparents, or even baby-sitters, can offer opportunities to continue
childhood play, too.
Passion
A
passionate interest fuels creativity, and the results reinforce the passion. We
see that passion in child prodigies, like cellist YoYo Ma, but also in mature
artists, like Grandma Moses. Steve Jobs urged us to do what we love, as have
many others. Sometimes, we have to immerse ourselves in the endeavor to become passionate
about it. Your garden may be the “canvas” for your “work of art.”
Daydreaming
After
retirement, we often have more time available to just daydream, a
characteristic of many creative people. Associations are made that would not
develop without our letting our minds wander. Creative solutions are often the
joining of seemingly contradictory elements. Sweet and sour pork, anyone?
Solitude
Creative
people often prefer to be alone, and they don’t feel lonely. The “noise” of the
world is reduced, so they can think more clearly, make more creative connections.
Kaufman and Gregoire quote Henry David Thoreau, “I never found the companion
that was so companionable as solitude.” We can turn absence into
advantage.
Intuition
Reason
carries us only so far, and then we tend to rely on our intuition, which is somewhat
a product of our experience, and as we mature, we have more of it. “I just
know….” Intuition allows us to think unconventionally, creatively, outside of
the now-proverbial box. Such feelings often guide us and may have sources in
our unconscious minds. Steve Jobs is quoted in Wired to Create as calling intuition “more powerful than
intellect.”
Openness to Experience
Experience…we
have plenty. Paradoxically, we need to be open to getting even more of it, in
situations unlike those we’ve already enjoyed or endured. We can seek out these
new situations, new people, new endeavors, and we can also just decide to view
our current circumstances in new ways. “What if…?”
Mindfulness
“Mindfulness”
is awareness coupled with curiosity, attentiveness. Look outside of ourselves,
but also within, Socrates is credited with affirming, “The unexamined life is
not worth living.” While certainly an over-statement, this has more than a
grain of truth. The mystic Ram Dass urged, “Be here now,” more profound than
Nike’s “Do it now,” though the latter has merit, too. Note: mindfulness seems
to be opposite of “daydreaming.” Each in its proper time?
Sensitivity
When I
say something that particularly pleases my wife, I maintain that I’m a
“sensitive ‘60s guy,” attributing my sensitivity to the period when we were
encouraged to “get in touch with our feelings.” Heightened awareness can lead
to creative responses. However, “any virtue can be overdone,” someone said or
wrote, I think. Being sensitive is a bit like turning up the volume on the
television; you hear some things you might otherwise miss, but at the risk of
overwhelming your thinking. Others may not appreciate your sensitivity. Having
a thin skin leads to unnecessary inter-personal friction.
Turning Adversity into Advantage
With
the experience of maturity, we’ve learned the wisdom of “this, too, will pass.”
Moreover, we can creatively find ways to turn lemons into lemonade because we
remember how we did that once or how someone we knew did it. “Every knock is a
boost,” we mutter, as we pick ourselves up and learn from what just happened,
from an altered perspective.
Thinking Differently
When
you reach a certain age, you are more likely to be willing to “march to the
beat of a different drummer,” be a non-conformist in thought if not in dress or
speech. Original thinking is characteristic of creative people, and your
willingness to non-conform, coupled to the lessons you’ve learned produce
viewpoints that can be unusual. “Where you stand depends on where your sit,”
and the accumulation of our unique experiences can put us in positions from
which we get unconventional, creative viewpoints.
Go Ahead, Be Creative
The
message? Harness your inner novelist, memoirist, poet, painter, sculptor,
composer, choreographer, actress, and pursue an artistic hobby… or simply find
creative ways to improve your life and the lives of others.
You’ve
got the mature, creative brain to do it.
Is there a creative endeavor you have
started recently or hope to start? Have you found ways to be creative in
everyday life?
###
A former Harvard science
professor, Dr. Cooper still publishes, and he helps others write and
publish their books, via his http://WriteYourBookWithMe.com. His life's central theme has been a
half-century romance (http://TingandI.com) with Tina Su Cooper,
his wife, now quadriplegic due to multiple sclerosis and receiving 24/7 nursing
care at home, as discussed at their website here.
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