Creativity
Creativity
Keeping Mind and Body in Tune
Painting with watercolors is creative. So is writing a symphony, directing a play, or sculpting a fountain.
But creativity is not limited to the arts. Planting a garden is creative, as is designing a computer program, developing a new recipe, planning a meal, mapping genes or building a gingerbread house with a bunch of kids.
Simply put, creativity is defined as the act of making, inventing or producing. And it's something we all do.
"I call everyday creativity mindfulness--when we focus on the process of inventing as opposed to the outcome. This everyday creativity or mindfulness is actually good for one's health and well-being," explains Ellen J. Langer, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and author of Mindfulness.
It's so essential to our existence that the newness, surprise and variety provided by our creativity actually fuels our will to live. Dr. Langer's research with the elderly has shown that when the elderly are encouraged to be creative or mindful, as she says, they actually live longer and happier lives. "When we don't keep our minds active, the mind and body gradually turn themselves off," says Dr. Langer.
In other words, when we stop creating, we stop living.
Fortunately, the capacity to create remains intact all our lives, although the actual number of certain types of products we might create--the paintings, gardens or sculptures--may decline as we get older.
"Creative productivity generally peaks at age 30 for math, science, poetry and anything that requires abstract thinking," says Carolyn Adams-Price, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology at Mississippi State University in Starkville. "For history, philosophy, writing and anything that requires a lot of knowledge, it generally peaks at 60."
But it's only the number of creative products that declines, not the ability to create or the quality of what's produced, emphasizes Dr. Adams-Price.
Killers of the Creative Spirit Some days creativity flows through your body and out into the world without effort. Other days it's as though the flow is blocked by an impenetrable wall. "Creativity is a fragile commodity that can be suppressed or impaired much easier than it can be turned on," says Teresa Amabile, Ph.D., professor of psychology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. But, she says, you can prevent interfering with its flow by avoiding these creativity killers. * Naysayers. Critics and skeptics can limit your scope of thought and shatter your creative progress. * Material motivation. Most creative motivation comes from within, but extrinsic motivators--like money, fame, awards and acceptance--can severely dampen our creative powers. * Keeping score. The pressure of having to score points, meet certain standards or live up to others' expectations can seriously stifle your creative abilities. * Creating in a crowd. How creative could you be if you knew your teacher, boss or the whole world was looking over your shoulder every minute? Dr. Amabile's research has shown that such environments can stifle creativity. Try to work in a setting that will put some distance between you and a pair of penetrating eyes. * Too little time. clocks, schedules and deadlines can hinder the evolution of a great idea. Try working at a comfortable, even pace. * Drugs and alcohol. There is no good scientific evidence that creativity can be chemically enhanced. In the long run, these substances have the potential to destroy your creative abilities far more than they could possibly enhance them. |
A History of Suppression
Until the last half of the twentieth century, the education and training that would allow women to express their creativity was often discouraged by cultural stereotypes that defined and limited a woman's role in the world.
Virginia Woolf, for instance, imagined William Shakespeare to have had an equally creative sister, Judith, who was sent to mend stockings or fix dinner while Will was sent to school to study literature and drama.
Historically, men have had a distinct advantage over women when it comes to getting help in developing their creativity.
Studies show that, more often than not, society has been quicker to provide men with educational possibilities and admission to professional societies and other specialized training to stimulate their creativity. Studies show, too, that teachers have more readily tended to reinforce creative behavior in boys while expecting girls to be well behaved and eager to follow the rules. Experts have also suggested that our culture's encouragement of a boy's natural assertiveness, dominance, ego and risk taking--in everything from football to physics--helps young men to develop the drive, single-mindedness and persistence necessary to pursue their own creative visions in a culture often hostile to creativity.
Tapping Your Powers of Imagination
Today, women are well represented in art galleries, theaters, dance ensembles, medical schools, businesses and other institutions. In fact, the numbers of women in art and ballet schools now exceed the numbers of men.
How can you liberate the creativity hidden within you? Whether you're intent on creating a public work of art or a private expression of your inner self, all it takes to get started is an idea and a desire to explore. Here's how to begin.
Identify a problem. Ask yourself: "What could the world really use right now? Creative alternatives to nursing homes for the elderly? Ways to capitalize on the talent of retired individuals?" Often, the first step merely requires identifying a problem, says Dr. Langer. From there your ideas can branch off in hundreds of different directions.
A great way to come up with good ideas is to think up many ideas without judging them. Then simply choose the good ones, says Dr. Langer.
Scribble out an idea on a sheet of paper. Then, drawing inspiration from the first idea, jot down as many related ideas as possible. Compile a list of ideas, go through it carefully and pull out the ones you like best. Discard the others.
"Sometimes a great idea is merely taking an older idea and turning it on its head," says Gabriele Rico, Ph.D., professor of English and creative arts at San Jose State University in California and author of Pain and Possibility. For example, ice cream was once served on top of a flat waffle. But some innovative thinker chose to fold that waffle into a funnel, and voilà! The world had its first waffle cone.
Jot down your ideas and dreams. Great ideas can materialize and vanish in an instant, so many creative women keep a log or diary to record ideas that come to them throughout the day, says Dr. Rico. All you need is a small notebook that fits in your pocket or briefcase or even under your pillow, since dreams can be rich in creativity, too.
"The mind makes some of its most unique connections and associations while you are asleep," says Dr. Rico. So start the day off by scribbling what you remember of your dreams on a note pad.
Reconsider failures. Mistakes and unexpected results can yield the biggest rewards of all, says Dr. Langer. For example, a new glue developed by the 3M Company was thought to be a failure because it wasn't sticky enough. But when that glue was applied to a sheet of paper, it became one of the most innovative office products of all time: Post-it Notes. So the next time you have an apparent "bomb" on your hands, don't be so quick to condemn it. Instead, turn it around and look at it from another direction.
Challenge orthodox thinking. "One of our society's drawbacks is that it encourages inhibition and blind conformity," says Dr. Langer. "We become afraid to look at the world from different perspectives to challenge established ideas." To enhance our creativity, we must be willing to unlearn many of the conventions we've spent a lifetime learning.
A creative person should not be afraid to challenge ideas or to think in directions others may consider unorthodox.
Learn. If you've chosen to express your creativity in a particular medium such as paint or song, learn as much about the medium as possible, says Dr. Rico. Start slowly, practice in your medium regularly and identify your strengths and weaknesses. As your familiarity and skill increase, your ability to manipulate your chosen medium to express your creativity will expand.
Find a role model. You can draw a great deal of inspiration by emulating the work and techniques of some of the creative giants in your area of interest, says Dr. Rico. But don't be a copycat. Imitation is not creativity. Instead, turn to your role model to get yourself thinking in ways you never considered. Or take themes they have explored and approach them from another angle.
Explore yourself. The creative woman must be willing to delve into a wide range of deep-seated emotions, experiences and memories. "Older people often use their personal experience as a source of creativity," says Dr. Adams-Price.
Explore the world. Most of us draw inspiration and creative energy from the things around us: the sight of a sunset, the aroma of a flower, the sound of a train whistle, the touch of moss. "The more things we know, feel and experience about our world, the more creative we will be," says Dr. Rico.
Creativity and Madness Isadora Duncan danced in the moonlight with fairies. Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear. Sylvia Plath committed suicide. Does this mean that highly creative people are more likely to be mad than the rest of us? It's an intriguing question. But despite the best efforts of science, the answer is still not clear. In a study of more than 1,000 men and women conducted at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, researcher Arnold M. Ludwig, M.D., found that poets, writers, artists, musicians and others in creative professions were more likely to exhibit a tendency toward madness than others in supposedly less creative professions--people who were public officials, in business and were military officers. Those in the theater demonstrated higher rates of alcohol and drug abuse, manic episodes, anxiety disorders and suicide attempts. Writers were more inclined toward depression and alcohol. Artists had more alcohol-related problems, depression, anxiety and adjustment difficulties. Musicians and composers were more likely to be depressed. Poets were more prone to alcohol and drug abuse, depression, mania, suicide and psychosis in general. The tendency toward madness in creative people seems clear until you consider a couple of points, as Dr. Ludwig does in his study. First, the demands on those in the more creative professions may be more likely to aggravate already existing problems. If you were genetically predisposed to depression, for example, a career in the theater might push you over the edge into depression, while a career as a banker might not. A second point is that since our culture expects its writers and artists to be weird and its military officers and bankers to be stable, professions such as music and art may simply attract people who are predisposed to excess, while professions such as banking and the military attract people who are more likely to be stable. |