*Image credit - Karen Maes @Unsplash
For those of you who know me, or have been taught by me, know how passionate I am about creativity as a subject.
I have always strongly believed it is an essential in life for all of us - for problem solving, for thinking out of the box, for gaining confidence and courage, and with the ever rising popularity and understanding about mindfulness, the act of creating is mindfulness in action. We don't need to have a burning desire to become a musical composer, master chef, novelist or sculptor to need to practice creativity.
- Creativity is how medical staff deal with an emergency on the street, without the tools of their trade.
- Creativity is how a teacher deals with a behaviourly challenging student who will not respond to the usual forms of teaching.
- Creativity is the joy of arranging flowers from your garden - how the colours and shapes intertwine and make you smile each time you look at them.
- Creativity is proving to yourself that you can make something work by looking at it from an alternative angle, by taking a risk, and pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone.
Creativity is an action, a way of being, a way of thinking; a different way of thinking. Yes creativity even creates more nerve connections in the brain!
I could wax lyrical about this for an age, but for now I will leave you with one of the important lessons I have discovered over the years to help me bolster my creative outputs - frustration, messiness and mistakes - as discussed here wonderfully in this TED talk by the economist and journalist, Tim Harford...
TED Talk - How frustration can make us more creative
And as discussed by Tim Harford, some further info on Brian Enos Oblique Strategies