Developing Creativity in Adults and Children
Learning How to Grow and Promote Creative Ability
Sep 16, 2009
Humans start to unlearn creativity at an early age in preschool or kindergarten. Kids are taught that the sky is blue with a giant yellow sun shining over the green, green grass.
The child who draws a picture of purple grass and a green sky may be sternly corrected by his parents and teachers for his "incorrect" drawing. This tends to discourage creativity in exchange for a view that's in line with the status quo.
How To Avoid Unlearning Creativity
Creativity requires courage to withstand the winds of objection and criticism. Objections may come from those who fail to grasp your vision. The harshest criticism often comes from the self. The inner critic will try to sat that the artist's best work is not good enough. The most creative individuals don't take criticism to heart in a way that hampers creativity.
People unlearn creativity as they go through life. Most people don't believe they are creative. They have more inhibitions. They ask fewer questions. They make less assumptions. They don't play or explore. They stop seeing shapes in the clouds.
When was the last time an adult went out with a child to see shapes in the clouds? Did they see monkeys juggling pineapples? Walruses playing trombones? Elephants riding bicycles wearing tiny hats? Or did it just look like rain?
The average adult thinks of three to six alternatives for any given situation. The average child thinks of sixty.
How to Re-Learn Creativity – Being Authentic
Creativity can be defined as the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality.
When a person is centered in the person that he/she is, and in alignment of the truth of who he/she is, life flows effortlessly. They are easily able to remain “in the zone” of their creative spirit. They are completely engaged in their artistic pursuit and may not notice the passage of time, or the need to sleep or to eat. Ideas pop into their heads without effort. Inspiration reigns.
When they are surrounded by rules and “shoulds,” and are not in harmony with their creative selves, then they are not being their authentic selves. They force a person to hold back and she ultimately takes the road more often traveled. As a result, one loses the ability to create anything unique or unusual.
Choices that come from the truth feel good. People talk about finding the path with a heart in it. Choices that are not from truth feel bad. They are not creative and they do not feel right. If a choice comes from the center of a person, it will be from truth and it will be the right choice, the creative choice. It will speak their truth. It will be as unique as they are.
Genius is Wrought By Practice Not Magic
A psychologist at the University of Exeter, named Michael Howe, felt that people with exceptional abilities are placed oh a pedestal that's a bit too high for the individual's own good. He got a research team and set out to determine if famous talented people were divinely appointed to their place in the arts, or if they buckled down with hard work and practice.
Howe looked at the cases of 76 composers. Most of them had at least a decade of painstaking training before they wrote any masterpieces. Mozart, for instance, was drilled incessantly in techniques of composition by his father before he composed his first work of “genius” at the age of 12.
The young Mozart had few opportunities to play outdoors or make friends with other children.
"It is probable that from his earliest years a large proportion of the child's time was devoted to musical activities,” writes Howe.
Researchers on Howe's Exeter study examined outstanding performances in the arts, mathematics and sports, to determine whether the widespread belief that to reach high levels of ability a person must possess an innate potential called talent. Contrary to commonly held beliefs, the study concluded that excellence is determined by:
- Opportunities;
- Encouragement;
- Training;
- Motivation, and;
- Most of all, practice.
Few geniuses showed early signs of promise prior to parental encouragement. No one reaches high levels of achievement in their field without devoting themselves to thousands of hours of serious training. Mozart trained for 16 years before he produced an acknowledged master work.
If You Want to Be Creative, Be Creative
If creativity can be learned and practiced, and everyone is born naturally creative, this means that anyone who wants to be creative can be. No one has to watch life pass by as they dream about being a famous novelist, poet, painter or musician. They can pick up a pen, laptop, paint and a brush or an instrument and get going. It's a new day and it's never too late to create something.
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