While playing around with
designing a “Save the Date” card for my daughter, I came across some good
reading on Creativity and Psychology. [Sidetracked again!] With the New Year and thoughts of
re-focusing my energies, this information was incredibly interesting to me, and
aligns with my current goals.
Over the past several months, I’ve
been sort of experimenting with different ways to improve my overall body and
mind health. I’m investing an hour or so most days with group exercise at the YMCA, and I find it actually benefits
my mind with both clarity and stress relief.
Any muscle gain or weight loss is really a side-benefit, but I feel
better overall anyway. One of the group
exercise classes I go to regularly is PiYo, a combination of Pilates and
Yoga. I’m not a huge fan of Yoga by
itself at the moment, but the concentration and balance elements of PiYo are the “mind”
benefit for me. Seeking more of the mind
and stress-relief activities has led me to thinking about more creative outlets
as well. I love photography-and-tatting-and-sewing-and-reading-and-writing-and-doodling-and
. . . you get the idea. Sometimes I just
don’t know what I want to do next. Which leads to thinking about the New Year
and new focus.
I don’t make “resolutions” so to
speak, and I’ve said this before, but I do like to re-think about my life and
purpose. I would say the New Year
holiday is one of my favorites, and I really do see it as an opportunity for
newness in all areas of my life. This
year, I want to continue to focus on healthy body-healthy mind. Which involves
plenty of creativity, as well.
Did you know that some of the key
elements of being creative include meditation or mindfulness? It makes perfect
sense clearing one’s mind and letting your mind be open to whatever flows in
would increase creativity. Did you also
know that exercise stimulates creativity as well? I knew that exercise was good stress-relief,
but I never associated it with stimulating creativity. This makes me confident that I am on the
right track in more ways than I realized.
People who know me well know that
I am a “routine” and “analytical” kind of person. I’ve sort of always seen that as an UN-desirable
quality at certain times, but on my sidetracked journey I learned that these
are also qualities of creativity. [Think structure/self-discipline/focus.]
Every routine is unique to the individual, but routines take unimportant
decisions out of thoughts, leaving room for more important decisions. Is this why I prefer to decide what I’m going
to wear the night before? [I really just hate making that decision when I get
up – I thought it was just morning laziness on my part.] It also makes sense
that I do routine tasks the same way every time – I don’t have to really think
about it once it becomes habit. Did you
also know that being left-brained or right-brained is really a MYTH? Creative people are not right-brained, nor
are logical thinkers left-brained.
Everyone has creative ability.
Scientists and their diagnoses are analytical yet creative, right? Creativity takes some intelligence, but not
genius. In fact, think about Van Gogh
and the gift of his ear. There is a link
between mental illness and creativity. [Ha! So that’s my story.]
And the brainstorming. I’ve always been taught that brainstorming is
the way to generate creative ideas. It
doesn’t work for me - I always just thought I was the exception. But more recent studies show that brainstorming
can be limiting. [Now, I’ve done plenty of reading on being an introvert so
this definitely hits home for me.] In a
brainstorming meeting, extroverts assert the ideas and those who are less
confident will agree - and be reluctant to share equally good ideas. I know this is true, because my best ideas
usually hit when I’m alone, or after more thinking time than allowed during
quick outbursts of brainstorming. I
think of great things AFTER the meeting or AFTER something has been decided. Creativity under pressure is not necessarily
the best way to go. It does take some
time, and individual effort, or small group effort at the very least.
So, I’m back to placing some
focus on the New Year, and how to continue with healthy body and mind activities.
Adult coloring and Zentangle art are
added to my repertoire for mind relaxation and personal creativity. I think I have the WHAT, but I still need to work on the HOW and the FOCUS parts of the goal-setting.
And, I should probably get back
to designing that “Save the Date”.
