Creativity
What is necessary to be creative?
Is a skill we born with?
Creativity is by far one of the subjects that calls my attention. First, I studied mechanical engineering and that isn’t a field where you need to be creative, you just need to use established knowledge and solve understandable problems. At least the majority of us think like that. This is far from reality and there’s plenty of space for creativity such as in any artistic field.
When I saw this book by John Cleese (master of creativity) I had to buy it and absorb a little more about the topic. The author provides insights into how he becomes aware of the creative process throughout his life and shares in a short manner how can we also improve our own creativity (independently of the field of application).
I totally agree with him, when states that creativity is not a skill that we were born with, but it's rather a skill possible to be mastered purposely.
Earlier in our childhood, if exposed to the correct “playgrounds” we would excel in creativity, but as we enter adulthood, we will probably lose it, since we are averse to the shame of making mistakes. That might be due to a particular reason that at school we are punished by not following the established lines of thought.
Creativity is the result of childlike playfulness and focuses dedicated to the activity we commit to perform! It is not a skill that once you acquire, you own forever. Creativity is often a skill that we need to enroll in with the purpose to arrive nowhere. It requires that we allow our unconscious mind to wander free and play with the problem in our hands, and literally sleep on it.
This might sound fuzzy, for humans that only use their analytical, logical, and critical sides of the brain, but creative thinking demands that our "tortoise mind" also takes part in the process, perhaps even letting him assume the principal role.
Creative ideas arrive when we less expect them since they are the result of the so-called unconscious mind that step by step builds ideas and new associations from knowledge. That's why the majority of our creative blocks are solved during sleep time, and you may ask is so?
The reason is that knowledge isn't permanently stored in our brain during the “learning” activity per se. It occurs during sleep and exactly during the REM period time, new brain cells are created, knowledge is stored, and new connections are created. I’m reading another book on that and soon as I finish it I will make a review.
So the next time you want to solve a problem try to fiddle with it before sleep, your brain will support you during REM prime time.
Another talk from John Cleese on Creativity
If you are interested to purchase this book you can do it through Amazon! Just follow the link bellow.
