Reclaim Your Creative Thinking Ability
Hello folks,
I’ve long thought that a lack of creative thinking ability has stalled the worldwide economy.
A multitude of problems need solving, yet we continue to prop up dead and dying industries or copy existing ones. It doesn’t make much sense unless you see the root cause as an inability to move forward, an inability to create a meaningful economy, an inability to dream up something new.
Despite returning to painting, singing, piano and taking up drawing, I still felt that I’d lost a part of my once vibrant childhood imagination. So, I began a quest to find out why and see if I could reverse it.
I read tens of books, hung out with nature, talked to other folks and I reached one conclusion — our culture of obedience conflicts with the culture needed for imagination to thrive. Sitting still, being on time, not talking back, doing your homework, going to work for 8+ hours a day, being shackled to an arbitrary best practice – none of that feeds a creative mind. It prepares the person to sit still, be on time, not talk back, stand in line, and do their work.
My niece told me at Christmas that they have to use “indoor voices” inside her elementary school. Yet by junior high my nephew told me they have no recess. They go from class to class. The chance to use an “outdoor voice” doesn’t exist after age 11 until they leave the premises.
That shocked me.
What it they’re excited about something?
We need to reverse engines and go in a new direction, one that encourages folks to see possibilities everywhere, one that lets folks use their voices to express themselves, one that isn’t afraid of enthusiasm and aliveness.
I’ve worked hard to revive my own creative thinking, so I know it is possible. It may sound cliche, but it’s never too late in life to re-engage your imagination. It’s going to require some disobedience to the official life blueprint. You may even want to rip it up and draw your own.
I know that most of you live outside Massachusetts, but for those of you that do — on Wednesday, January 11, 6:30 to 8:30 pm, I’m offering “Reclaim Your Creative Thinking Ability,” through the Friends of Ashland Public Library. It’s FREE and open to the public.
Here’s a blurb about it:
The two-hour program will engage participants in writing and thinking exercises designed to expand their creative and lateral thinking abilities. “Creative thinking takes the train of thought and moves it beyond the cliché into unchartered thinking waters. It is the only way to come up with new ideas,” says Giulietta “Julie.” “Participants will leave this life shop with expanded notions of what’s possible in the world.”
Live nearby and are interested, please call the library and reserve your seat. Phone number to call: 508-881-0134
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What’s your experience been with keeping your creative thinking ability and imaginations alive?
Thx, G.
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I think that I keep my mind and imagination engaged by following various social media, especially blogs where folks are creative and tell great stories about everyday life. I learn and prod myself to comment with something interesting or offbeat or humorous. It gives me a chance to stir up the mental juices while laughing or crying with others that I care about.
Hey Lou,
thanks for being the first commenter! i’m glad you read this blog as well. thank you.
I agree with you that I keep my mind engaged reading and commenting on the blogs of others. So, many unique takes on life. And they make you stop and think about something in a new way.
Mental juices – great metaphor!
Thx, G.
Excellent point, as usual. Good luck with your “Reclaim your creative thinking ability” talk. Unfortunately, I wonder just how important or relevant this is anymore in this technologically crazed world. For some of us, yes, but what about the younger generation who are being separated from their creative selves or directed/taught how to be creative???
I’m shocked by the restraints put on children from an early age. Indoor voices, indeed! How do they express enthusiasm, excitement, all the emotions that come naturally to people of all ages but especially to kids? It’s like handcuffing the future generation, turning them all into little Stepfords, and punishing them if they are out of line. No wonder as adults, they are unable to think outside the restrictions imposed on them as children, or the reverse, they revolt against those same restrictions often with unfortunate results. The worst thing about this, as you pointed out, is the stifling of natural creativity, which is already happening with the abundance of technological toys and apps that fill the creative gaps in their lives and leave little time to develop personal creativity. I suspect that in the future, creativity in this country is going to be more geared towards technology and science than the arts.
Hi Penelope,
When we don’t have new jobs in this country, then the pendulum will swing back to creativity. It’s the only way new ideas get created. Folks think all those high tech gadgets were created by folks with their noses to the cubicle grindstone.
They actually had a creative break. Yet, those breaks are becoming more and more infrequent, especially with the passing of someone like Steve Jobs, who dropped out of college and credits studying caligraphy for the Mac’s main difference.
I just hope we promote creativity before and entire generation gets lost to its importance.
I also agree with what you say that the high tech stuff is acting like a proxy for natural creativity. The toy does the stuff the brain used too.
Like anything that isn’t used. Will the brain’s creative capacity atrophy?
Appreciate the visit! G.
As a child, I felt my creativity was supported and nurtured by adults. Maybe I’m lucky, but I never felt that following basic rules of society conflicted with my desire (and ability) to express myself creatively. I encountered plenty of stuffy fuddy-duddies, sure, but I had plenty of good teachers and mentors on my team. I think life is like that… once you realize the “good ones” are out there, you learn to consciously seek them out and surround yourself with people who build you up instead of tear you down. It saddens me that some people are hardened, whether at home or at school, at an early age. I know it happens. When I was in TV news… I realized that it was killing my creative spirit… the artist within. I had to take responsibility for my career and my life, and eventually I went the another way.
Hi Angie,
Zoomed on what you said about finding the “good ones” throughout life. I remember you commenting here about your English teacher, the enlightened one who had you hug trees.
Glad you left the TV news before it killed your spirit. As you note, many folks don’t have the ability to get out. It takes a lot of emotional and financial courage to leave a job.
I’m trying to remember the ones that encouraged me in my school years. Even though I went to what was called an excellent school system, I can remember one in 1st grade, one in 2nd grade, one in 10th grade, and one in 11th grade. Two in college and maybe 5 in grad school.
I recall quite a few really negative ones – and that might be because I tended to fight the rules.
But what I remember most of all was the neutrality of most teachers. They did their job, but I felt no connection good or bad. Those teachers seem like a blur.
Once I got back on the creative path, my mentors started cropping up all over!
Thanks! G.