Monday, February 11, 2013

Cultivating Creativity



“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters, compared to what lies within us.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We all have creativity. Although not all of us are painters or sculptors, we do have the option to creating our days, dealing with dilemmas in innovative ways, writing silly poems, or thinking creatively about how to celebrate something.

Creativity can be cultivated. The beginning of my “creative recovery” is directly tied to the book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. I first discovered this book about 20 years ago and have gone through it several times since, twice with groups doing it together. Julia Cameron contends that
“Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.”
~ Julia Cameron

I continue to be in awe of her genius in gently helping our creativity re-awaken. I want to share her 2 basic tools: “Morning Pages” and the “Artist Date”.

Morning pages: First thing every morning write (in longhand) 3 pages of stream of consciousness. There is no wrong way to do this. It is not art nor is it even writing: it is a “clearing of the pipes” so to speak. One of the best ways for me to do it is “free fall”, putting the pen to the paper and writing until the 3 pages are done (sometimes with a timer). That way I really tap into my stream of consciousness.

Julia Cameron believes the morning pages help us get to the other side of the critic voice.
“The morning pages are the primary tool of creative recovery. Often they are negative or self-pitying, bland or stilted. As blocked artists we tend to criticize ourselves mercilessly.” It is an opportunity to observe our interior monologue and to know the critic voice is not truth. Mine often devolve into thinking about what I have to do that day.

For those of us who are dominated by our left brain (logic, linguistic, linear), this creates a space for the feeling and imagery side of our brain to ‘have a voice” I, as well as several people I know, have found at some point during morning pages, a poem or little piece of creative writing flow out of them.

Artist Date: This is a practice I have gotten a failing grade at. It is a block of time (perhaps 2 hours) each week committed to nurturing your creative consciousness. “In its most primary form, the artist date is an excursion, a play date that you pre-plan and defend against all interlopers.” This is a solitary activity. Cameron contends you cannot afford not to give yourself this time. Basically it is a date with your inner artist, to be taken out and pampered.

What delights you? Fills you up? What is fun to play with?

• Visiting garage sales
• Walking along the shore or in the woods
• Watching a movie alone
• Taking a photo-walk
• Collaging
• Sketching (even though I am not an artist)

Commit to this and then watch your “serious” self try to break the date.

We each have creativity. We all started that way, but many of us have forgotten. The path to reclaiming my inner creative self is a journey of rediscovering the delight of seeing the world with new eyes, seeing choices I never knew were there.

How might I live my days a little more creatively?

“During periods of relaxation after concentrated intellectual activity, the intuitive mind sees to take over and produce the sudden clarifying insights which give us so much joy and delight.” ~Fritjof Capra, physicist

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Am I gritty enough?: exploring persistence

Energy and persistence conquer all things.
~Benjamin Franklin


The Nov/Dec edition of The Intelligent Optimist magazine’s lead story was about the power of persistence.

Persistence is defined as “firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition”.

Do I have persistence where it matters most?

“Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~Winston Churchill

I can think of many times I have given up on things I really wanted to do: theater in college because auditions were too hard; guitar lessons; tennis after taking lessons as an adult and my game became atrocious....

In some cases it was wise to give up as I realized my heart was not in it, or it was an ego pursuit, not something that really mattered. There were some times I did persist despite obstacles, such as creating a women’s leadership program and staying married.

Psychologists have rolled persistence and perseverance into a test: the “grit scale”. It is available online. A score of 5 means you are extremely “gritty”. I got a 3.6. I’m not sure what that means other than I have some.

There is a positive benefit to grit. Happiness is a by-product of pursuits of interest and “grit” sustains these pursuits. There is no correlation between grit and IQ but there is between grit and success. A medium IQ/high grit person will often out-perform the high IQ/low grit person. Grit is a key element of success.

Researchers have located the part of the brain responsible for persistence and believe it can be strengthened over time.

It has been shown that we can prime ourselves to have grit. In a study at the U of MA one of the control groups read about an Olympic gold medalist saying things like, “Strangely enough you can do more than you think.” Those students performed better on a handgrip test, enduring more pain. This was done unconsciously, so just think what we can do to prime ourselves consciously.

One note of caution: it helps to have a bit of discernment here. Why am I persisting? Is it because I hate losing? Because I worry about what people will think? If you find yourself failing and giving up, think: “Does this really matter? Do I care? Is it mine to create? Or am I driven by my mini- me on this one" Persistence in everything is not a virture, discernment combined with persistence is.

What is worth my persistence?

“I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed: and the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I fail and keep trying.”
~Tom Hopkins