Training Creativity Out of Life
Today would normally be an Inspiration Tag day, but there was a post in my feeds today that really made me think, so this week’s Inspiration Tag will have to wait a day. Over at Scaffolding for Writers, Lisa posted about how we, everyday, teach our children how not to feel.
I have to agree with her, but I’m posting about it because it applies to Creativity and adults as well. Society and daily routine train us not to be creative.
Routine Kills Creativity
Everyday we get up, go through our morning routine (probably half asleep), go to work. Then we come home and sometime during the evening, we eat dinner and probably turn on the television. Most of our day is spent doing things the way everyone else does them. It’s what’s expected. It’s easy and convenient. And we don’t have to think about it.
The Creativity Muscle
Here’s the problem as I see it. Creativity is like a muscle. If it’s not exercised, it atrophies. If we don’t actively think during the day, there’s no way to exercise our creativity.
Quick and Easy Exercise
It’s hard to find time for physical exercise. Exercising your Creativity muscle can be just as daunting at first glance, but small changes can make all the difference.
Here are a five quick and easy suggestions:
- Take a new or different route to or from work
- Try a new project or craft
- Read something in a genre you don’t usually read
- Play word-association for a few minutes
- Do a random internet search and see where it leads you
And though I doubt I need to say it - the last suggestion would to be to check in here on a regular basis and make use of the prompts and exercises we post.
Have a Cre8tive day!
Tags:creativity, daily routine, Found while Rambling, inspiration, training creativity Why Be Creative?
Thanks so much for the link.
Love all your suggestions, and so much of what’s on your site.
So, arent’ feeling and sensation the backbone of creativity? And what about wonder? My sense is that when we don’t develop these capacities, we deaden our children, not to mention ourselves, and we might as well send them to assembly line school. Or jail.
Just a wee bit dramatic today…
Comment by Lisa Gates — April 25, 2007 @ 5:08 pm
Thanks for the compliments. Glad you enjoyed the post and the site.
I think that feeling, wonder and sensation are closely tied in with creativity. We have all those things as children but we’re trained out of them, some faster than others. And ultimately, if you buy into that training, you lose hope that things can be better for you.
The sad thing is that its probably easier to inspire hope, wonder, creativity and everything related to them than it is to train them out of people.
–Edge
Comment by ShadowsEdge — April 25, 2007 @ 5:22 pm
[...] Training Creativity Out of Life - April 25, 2007 [...]
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