By Scott Lindsay

Has the creativity in your writing flown to lands unknown and little visited? Do you long for the return of your muse and feel it has rejected your companionship citing lack of interest?

We’ve all had those moments when we can only seem to remember times when creativity flowed from our fingertips like proverbial milk and honey. Yet we stand in a forlorn place where our fingers do not receive instruction on what to write. They stand poised over the keyboard ready for orders that never seem to come.

Reasons for a Creativity Leak

1) You are spending too much time writing. When you cloister yourself away in an effort to maximize your writing there will come a time when the well runs dry. Everyone needs a little dose of “life” from which to draw creativity based in real life experience.

2) You are trying too hard. There are times when we work so strenuously to find the perfect phrase that we sap the strength from writing. Relax. The creativity will come. Simply write and worry about fixing things later.

3) You base your work on an unrealistic standard. Work at competing only with yourself. Don’t try to do something exactly the same way someone else has done them. Don’t expect the same results. You are a unique writer with unique gifts. Become comfortable with who you are as a writer and allow the creativity to return.

Creativity Restoration

1) Visit a location that has provided inspiration in the past or a location you have always admired for its beauty. Spend time simply enjoying the atmosphere.

2) Spend less time writing and more time with family and friends. Forget about writing for a season and reclaim a bit of life experience.

3) Concentrate on the little things around you. Spend some time on a park bench or in the mall just observing the people who cross your path. You may find characters for a story or wisdom in the interaction of people you meet.

4) Pressure Writing is a means of dumping all of your disjointed thoughts onto a page for future reference. When you unclutter your mind you may find that creativity has a greater chance of finding some room to set up shop once more.

There are obviously more ways to jumpstart your creativity, but the greatest point is you can only retrieve creativity from a life that is actually lived.

Topics: Becky Harber, Creativity, Dr. Frank Harber | Give Your Two Cents »

By Lael Johnson

Cultivating your creativity is more than spending time with a hobby or performing and displaying your work. Cultivating your creativity takes time, awareness and deliberate action. Creativity like any other skill, needs to be nurtured and affirmed, as well as directed, in order to expand throughout your life. Creativity crosses all barriers,cultures,even when styles differ and philosophies change. Creativity never changes. It’s time to put away those past negative influences, including no more starving artist scenarios. Let’s explore what creativity really is.

REASON ONE: Creativity is born in movement, be it physical, intellectual, enmotional or spiritual or any combination thereof. When you perceive change going on in your life , some part of the creative process is on the move.

REASON TWO: Training yourself to create art regularly contributes significantly to making an idea work by exploring, expanding, building, performing or sharing it.

REASON THREE The creative process takes time. However, it can be structured and directed. You can finish your creative projects on or before your deadline.

REASON FOUR: Creativity stretches your comfort zone. Practicing a creative skill, takes time, concentrated effort and consistent work. I know that I feel angry as I progress through the first phrase of the creativity process. I struggle to admit that I need to practice, that I don’t know everything, that I don’t need help and that in spite of these thoughts, I can still make progress using my skills. I am not comfortable when I fail to meet my expectations. When I complete one creative project. I know that I’ve done a good job. My next challenge is to patiently repeat the first phase of mechanical learning for as long as it takes, to complete my next job. My reward is to become more comfortable using my creative skills ,over and over again.

REASON FIVE: Creativty is fun. I love looking at numerous possibilities. It’s wonderful to be able to freely interpret and produce a creative product.

Topics: Becky Harber, Farnk Harber Articles | Give Your Two Cents »

By Catherine Franz

I believe that creativity is a natural order of life itself
and it provides my life with the purest of energies.

I believe there is an underlying creative force infusing
throughout my life.

I believe that when I open my creativity, I am opening the
Creator’s creativity.

I believe creativity is part of my destiny and just as
important as all living things.

I believe creativity is my Creator’s gift to me. Using my
creativity is my gift back to him.

I believe expectation of a fulfilling life attracts with
powerful changes when I allow creativity to flow through my
beingness.

I believe it is safe for me to discover my own creativity
even if it sets new paths not yet discovered.

I believe as I move more towards my creative self, I move
towards my own divinity.

I believe I am worth the time it takes to create whatever it
is I am to create.

I believe I have the right to have all the creativity I
deserve.

I believe that when I allow my creativity to flow throughout
my life, I tap into the source of all that there is and all
that ever was.

I believe that the time I spend creating is as precious as
anything else in life.

I believe that as creativity gives to me, so does she
deserve from me all my faith mindfulness and commitment.

I believe in my creative self.

I believe in me.

Topics: Becky Harber, Creativity, Frank Harber | Give Your Two Cents »

By Saberi Roy

On studying the creative process and the creative individual to understand creativity

Creativity is the process of generating novel ideas and is the basic force for all inventions. The process of creation involves seeing new relations between concepts and things and determining unique solutions to problems. The creative process is about seeing new associations between objects and concepts and the creative person is marked by traits of originality, nonconformity and high levels of knowledge. When you come out with an appropriate yet unique and different solution to a problem that has not been thought before, you are being creative.

Psychologists have tried to explain creativity with many theories. Among these are cognitive theories of creativity (creativity as a cognitive process using mental constructs and structures), behaviorist theories (the environmental and associative nature of creative ideas), psychoanalytic theories (creativity as neuroticism), social theories (creativity as a social process and role of schools and family in the development of gifted children) and personality theories (emphasizing on personal creative traits).

In the psychology of creativity we have to understand two things -firstly the creative process and secondly the creative individual. So the psychology of creativity is about:

1. The Creative Process - this includes the definitions of creativity and the mental processes involved in creativity.

2. The Creative Individual - this is about the personality traits of the creative individual, the attributes of genius and the peculiarities of the creative personality

Psychological theories have tried to explain both the creative process and the creative individual.

The Process of Creativity - So what is creativity and what is the mechanism through which people actually create new ideas, solutions or concepts? According to many theorists, creativity is about chance or serendipity or making discoveries by ‘accident’. So the creative process, according to this explanation is an ‘accident’. This means that while you’re trying out several methods, a best method or a solution to your problem arises out of nowhere and by chance you discover something totally unique. Some people would suggest that the creative process is more of trying to find out new relations between older known concepts so this is less about originality and more about ‘experience’. The more experienced you are in a particular subject area, the more likely you are to consider creative solutions. Creativity has also been described as a moment of ‘insight’. It is almost like enlightenment and divine intervention and a flash and the trick is to prolong this moment and creative individuals are people who can develop their sudden insights. So the creative process can be about a sudden chance, novel use of the knowledge/ experience or a sudden insight. The creative process thus involves using several possibilities/methods and past experiences to arrive at sudden solutions through insights or accidents.

In 1926, Graham Wallas described stages of creativity in which a creative idea is first prepared, then internalized through incubation, after which the creative individual uses the illumination or insight to finally go through the verification process of applying the idea. Psychologist JP Guilford explained creativity with his concept of convergent and divergent thinking and convergent thinking is about trying to find the single correct solution to a problem and divergent thinking is the generation of multiple creative solutions to a problem. Creativity is thus characterized by divergent thinking and generation of multiple possibilities. According to the Geneplore model developed by Finke, Ward and Smith (1992), creativity involves two phases - the generative phase in which the individual generates constructs from pre-inventive structures or known processes/ideas and the exploratory phase in which pre-inventive structures are interpreted to come up with new creative ideas. Most of these psychological theories seem to be emphasizing on preexisting mental structures through knowledge and experience and using these structures for novel or unique solutions. The creative process is thus all about insight, ‘a sudden flash’, almost like a moment of realization and it has been described as serendipity or divine intervention by scientists and artists alike who have tried to described their moment of discovery, although the role of previous knowledge and experience is an equally important background factor. The scientists and artists are able to realize the potential of these ‘flashes’ and are able to recognize, capture and prolong their moments of insight for better realization of their creative goals.

The Personality in Creativity - This brings us to the question about the traits or personality factors that make a person creative. Is there a well-defined creative personality? Of course, there is. Highly creative individuals and geniuses have marked similar traits and although every human being is creative in one way or the other, some individuals actually develop their creativity too well and so they are recognized as creative geniuses. Psychologists believe that all highly creative individuals have certain common personality traits.

1. Complexity - The creative individuals love complex situations and problems as this provides a challenge to their own mental abilities and help them to think of several possible solutions

2. Flexibility - Highly creative individuals are extremely open-minded and receptive to new ideas and possibilities which help them to move beyond traditional modes of thinking

3. Confidence - Boldness and confidence mark the creative genius as in order to be a pioneer, one has to have leadership qualities, extreme self-confidence and creative geniuses are leaders as they show a new path and open new possibilities

4. Non-conformity - The creative process itself is an act of non-conformity so creative individuals are non-conformists and unconventional.

5. Intuition - Highly creative people are extremely intuitive and they can scare you with their ability to read minds and people’s thoughts. That is how they can create as they have to know the order of things and are able to predict people’s responses.

6. Sensitivity - Creative individuals have well developed sensitivity as without extreme sensitivity, it is not possible to feel and portray the emotions through creative work. A novelist has to know ‘how it feels’ to be character in his novel otherwise he cannot create a good novel.

7. Curiosity - An insatiable child-like curiosity for almost everything around them is what characterizes the creative genius. The creative individual wants to know and learn new things and is persistently asking questions and this is the fuel for creative growth.

8. Knowledge - Closely associated with curiosity, creative individuals have very good general knowledge as they have to use this knowledge in their creative pursuits. That is why creative people are usually interested in several subject areas.

9. Independence - One trait that definitely characterizes very high creative geniuses is their independence of thought. This is again related to leadership and nonconformity as in order to think independently, one has to move beyond norms.

10. Imagination - The creative person lives in his own world of imagination and has a very highly developed and enriched mental life and even if grounded, sometimes thrives on fantasies.

11. Impulsiveness - Since the creative process is a sudden realization, the creative individual has a love for suddenness and loves to work on impulse. Creating something new is an adventure so impulsiveness which could be recklessness or adventurousness makes the creative individual a compulsive risk-taker.

12. Criticism - Highly creative people are also extremely critical both of themselves and of others. They criticize others and that is how they take new paths and they are also prone to extreme self-criticism.

13. Fluency - The creative person has an extremely fluent thought process and has a prolific range of ideas

14. Charm - The genius is usually characterized by a humorous nature, extreme charm and personal attractiveness and a ‘presence’ that makes them popular and attractive to all sorts of people.

15. Egoism - Highly creative individuals usually have a ‘me first’ attitude and are almost always narcissists or marked by extreme egoism, although they may be very generous and may not reveal their egoism for social reasons and many even transcend the self boundary and work for greater causes.

16. Originality - Creative individuals have a love for the novel and the unique and try moving beyond established ideas to find something radically different

17. Disorder - A love for disorder is common among all creative people as they are apparently bored with order or any predictable course of events

18. Ambiguity - Uncertainty is very attractive for creative individuals and they love the ambiguous or when there are two or more ways of explaining a problem, especially because this gives them freedom of thought and expression.

19. Loneliness - The creative individual is usually a loner and according to psychoanalysis, also a neurotic. The genius is perennially isolated from society and being very uncomfortable with social norms, they tend to avoid social interaction. Political and social leaders are however more socially active than the creative artist and writer, although some tend to lead reclusive lives.

20. Motivation - The creative individuals are extremely motivated, almost driven by a sense of higher purpose in life. They are in a way self aware and enlightened and many of them seem to believe in an unexplained (divine) purpose of existence.

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By Lance Winslow

Far too many creative people beat themselves up for no real apparent reason, many put themselves under unnecessary stress and feel they must perform. This is a real problem because creativity does not quite work that way. If you ask a creative person how they go about getting into a creative mood, it’s amazing the answers you get.

It is almost like a ritual they go through in order to put themselves into that perfect psychological mindset and personality displacement. Whatever works for them is great, because once in that creative space it is just amazing what they can do. Perhaps, you are a creative person and this is all common knowledge, if so, I salute you and a humbled by your talents.

Nevertheless, it is important to resist beating yourself up or bombarding yourself with negative bio-feedback, instead you need to give yourself what I call; a creative hug. What is a creative hug you ask? Well, think of it this way, it is the very opposite of the depression state. You need to uplift yourself not get down on yourself to create. Easier said than done for that special creative mind, yes, it’s true.

Ask yourself what do you love to do most? Well, that’s a good place to start to reward yourself after a creative encounter, but did you know it’s also a great place to start to get into a creative mood as well? This is all part of giving yourself that creative hug that you so deserve, so you can give your best creativity to all the rest of us, who do not have your natural talents. If you’ll do that for yourself, all of us out here well have the best creativity to enjoy, brought to us by you.

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By Lance Winslow

Why are so many folks so incredibly creative and the rest of us so dismal when it comes to new ideas and new thoughts? Well, some neuro-scientists believe that when the mind comes to an “Ah Ha!” moment, it gives itself a shot of chemical pleasure, call it a creative caress of mind if you will. If this is so, and I believe it is after all my studies on the subject, why not reward yourself when you get new ideas or come up with cool concepts?

How about this; every time you have an original thought why not reward yourself with something that you enjoy. Go out of your way to take a warm bath, a ride on your motorcycle, or go out to eat at your favorite restaurant? Amazingly enough, if you do this you will find that you will have other great innovative thoughts while enjoying such activities so take a pen and paper to stop and write them down.

By rewarding your achievement each time you come up with a creative idea, you will be rewarding your behavior in a positive way. This also works well if you are in charge of a creative team, one which must produce and keep producing to stay in business. Some people get rather miffed when they learn about how some companies handle their most creative employees, and I am sure you have heard the stories of just insane things going on at work.

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By Dan Goodwin

There’s a state of creativity where your entire focus is only on creating what you’re creating. The outside world disappears into the background, and only one thing in the world matters, that creative act you’re immersed in.

The ease at which you’re able to create is sky high, the ideas and thoughts are hurtling through you almost more quickly than you’re able to lay them down, and your consciousness switches to an alternative state, one that’s absent of criticism and analysis and insecurities. The excitement and joy you feel inside is reflected by the beaming grin on your face, and time itself seems to dissolve into some abstract concept you’re neither aware of nor care about.

Welcome to Total Flow.

All of us who create have experienced this creative Total Flow at some point in our creative lives, and the aim is to reach this state as often as we can. So how do we get there?

Total Flow begins by having the right foundations in place.

If we use the analogy of a professional athlete and their physical fitness for a moment. The athlete doesn’t decide she’s going to run a marathon a week before the event. She decides many months in advance and then begins a training regime to prepare herself to be in the best possible shape for the marathon. The athlete will train every day, and build that underlying level of fitness up to a point where she can run for miles barely breaking a sweat.

Think about your creative life right now. What sort of level is your underlying creative fitness at?

How often do you train and practice? How often does your creativity get a good workout of each its vital active parts?

Many of us completely ignore this concept and expect to go through periods of very little or no creativity, then be able to create at our peak at a moment’s notice. It’s very rarely happens, if ever, and you’re simply setting yourself up for disappointment.

Another way to imagine this Total Flow concept is as a pan of water on a stove. The amount of energy it requires to heat the water from room temperature to boiling is many times more than that needed to boil the water from a state of already simmering.

If you keep your creativity simmering by investing time in it each and every day, then to reach that state of boiling - that Total Flow - requires only a small increase in energy and creativity. If you’re starting with the equivalent of a pan of cold water each time, the extra effort needed is huge, and you’re likely to run out of energy before you reach the boil.

Total Flow is a state of creativity that any of us can reach, and something we take steps to experience more often and more easily.

But only if we make that regular investment - build up our underlying creative fitness, keep our creativity simmering away - by creating for a minimum amount each day.

Topics: Becky Harber, Dr. Frank Harber, Frank Harber | Comments Off

By Dan Goodwin

How many people close to you realise how important a part creativity plays in your life? How much do YOU acknowledge how crucial creativity is to your wellbeing, happiness and enjoyment of life?

If we ourselves aren’t prepared to fully admit to being creative artists, then it would be foolish to expect those close to us to understand or support our creative lives.

How can you live an authentic life, how can you be true to yourself and your artistic ambitions if you’re hiding your talents from the world?

Here are 5 compelling reasons to come out and shout loud - “I’m creative and I’m proud”

1. You give your creativity permission to be all it can be. Permission is a huge word when it comes to creativity. When you create without telling anyone, you’re sending a strong message to your creative mind. That message is that creating is something to be ashamed of, or embarrassed about, like a terrible crime or a dirty secret. What kind of environment does that provide for you to create in? Certainly not one that encourages any kind of freedom or willingness to create! The more open you are with yourself about creating, the easier it becomes for you to be as creative as you can be.

2. You become a role model and an inspiration to others. If you’re creating in secret, how many others do you think are in a similar position? How many people that you count as friends also struggle with hidden creative lives that no-one knows about? When you create openly yourself, you’re sending out the message that it’s OK to be an artist and explore your creativity. People you come into contact with will hear this message and be inspired to be more open with their own creating, which in turn inspires others they know, and so the waves spread. As a member of an international community of artists don’t you think it’s your duty to wear the badge proudly?

3. You help people to accept the real you. For those of us who create, it’s a vital part of our lives. Try to imagine what it would be like to not create at all. It’s simply impossible, we’d be dead. So given that creativity is a core part of your personality, if you keep it hidden from others around you, how honest are you being in those relationships? How easy are you making it for the people close to you to accept and embrace the real you? Be open about being an artist and give those valuable relationships the chance to be as honest and fulfilling as they can be.

4. You make it easier to connect with other creative people. Being a creative person, you’ll know that there are certain aspects of creating that only other people who create can understand and appreciate. It’s a huge support to be able to connect with other creative artists and share your triumphs and struggles, giving and receiving encouragement. How can you do this if no-one knows you’re creative? You can’t! Not only do you stop yourself from receiving support, you deprive others of the understanding and encouragement you can give to them in their creative efforts.

5. You give the world the opportunity to love your work. If you’re creating in secret, and everything you create is hidden away, or worse discarded or destroyed, you’re robbing the world of the opportunity to love your work. You have certain creative talents and gifts. With these comes an obligation to share them with world. “But spending time on my own creating is so selfish!” you might cry. No, what’s really selfish is creating wonderful artwork and depriving anyone else from having the chance to be moved, inspired and enriched by it.

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