Re-Integrate Creativity into Your Life

Rajendra Sagolsem *

We have a wrong notion that very few people are capable of unleashing a steady flow of creative genius. In fact, creativity is like our muscles. If we do regular physical exercises, our muscles develop and give us strength. Likewise, if we keep exercising creative thinking, our creative skill will be amazingly sharpened. On the other hand, if we don't practice creative thinking, our creative ability will simply fade away into dormancy.

What is Creativity?

Creativity means inventiveness. And inventiveness means imaginativeness, innovativeness, originality, individuality, artistry, vision, enterprise, initiative, resourcefulness, etc. Creativity is marked by the ability to create something new. It means to produce something new through imaginative skill. Creativity is about thinking the impossible. It is about doing something no one has ever done before. If you look at a problem with a new approach and if your approach works, then you are using your creative ability.

Michele Shea says, "Creativity is seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being, and that way be a playmate with God."

Are You Creative?

Have you ever watched small children at play? They are curious and highly creative in their games. Their creativity has no limits. They are fearless explorers, artists or musicians. Everything seems possible to them. You did the same thing when you were a child. But as you grow, you have been pressurized to conform to the society's rules.

As a result, your creativity becomes dormant. When you were a child, you could think about sixty alternate ideas for any given situation. But as you grow, number goes on reducing. An average adult can think of only three to four different alternatives.

Wake the Creative Giant in You

Now we know that every one of us is born creative. Recognize the creative energy that you possess. Apply your creativity to your daily activities and you can see how your self-confidence develops, how your stresses are reduced, how you gain inner peace, how you can control your life in a better way.

By applying creativity to all aspects of your life, you will discover even more benefits. Remember what Albert Einstein said, "Creativity is more powerful than knowledge." Wake the creative giant in you.

Here are a few tips you may consider while developing the creative side of you.

Acquire as much Knowledge as You can

In order to re-activate your creative thinking, your faculty of speculation should be strengthened. To do so, it is essential that you acquire as much knowledge as possible. For that you should learn as much as you can. In order to learn as much as you can, read everything available to you, good and bad, easy and difficult. See everything that is happening around you every day.

Keep your mind open to the infinite possibilities of the Universe. Be curious to know as much as you can and search for new things wherever possible. Very surprisingly, if you know more, you will want to know more and more. And in your journey to gain more knowledge, your faculty of speculation will develop tremendously.

Focus on a Creative Activity Every Day

Make an effort to focus on a creative activity every day. You can try drawing something unusual. Photography is a creative activity. Try taking snapshots from your creative angles. In fact, anything related to inanity may be a creative activity. But you should feel that you are getting somewhere. You should not feel that what you are doing is all nonsense.

Keep a Journal

You can try creative writing as an exercise. Keep a journal and make a point to write in it consistently every day. Write by describing something with all your five senses. Before you know it, you could have created yourself a small collection. You will be amazed at the growth resulted from your efforts after amassing all those works of art. You might start liking those things you do every day. Those things will become a part of you and very soon, you will be addicted to these creative exercises.

Think out of the Box

Constraints sometimes turn out to be actually a good thing. Limitations discipline you to work within your means. It enables you to be more resourceful. Creative freedom is great, but limitations enforce discipline.

Try something new every day and let your experiences broaden your perspective. Chat up someone on any available occasion, whether in a bus, in a party, or in a function. Open up to the people around you. As you thrust yourself out of your comfort zone more and more each day, your sense of adventure will grow. And your creative giant will be re-awakened.

Embrace Insanity

John Russell once said, "Sanity calms, but madness is more interesting." Quite true! Every creative thought was once considered as insanity by other average people. However, that didn't stop the creative geniuses from their thinking. Creativity is essentially breaking through barriers. This includes the downright bizarre and strange thinking and activities. Take for example the creative personality of Albert Einstein, who thought his cat was a spy sent by his rival.

Even stranger was George Washington, who often rode into battle naked. It is said that James Joyce wrote his "Dubliners" with beetle juice for an intense fear of ink. However, it is important to note that your creativity doesn't get you completely detached from the real world.

Stimulate Your Right Brain

Creativity is the concern of the right hemisphere of your brain. You can do some exercises to stimulate your right brain. Read a book upside down. Write with your left hand if you are right-hander. Close your right nostril with your left index finger and breathe in and out fifty times every day. Kick a ball with your left foot. Play badminton with your left hand. Hold your spoon with your left hand while eating your custard.

The left side of your body is connected to the right side of your brain. So anything you do that involves left side of your body stimulates your right brain. Besides, when you do something new and unusual, your right brain gets involved.

Follow the above tips and see how your creative giant's heavy slumber can't be disturbed.