A New Way to Look at Things
Let’s start from a traditional perspective and see the dictionary definition of the word creativity:
Here’s what I found: “The ability to transcend ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, method, interpretations, etc., originality, progressiveness or imagination.” In another dictionary I found a simpler definition: “The ability to make new things or think of new ideas.”
The first definition is a lot, so let’s just say that creativity is “seeing something or doing something in a new way.” Or at least, in a way that is new to you.
It sounds simple, yet for some people being creative seems difficult. Many people who do not consider themselves artistic, or talented, want to claim they are not creative. The truth is though, creativity is not limited to the arts. You don’t have to be a painter, sculptor, singer, musician, dancer or an actor to be creative.
Creativity starts with a thought. You’ve heard that before, that thoughts create. Since we all think, we all have the capacity for creativity. Creativity is born from the way you conceptualize something. And truthfully, being creative can become an automatic habit. You can live a life of extreme creativity and learn to let your creative energy move through you and shape your life in beautiful ways.
It can be easy to be creative if you’re willing to just try things in a different way. When my youngest son was about 8 or 9 years old, he loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for lunch, and since it was easy and economical, we had them quite often. One day I noticed he had balanced his sandwich on the back of his hand and was expertly taking a bite and turning the sandwich around, positioning it for the next bite. I watched, fascinated, as he ate the entire sandwich in this most unusual way. When he was finished I asked him why he ate his sandwich that way. His response was genius. “So I don’t get peanut butter on my hands.” Well! Problem solved.
So the quickest way to tap into your creativity? Look at things differently, like my son did. There’s no reason one has to wrap both hands around a sandwich to eat it. You could eat one with a fork and knife. Or roll it up. Or tear off pieces instead of biting into it.
So shake things up. Stimulate yourself by taking a different route to work. Or leave 30 minutes earlier and see what changes on the drive. Eat something new for breakfast. Rearrange your kitchen cabinets. Walk around your house backwards or crawl through your house on your hands and knees and see what you notice. Try going through your day using your non-dominant hand to brush your teeth and hair, and to open doors. If you always go first, try going last. Eat dessert first!
Be willing to play and experiment. Be willing for things not to work out as well as you might like them to at first. That’s okay. Many a creative accomplishment has been born from a supposed failure. It all depends on your point of view. From the angle at which you are looking.
So really, creativity can easily be fostered, by following the advice of Dr. Wayne Dwyer, who said, “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” I’m pretty sure he was referring to your inner dialogue and belief system when he said that, but what the heck, I took creative license!
Revised from the original as seen in Conscious Shift Magazine online 9/30/2014 (http://consciousshiftcommunity.com/creating-creativity-a-new-way-to-look-at-things/)