“Awe is what enables us to move forward.” – Joseph Campbell
How many times have you said, “I’m not creative”? Too many, I’m sure. It’s time to stop, paint a new picture and change your mindset.
“A study by George Land reveals that we are naturally creative and as we grow up we learn to be uncreative. Creativity is a skill that can be developed and a process that can be managed. Creativity begins with a foundation of knowledge, learning a discipline, and mastering a way of thinking. You can learn to be creative by experimenting, exploring, questioning assumptions, using imagination and synthesing information. Learning to be creative is akin to learning a sport. It requires practice to develop the right muscles and a supportive environment in which to flourish,” according to Creativity at Work.
The act of creating invites discovery, understanding and connection. Creative pursuits make us look at our life differently filled with curiosity, abundance and possibility. Consider this your “Creativity Permission Slip” - You ARE creative so time to go on the field trip into your undiscovered self.
In his Creativity: How to Unlock Your Hidden Creative Genius, James Clear summarizes 5 Steps to the Creative Process:
1. Gather new material
2. Thoroughly work over the materials in your mind
3. Step away from the problem
4. Let your idea return to you
5. Shape and develop your idea based on feedback
In Drinking from the River of Light, the Life of Expression, Mark Nepo beautifully describes creative expression as a conversation with life, “… the life of expression is not just about writing but the unamiable process under all art forms – the process of perceiving and feeling our way into life. And more than whatever we may create, the value of inhabiting this timeless process resides in how it helps us come alive by staying in conversation with life.”
He continues, “For each person is born with an unencumbered spot, free of expectation and regret, free of ambition and embarrassment, free of fear and worry; an umbilical spot of grace where we were each first touched by God. It is this spot of grace that issues peace. Psychologists call this spot Psyche, theologians call it the Soul, Jung calls it the Seat of the Unconscious, Hindu masters call it Atman, Buddhists call it Dharma. Rilke calls it Inwardness, Sufis call it Qalb, and Jesus calls it the Center of Our Love.”
It is that “unencumbered spot” that gives our life meaning and where we find our purpose.
Awe plays an important role in the creative process as well. In How We Experience Awe – and Why It Matters, neuroscientist Beau Lotto talks about his research on brain activity of people while they were watching the Cirque Du Soleil “O” performances, measuring their behavior before and after the performance.
In awe, “the front part of your brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for your executive function, your attentional control, is now being downregulated. The part of your brain called the DMN, default mode network, which is the interaction between multiple areas in your brain, which is active during, sort of, ideation, creative thinking in terms of divergent thinking and daydreaming, is now being upregulated. And right about now, the activity in your prefrontal cortex is changing. It's becoming asymmetrical in its activity, biased towards the right, which is highly correlated when people step forward into the world, as opposed to step back.
So what does this brain state do? Well, others have demonstrated, for instance, Professors Haidt and Keltner, have told us that people feel small but connected to the world. And their prosocial behavior increases, because they feel an increased affinity towards others. And we've also shown in this study that people have less need for cognitive control. They're more comfortable with uncertainty without having closure. And their appetite for risk also increases. They actually seek risk, and they are better able at taking it. And something that was really quite profound is that when we asked people, ‘Are you someone who has a propensity to experience awe?’ They were more likely to give a positive response after the performance than they were [before]. They literally redefined themselves and their history.”
Awe can change our limiting narratives, redirect our perspective, help us make friends with uncertainty and seek rather than run from risk – all ingredients to creativity, innovation and starting something new and different.
He concludes, “Awe is essential. Often, it's scale – the mountains, the sunscape. But what if we could actually rescale ourselves and find the impossible in the simple? And if this is true, and our data are right, then endeavors like science, adventure, art, ideas, love, a TED conference, performance, are not only inspired by awe, but could actually be our ladders into uncertainty to help us expand.”
Since 1984, TED Talks have been offering creative and inspiring insights in less than 20 minutes. It so happens that Ken Robinson’s talk on Do Schools Kill Creativity? is the top most popular talk to date. TED has also curated a variety of relevant resources on creativity to guide your creativity field trip.
Start your creativity adventure today! Permission granted.