A spiritual approach to creativity

This is my first 'idea-in-progress' post, which from the name, is about an idea in progress. Actually, while all my ideas are ideas in progress, these posts are about ideas that are at a very primitive stage, meaning I could have just thought of the idea today, which for this one, I have. And to differentiate such posts from normal posts, there will be no picture to begin it.

So anyway, today I was viewing these youtube videos on this notion of a 'spectrum', of mental disorders. The spectrum was measured along the notion of love and fear, and on the fear end of the spectrum was schizophrenia. In the middle, of mixed experiences, is bipolar mania, and the love end, is a spiritual emergency.

So the video was going about how some 'bipolar' experiences are in fact, spiritual emergencies. And it prompted 2 questions in me. Is the link between bipolar disorder and creativity, pseudo? And, what if we approached creativity from a spiritual point of view?

The first question would lead somewhat to the 2nd question. Because I've noticed from the video, that the traits exhibited by people in spiritual emergencies, are similar to those of creative people. For instance, they become more intuitive, and the traditional barriers they once held on to begin to break down, and they see things more metaphorically. So creative people might not have bipolar disorder at all, but they are having a spiritual emergency. Just that if society does not let them develop their spiritual awakening, it becomes full-blown bipolar disorder. That is when the bad stuff really happens.

But this is just my deduction, remember it's an idea in progress.

Then comes the 2nd question, which is the main theme for this post. What if, we decided to break the traditionally held ideas of creativity and viewed it from a very spiritual viewpoint? Da Vinci did it, (or at least I think he did it). At the moment, many creative gurus are viewing creativity a bit like a machine, or process. To put it clearer, it's a bit like how many martial arts teachers teach martial arts nowadays. They teach the form, the technique, but not the philosophy, or the 'art' of the martial art. In my opinion, they might as well change the name to 'martial science'.

My point here is not to derail science, I am a science student after all, but what I'm trying to say is that we should not solely depend on science alone. True we need to know the form, but it is also important to know the art and the philosophy behind it. Because it is the art and the philosophy of a martial art, that we can use in our daily lives, outside our training, which enables us to understand what we practice better. It is through understanding this art that the science begins to change. For instance, if your martial art is based on compassion, then if you attack an opponent violently with a lot of anger, then you know that something is wrong with your training. If that's the case, then perhaps you should learn a more aggressive martial art, with which the philosophy is about securing victory at all costs. Either that or you can begin practicing compassion in your daily life.

This is like how martial arts meets spirituality.

Same with creativity, I personally feel we have been taught a lot of science about creativity, but we have yet to learn to appreciate it as an art, which is important. We know creative techniques, we know brainstorming, but other than the creative meetings we attend, how often do we use creativity anywhere else? If we only use creativity in that one or 2 hour session, then how are we supposed to develop creativity?

Da Vinci probably viewed creativity as a means of cultivating his soul. The thing about him is that he didn't use creativity to generate scalable business ideas, he used creativity simply because he enjoyed being creative. Just like great martial artists practice martial arts not to defeat everyone around them, but for health and leisure, and also a little bit of intellectual curiosity.

For me, I believe in being creative as a means of being happy, that's it. There's a certain thrill to taking risks and using your creativity to maneuver through the odds, just like how u maneuver a jet plane through a mass of falling rocks. Creativity to me isn't just about solving problems or generating new ideas, it's about enjoying life and being happy.

I think if a person wishes to be truly creative, he has to adopt this attitude. He should learn to enjoy writing stories, poems, and engage in art and music. A person who only knows creativity is important in his job but does not seek to live creatively, is like how many kids start to learn martial arts because they saw a cool move in a movie. The essence isn't there.

So this ends my first idea-in-progress post. Why I am still quite uncertain about it is because of the notion of spirituality. I've realised that spirituality is a bit hard to define. That's why I didn't use so much of the word here. Perhaps I will think along the lines of the 'mind, body, soul' concept I've thought of recently and do some adjustments from there.

The Idea Book, talk about immense creativity

Well, it has been a long time since my last post and finally I'm putting one up because my exams are over! And what better way to celebrate than to go listen to a talk by Fredrik Haren, the author of 'The Idea Book' and probably the most creative person I have ever met.

Fredrik is one of the most talked about names in the field of business creativity, and this masterpiece of his, the Idea Book, has sold 200 000 + copies in 40 countries and has been translated into 9 languages. Amazing thing is, his company, interesting.org, has only 6 employees.

6

2 in Singapore, 2 in Sri Lanka, 2 in Sweden.

And his book, is one of the top 100 management books of ALL TIME.

The only way he could possibly achieve this success is through a massive amount of creativity. And indeed, he is no doubt super creative, and it was very apparent during his talk.

So the talk was held in SMU, I travelled all the way there from NTU, joined a couple of friends and basically just sat in for the talk. (sorry, i forgot to take a picture) Perhaps what struck me first was his tone and pitch. He kind of reminded me of the eccentric Doctor Who when played by David Tennant, my favourite doctor ever. Not to mention his lean and lanky figure resembled that of Tennant as well. So he began with a humourous introduction to 'Swedish creativity' (o yes, I forgot to mention he was from Sweden but residing in Singapore), and then came the more serious stuff. Basically, it was how to be creative in business.

So the first rule was to essentially, take away the fundamentals. Write down what are the fundamentals of the product you have, and do away with them. Why? Because if everyone else does the norm, and you don't, you will stand out. You will grab the attention of others which is important, if you are to sell your product effectively. But of course, it is not taking away every fundamental, there will be some you need to keep. It all depends on your focus.

For The Idea Book, the author's name, publisher's name, the picture, descriptions, endorsements, were all done away from the cover, front and back. The front cover only has 3 words "The Idea Book". Now it was on the bestseller list in Kino, and among all those colourful books by Trump and Gladwell, suddenly you see this little black book which resembles the Bible. Now that will make people curious, and you want to flip it open. And you see blank pages... and a few other pages.,.. you find it cool, you buy it.

amazing.

The next rule was to use external capital. With only 6 employees in 3 countries, interesting.org essentially made use of competitions to get members of the public to take creative photos for their 'creative picture' of the book.

Ok, so this little book alone can teach us so many lessons on creativity. Indeed, all irony was negated when the whole idea of publishing and writing the book creatively, because it is a creativity book, was thought up. There are 2 other rules, unfortunately I cannot remember, because this paragraph was written a week after the paragraphs above (i got tired and was busy).

So just to end off, this little book is worth taking a look at. Inside are some pretty interesting stuff about creativity you can check out. It is a worthwhile investment, and you can use it as a notebook, a thoughts book or even a random doodle book. You can go find it in kino, it should be on the bestseller shelf.

Stay creative people :)

Traits of Highly Creative People

Image source: http://dezignus.com/behance-creative-portfolios-network/

I was sourcing the net for what others feel are the traits of highly creative people, and I have come across 3 different websites, each offering their own views on what creative people should be like. There were some similarities, and some unique points listed in some of the sites. So through some analysis and based on my own experience, here are the list of traits of highly creative people which I feel are the most relevant.

1) Curiosity (unknown author)

This one is without question, a creative person is inquisitive and curious, which enables him to garner incredible amounts of knowledge. His ability to think outside the box is not actually out of the box thinking to him, it is because his knowledge is so great, that essentially, the act of learning to him is 'expanding the box', enabling him to pull in different fields of knowledge together to create innovative solutions.

2) Optimism (unknown author)

Every problem has a solution, is essentially the philosophy of a creative person. This positive sort of attitude makes the creative person happy, and because he is happy, his mind is open, and because his mind is open, he can come up with innovative solutions. The creative person's emotional self-defence also enables him to see any problem as interesting and acceptable, and this also helps fuels the optimism.

3) Positive attitude towards failure (unknown author)

The creative person sees every setback and failure as opportunities for learning. Essentially meaning that there is NO SUCH THING AS FAILURE to a creative person. Because whatever he encounters, he will learn something from it. I think Thomas Edison is a good example of this, saying "I have found 1000 ways how not to make a lightbulb". Essentially this also brings about an attitude of perserverance, which enables him to press on and learn more.

4) Intuitive (Michelle L. Casto)

A creative person is able to trust his gut, and does not rely solely on logic to make his decisions. Naturally, there are increased risks, but the rewards reaped are much greater. I like to describe this as 'wormholes of thought', whereby it is possible to analyse the intrinsic sequence of logic for most creative thoughts, but superficially, it seems as though the creative person has taken the chain from the 1st ring to the last ring without going through the rest of the rings. To complement this, the creative person must have trait 3), since he is more likely to fail, but because of his incredible space of ideas, he is also more likely to succeed.

5) Action-oriented and Expressive (Michelle L.Casto, Dean Rieck)

Creative people have a very strong need to express their thoughts and feelings. As such, they may also not be the best person to entrust your secrets on. However, the great thing about this is that whatever lies inside their mind, they would want it to take on a physical form. They want to turn their visions into a reality.

6) Playful (Dean Rieck)

Creative people love to play. It is through this play that their creativity flourishes. Play to me is active exploration of everything and anything. As I like to describe it, creative people are essentially 'matured children', because their path never deviated from their childhood days, but rather, it was stretched by adult wisdom into something incredible.

7) Experimental (Dean Rieck)

Creative people love testing their ideas. They are not afraid to be wrong or look stupid, because it is only through mistakes do learning take place. Like my father likes to tell me, "if you already know everything, then what's the point of learning?"

All in all, I have listed 7 traits of highly creative people which I feel are the more relevant ones for anyone wanting to develop their creative muscle. There are other traits, but essentially they all link here and there.

It is only through creativity can we generate the innovative solutions needed for today's problems.

Creative Time Management

Image source: http://picturepost.wordpress.com/2007/09/17/time-travel/

Dealing with the issues of a mind tormented by creativity often boils down to the fact that the guy has issues with managing his time.

Creative people generally tend to hate organisation, seeing it as souless and a big hassle. Actually, it is rather important for a creative person to manage his time well, in order for his creative juices to flow more effectively. In fact, a creative person must handle his time better than other people, because while 'normal' people can take the usual stressors of life, creative people are likely to be worn out by it and develop all sorts of psychiatric disorders.

Here are some things I have learnt in my exploration of creative time management, and yes indeed, such things do contribute in managing the often turbulant emotions of high creativity. This is more for people like me, who are often faced with the challenge of exploiting 'extraordinary creativity' amidst a sea of what we do not consider creative processes.

In truth, creativity is present everywhere. And it doesn't mean that just because we are not in the arts or design, we do not have creativity. Scientific research and enterpreneur activities demand a lot of creativity. The main thing is that creativity is used in finding solutions to problems when other, more conventional solutions, have failed, or there is no solution in the first place.

So here are my tips, essentially, it is about seeing time as a dimension, just like length, breadth and height. To organise a table, we place things here and there, with respect to each other in terms of position such that we know where everything is. Creative spatial organisation often appeals to creative people such as poets and writers because it serves them inspiration and facilitates their thought processes. Likewise, we can do it for the dimension of time as well.

The main problem with time as a dimension is that it is ever flowing, it does not stop for us, and we cannot see all of time at once, unless you are Nikola Tesla. So 4th dimension management demands quite a bit of discipline and resolution. Fortunately, if you are creative, it means you'll be able to think of a fun way to do this. So here are some ways I have found.

1) Creative space management is strongly recommended. I like to arrange my table in hall in a way which balances organisation and disorder. This actually promotes a sense of creative expression yet it does not throw you off from the demands of work. I've also learnt that light management is essential. It is important for a creative person to work with sufficient light. I believe this is a sort of adaptory result from our times as hunters and gatherers, where we usually hunt in the day time. And yes, another thing, air, it is important for a creative person to open the windows in his room, and allow the fresh air to come in. If it is hot outside, I suggest turning on the air con, or better still, stop doing work and grab a cold drink, and just relax.

2) Exploit the weather. We cannot see all of time at once, so that implies the future often brings along surprises. For me, I try to exploit pleasant surprises as much as possible, and one of such examples include the rain. You can always count on the rain to come, but you are never sure when it would come. I love the rain, because the air is cooler and fresher, and it makes me feel more refreshed. When it begins to rain, I like to run out of my room and just walk around in the rain, until it becomes too heavy. Yeah, it makes me wet, but it also makes me happy. I like to wait in anticipation of a rain, and right now, it is raining outside my room, and yes, I am slightly wet.

3) Fix some time regime. You must try to block out certain times of the day for certain activities. For a person with a varied schedule such as myself, I do not block out a specific time, like 5pm to 6pm, what I do is I block out periods after certain activities. Like for instance, after I finish school, I do not usually jump into work immediately. I spend about an hour or so handling important but not urgent work (more on this later), or writing stuff on my blog, or just chatting with friends on msn. If my day is relatively free, I will spend the morning doing the same thing. It usually gives you a better sense of satisfaction knowing that you are clearing up stuff in advance.

Now I know that you are likely to have the mindset that you should settle the most pressing matters first, and leave everything else till later. With so little time on my hands, I also find this very understandable. But I feel it is better to raise your own morale first, before settling in to tackle the challenges of urgent tasks, you are likely to be more productive this way, instead of feeling frustrated and tired when you get stuck with an assignment.

I also like to block out certain times where I do absolutely nothing. After doing some work, or after a run, I like to sit outside the kerb near my hall and just drink some ice lemon tea from the vending machine nearby. but more on this later.

4) Have some regular habits with which you do everyday, like an obsession. Now I know this sounds anything but creative, but I find that having certain regular habits are good for simulating the creative mind. I would say this is because creative people are humans after all, we need to have some sense of order to keep us sane. And having these regular habits gives us a sense of expectation and certainty amidst the chaos we like to immerse ourselves in.

For me, I like to keep regular habits in the morning just after waking up. After waking up, I brush my teeth, eat breakfast, and bathe, always in this order. And for breakfast, I always eat the same thing, kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs, with teh-o. I'm so regular, until the store owner need not ask me what I want, she just prepares it for me straight away.

Then at night, as what I've mentioned above, I sit on the kerb side drinking canned drinks.

5) Make sure you exercise everyday. I tend to have this problem, whenever I am stressed or feeling depressed, I tend to avoid exercise,and instead go binging. Not healthy. Make sure you at least force yourself to don your exercise wear, go outside, and start to trot. If you really don't feel like exercising, just tell yourself that you are just going for a slow, leisurely stroll, and in the end, you are likely to end up doing a serious run. I find that occassionally 'charging' during my runs help me expend the unused creative energy for the day, and relieve the stress and frustrations as well. Remember the important thing is not to exercise as what experts tell you (20-30 min non-stop), the important thing is that you are exposing yourself to physical exertion, and even if it's just 10 minutes, as long as it can keep you sane, it is fine.

6) Give yourself something to look forward to. This is especially good if you need to spend a night doing some work. For me, if I have to complete a lab report and I need to work till about 4am in the morning, I think of the sleep I will have after my report is done and I am motivated to carry on. If it is a busy week, you must imagine the end of the week and think of how happy you would feel.

7) Live for the present. This does sound a little contradictory to the above point, but well, it is up to your creative mind to see how you are going to balance between the two. Living for the present generally takes your mind away from anxiety and worry which comes from thoughts of the future. Try not to become a master of the flow of time, and instead, let the flow of time carry you wherever and whenever, and just do what is necessary. You just need to remember one thing, the present is always ok, hence, you should try to live in it. If you have trouble with this, I suggest trying out meditation.

8) Important but not urgent work. As I've said, always try to find some time to do this throughout the day. It boosts your morale and also takes away the task before it becomes urgent and important, which is likely to lead to stress. If you keep doing this, you will eventually find that you have more control over your time, and your stress is likely to be allieviated.

9) Learn to ask for help. If you are really stuck in a difficult situation, I suggest you quickly attempt to seek help or talk to people before the situation becomes dire. If the problem is a difficult tutorial, I suggest you find some time to attempt it first, before discussing with friends.

10) Keep happy. This is very important, because only with mastery of emotions can you master your time. Try to remain happy, and smile at people you know, even if it may seem mad. I've recently adopted this strategy of putting motivational messages and advices in my phone and set them to sound at certain times of the day, every day. This way, no matter how lousy I feel, I will be reminded to be happy.

Of course, I would not completely suppress my frustrations, you don't have to be a person with bipolar disorder to have frustrations, so it would be good to find some time throughout the day to allow yourself to feel lousy and evaluate those feelings. For me, whenever I go to the kerb side for a drink, I allow myself to feel lousy or depressed, and during that period of time, while relaxing, I think over my feelings and attempt to see rational causes for them. Also, whenever I feel depressed, it is usually when creative thoughts start rushing in, so I sometimes try to exploit this period of time as well.

Ok, I just spent about an hour in total writing this post, but I feel it is time well-spent, because as I write, I reflect upon the strategies I have adopted in the past week and realise their potential. I hope you would benefit from this as well.

How far would you go to be creative?

Project Ahead kick started with its first meeting this semester, and also the first meeting which I attended. A lot of discussion occurred, including my suggestion of a creativity group. This is the topic I would like to talk about in this post. Now before I start to sound too self-centered, I do intend to blog about this first meeting proper once the photos are out.

Now, creativity is developed through a series of powerful, multi-sensory exploration, and sometimes, these explorations take the creative person through a series of roller coaster rides into potentially dangerous yet insightful quests.

For me, I have seen the good and the dark side of creativity, and sometimes I ask myself just how far I would go to develop my creativity. And the answer is always, "as far as required", which essentially means I won't stop.

I am definitely more creative than I was one year ago, and in fact, I have reached the point where I am practically dependent on creativity for my sanity. It thus can be seen that creativity is a self-sustaining entity, my creativity prompted me to be even more creative, because of my desire to explore. So through creativity, I developed creativity. Then after a certain point, it breaks apart the path it had walked, and I am now in a realm of no return. I can only go forward.

I would not think that I am courageous to try taking risks and new things, more like, I often feel a lack of inhibition. To me, some conventionally dangerous things do not seem dangerous, and I just feel like, well, giving it a whack.

Now, another creative revolution is occuring, and more new entities and pathways are being explored. I have began experimenting with different routes to take from hall to school. I am wearing 2 watches, one on each hand, to explore the link between symmetry and ambidexterity. At the moment, there seems to be nothing inhibiting me, nothing at all.

It's a very awesome feeling, yet potentially dangerous. I must learn to master this innate power that I have, or it may turn into something really destructive.

Explore with caution