Are you creative? Or do you think that you don’t have a creative bone in your body?
I have worked with adults for over 35 years. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me that they weren’t creative, I’d be quite wealthy!
We are all inherently creative. As children, we explore the world through play and our senses. Our creativity begins to be stifled once we enter our schooling years. And for some of us, it’s earlier than that . We are expected to perform and conform to social and cultural standards.
Colour in between the lines, draw a certain way, behave a certain way and so forth. What this does is dampen or extinguish our creativity.
More often than not, a significant person (a parent, grandparent or teacher) will tell a child that they “cannot draw, or sing etc. A creative flame may be snuffed out! Adults need to choose their words wisely when commenting on a child’s creativity. We should be encouraging rather than disparaging.
Words can be harmful and carried throughout a person’s life. They can stop someone from trying new or different things, being creative etc. It’s like have a monkey sitting in your shoulder constantly whispering in your ear that you can’t do something!
As a child, a friend of the family, told me that. I couldn’t draw. George saw himself as a bit of an artist. His words have affected my creativity all my life. I can do lots of things, but I will tell you I can’t draw. In fact I’ve never really tried until recently!
So why am I telling you this? Each and everyone of us is creative. We should knock that monkey off our shoulder. It’s only one person’s opinion and one point in time. And who were they to judge? Think about it!
What you need is the right environment, the right support and the right medium to discover your creativity. There are a multitude of reasons to be creative. It’s great for your mental health, brain plasticity and general well being amongst other things.
When was the last time you did some thing creative. Be brave and have a try!
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