Sometimes when I am designing a piece of jewelry, I get into this place....I guess others would call it "the zone". It is like this quiet focus that is peaceful, productive and makes me feel very content. Whenever I have made a piece, "in the zone" it is usually pretty spectacular. My mental ramblings don't enter into this creative process. If they do and I begin to question or doubt my design or myself in anyway, I am quickly bumped out of "the zone". The design then becomes infinitely more challenging, sometimes so much so I have to leave the piece for another day and stop working. Sometimes, I never pick it up again.
In life I think its the same process. Creativity is not just related to something we can make with our hands, its the way we have to approach our lives. Every time we find solutions to a problem, we created something. Conversations we have are a very creative endeavor, i.e. The brilliant conversationalist. Helping someone to find solutions to their own challenges, or problems is creative, even if the best way to help is to do nothing but listen.
My very bright son, recently reminded me of a well known philosophy. If you give someone a fish every time they ask for it and in some cases demand it, they never learn to fish for themselves. They become stagnated in a place of dependency with no tools to create their own solutions. Perhaps teaching children how to critically think needs to be taught in conjunction with lessons on how to tap into their own innate creativity. Art and music programs have all been slashed in schools, and those creative chops are not able to be developed. The entire thought process of seeing, in your mind's eye, the vision of what you want to create, and then designing the strategies or steps necessary to see your vision come to fruition is a fundamental life skill. If we can, then we'll be teaching kids to do their own "fishing", showing them how to get "in the zone" and create lives for themselves that are pretty spectacular.
0The only cure for the stagnation in our lives, our jobs, our relationships, our art is to begin to living a life in which we create the reality we envision for ourselves. Our own ability to fish, will feed us for a lifetime.
In life I think its the same process. Creativity is not just related to something we can make with our hands, its the way we have to approach our lives. Every time we find solutions to a problem, we created something. Conversations we have are a very creative endeavor, i.e. The brilliant conversationalist. Helping someone to find solutions to their own challenges, or problems is creative, even if the best way to help is to do nothing but listen.
My very bright son, recently reminded me of a well known philosophy. If you give someone a fish every time they ask for it and in some cases demand it, they never learn to fish for themselves. They become stagnated in a place of dependency with no tools to create their own solutions. Perhaps teaching children how to critically think needs to be taught in conjunction with lessons on how to tap into their own innate creativity. Art and music programs have all been slashed in schools, and those creative chops are not able to be developed. The entire thought process of seeing, in your mind's eye, the vision of what you want to create, and then designing the strategies or steps necessary to see your vision come to fruition is a fundamental life skill. If we can, then we'll be teaching kids to do their own "fishing", showing them how to get "in the zone" and create lives for themselves that are pretty spectacular.
1 comment:
Loved reading this post. I think everyone struggles with finding that place of focus and keeping it constant. Often though, the struggle is very frustrating, and can leave me (personally) feeling very alone with it. I think it's really important for people to remember that they are not alone in this struggle-it is something that every person in the world deals with. It's good to know we're all in the same boat on this one :)
<3
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