Pearl Lorentzen
When I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to graduate because I never wanted to learn anything ever again!
However, now I’ve swung the other way and am a lifelong learner.
I love learning. One of my favourite ways to learn is by watching documentaries. I recently watched a couple on neuroscience. I’m fascinated by the brain. One of the things which stuck, was one of the scientists said that everyone is creative, but not everyone uses that creativity in an artistic way.
Creativity is something that I think about a lot, so as I’m writing this, I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ve written it, or something very similar before, but do this job long enough (four years) and that’s bound to happen.
However, non-artistic creativity isn’t something I think about very often.
In that section of the documentary, another scientist mentioned the connection between creativity and our subconscious. To be truly creative you have to let go with your conscious brain and let your subconscious do the work. Once you know the skills, you can relax and let your brain and body do the work.
It’s not very creative, but for myself if I can’t remember a password, all I have to do is sit at my keyboard, relax and let my fingers do the work.
Examples in the film included sports and jazz improvisation. In the rhythm of the game, basketball players often have no trouble making baskets from the free-throw line. Stop the game, for a free throw and they are likely to miss.
Jazz musicians improvise better if their brain waves indicate subconscious rather than conscious activity.
I’m way too much of a note-based piano player to do improv jazz. I can’t even understand the off-beat rhythm of jazz, but I sure enjoy it when I listen to a master musician. That being said, once and a while, I do like to play around when I’m tickling the ivories, and it does sound almost musical. Even with classical music, which is mostly what I play, I’ve noticed the need to relax. I get way more notes right when I’m relaxed than if I am consciously focusing on the notes.
There is a space, of course, for learning new skills, but once it’s there we can relax.
I’m not trying to become a concert pianist, I’m just having fun. Although, I have been working on honing some skills and learning new ones to keep it interesting.
As an artistic person, most of my creativity takes artistic forms, but the documentary got me thinking about other types of creativity. Math can be very creative as well as analytical. I think the pattern finding in doing a puzzle is very creative. Language being used in everyday conversation, technical writing, creative, journalistic, business, and (possibly) grant writing requires creativity.
I know a lot of mechanics. I can imagine that diagnosing where that knock, squeak, or lack of power comes from requires and feeds a creative spark.
Another example given in the documentary was everyday life. Since it isn’t scripted, every person needs to use creativity to solve problems that they weren’t expecting.
We also have opportunities to react to positive stimuli which surprise us.
I encourage people to think about the things that they enjoy doing and ask themselves is this creative. If so, how does that make you feel? What impact is that creativity having on my overall sense of wellbeing and mental health?