Creativity — Where does it come from?
Creativity noun — the use of imagination or original ideas to create something; inventiveness. Oxford dictionary
I have never considered myself a creative person and always been okay with that until not so long ago. Having travelled and made some new friends, one in particular, who oozed creativity it made me realise his life was so much richer and fuller than mine in ways I hadn’t even considered before. Is creativity, one of many answers to happiness? Possibly.
I realised that although I’ve always lived a somewhat fulfilling life in comparison my life felt pretty dull. I wanted to create, I wanted to be creative too but I just didn’t have that same fire in me that my friend had. On the plane ride home, like many of us do I reflected on the trip. Yes it was a great trip, I did almost everything I wanted and I made some really great connections but there was just something that irritated me, a bit like an itch that is annoyingly difficult to reach. But at the time I couldn’t put my finger on it.
I’m usually not the type of person to envy others and what they have but I couldn’t help but feel a certain way about things. About a week later whilst in the shower (where so many eureka moments happen) it came to me…
It was what was always missing, I had made myself believe I wasn’t a creative person and therefore in a way had switched myself off from being creative. I had almost a kind of awakening the kind when you’re a child and you get this lightbulb moment and want to pursue it no matter what with a sense of wonder and urgency.
Freshly showered and reeling with optimism I opened my laptop. I’ll write something, anything. I managed about 10 words and just stared at the white space for an age, thinking. How do they do it? Where does it come from? Will I ever be a creative person?
Is there even such a thing as a ‘creative person’? Why am I putting myself in to a box and limiting myself? So many questions but I was determined, determined to find the creative flare.
A quick online search brought up a piece about orangutans in captivity and another on inventions born of necessity and so on and so forth. What I slowly realised was that creativity is a personal thing, personal in the sense that our creativity is a product of our experiences and how we absorb and perceive the world around us. What I soon came to realise was that creativity is found in what we see and feel both physically and emotionally. Our interactions with the people and world around us. In our sense of wonder and awe for the very reason so many of us love to travel and see the world. Creativity is found in the beauty we see everywhere and the beauty we see in each other. It is found in our emotions on both ends of the spectrum or every aspect of that spectrum. It is everywhere, even in the darkest and most deplorable of places. It is the universe that feeds our creativity and once you look you will find it is everywhere.
Like a revelation from above, I came to the realisation that creativity is found within, we all have it, it is right there within us, within us all. I wouldn’t even argue that people who have seen more of the world for example or people who have had more life experiences as being more creative as each person experiences, understands and interprets the world differently. It also certainly helps to surround yourself with creative people or just people who do lots of creative things as ideas and creativity when shared is even better.
So if you were like me and don’t consider yourself as being creative I’d say to you don’t be so hard on yourself. Look within for inspiration and your creative flare and you will find it, and when you do find it you won’t be able to miss it a bit like those Where’s Wally puzzles for all you 90’s kids.
