Hello! There will be monthly blogs starting soon. Hope you will join the discussion with comments or questions–in fact now or anytime. Some have never heard the term “everyday creativity” (or “originality of everyday life”). Yet this universal creative potential is important to evolution itself–never mind to our own happiness, health, and ability to contribute to broader visions in our lives and world. It can also feel very good to do this! Once this everyday creativity is easily SEEN (we can miss it!) and NAMED, one can find it more broadly in our lives (we are already doing it!) and develop it much further. Do check the Articles section of this website for more, or the page on Books, which can be ordered right there. Thanks so much for being here and hope to hear from you sometime.–Dr Ruth Richards
How Well Do We See Our “Everyday Creativity”?
Friends–this is Dr. Richards with one promised answer to a question I just asked as part of Robert Sharpe’s podcast, Bringing Inspiration to Earth. One answer to that item is “HIGH.” The issue, though, was less what the answer could be, than how it was found. The big Aha! Moment. So mysterious. I can say more later if people are interested, but wanted to post the promised word right away. Thanks, Ruth
Is this your new ‘blog-ette’? Glad you see you’ve jumped in. I also love the new ‘words’ on your home page. Simply lovely! Congrats again!
Dr. Marta, first thanks! Secondly, if you would be so kind, since I know you and your important work: Would you mind sharing your favorite definition of creativity, based on creative process? Would you mind perhaps also briefly sharing why it might be more motivating for some people in finding and developing their own creativity, than the “most usual” definition, which involves identifying a creation or product or outcome. (You are surely an expert here!).
In the show mentioned above, I am thinking of one student who actually jumped up on her chair (really!) in delight, in a seminar discussion, when she realized that so much of what she had done as a homemaker, and as a parent, was everyday creative. She had never even considered that!
I am wondering if some people would be more apt to SEE their everyday creativity if they pondered a process definition. I like the image of people reflecting on whether this process is part of their usual way of life.
Thanks for the invitation to share my new definition of personal creativity. It has been called “descriptive, precise, and actionable” by other professors. It suggests: “Creativity is the person-centered process of imagining possibilities and taking embodied expressive action to make your idea(s) real” Marta Davidovich Ockuly (2019).In my lived experience, creativity lives in the person, not in an artifact or product. All creativity involves imagination, but imagination alone is not creativity. In the same vein, ideas alone are not creativity. But when you imagine a possibility and take physical action to make that idea real, you are expressing creativity. We do this from childhood all the way through adulthood. Every cell in the human body is wired for creativity. It evolved in our DNA. It is also part of what helps make life worth living. Play, joy, and flourishing can also be artifacts of engaging in personally meaningful creativity. Mark Runco points out: “All creativity begins with personal creativity.” Practice and persistence are needed to build confidence. The real question is not “are you creative?” – it’s “how are you creative?” I hope that helps!
Thanks for this Ruth and Marta. Just to jump in from the transpersonal/anomalous perspective…you are 100% correct that personal creativity is what makes us human. That creativity is our magic. Magic is what we are, rather than what we do. We can create and bring things into material existence by tapping into that creative force that is the essence of all things. We are conduits for that creative universal force, and it speaks and sings through us through healing, art, play, craft, and basically living our lives – and this is what makes us magical beings. Can we use our innate creativity to create our lives and manifest change? Absolutely! I’ve seen it happen repeatedly with students. Magic as been negated by our culture because it is in many respects ineffable – but it does exist, and all we have to learn to do is to tap into it. We do this when we exercise our everyday creativity. I’m looking forward to more Blogs and Discussions about the importance of everyday creativity. 🙂
Thanks to all of you—Dr. Ruth, Dr. Marta, and Dr. Karel—for this wonderful discussion on everyday creativity. I thought I’d jump in as well, this time speaking of everyday creativity through a relational lens. I’m completely on board, Dr. Ruth, when you describe creativity’s defining features as originality and meaningfulness (see Richards, 2018, Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind). I also appreciate your emphasis, Dr. Marta, that imagination and ideas may be important, but are not creativity in and of themselves. Creativity requires action, movement. I applaud your point, Dr. Karel, that our capacity for creativity is what makes us human and, yes, magical. In fact, I might argue that we are the most human and magical when we embody creativity in connection with others—heart to heart, soul to soul. Whether this connection is brief or long term is less important than whether the connection has what Judith V. Jordan and other founders of relational-cultural theory regard as growth-fostering qualities (see Judith V. Jordan, 2017, Relational-Cultural Therapy). The point here is that when we pause long enough to engage others in a spirit of authenticity, mutual empathy, openness, and care, we inevitably grow more fully ourselves and toward our potential. We do not do this by simply adopting the perspectives or choices of others, but instead by creating a safe place to share openly and feel heard, to listen, to think deeply and differently, and to grow. What emerges is original because each person’s experience is unique. It is meaningful because each person gains clarity that helps her (or him) move forward. This is the place of possibility far beyond any single person’s experience.
Given the US’s hyper-individualistic culture, I’m often concerned that far too few people realize the possibility or potential of relational creativity. Encouraging this concern is an underlying sense that we need this more than ever! Perhaps this blog can be one small way of encouraging a movement of relational creatives. Thanks Dr. Ruth!