The Creative Mind

How does the intensity, complexity and “border-crossing” of creative people encourage being more creative? Creative people often have personalities and inner experiences that are intense and beyond ordinary in multiple ways.

By Cynthia Morris

"I’ve been accused of being ‘too much’ all my life. Too loud, too fast, too smart, too multi-talented, too audacious. I’ve never been able to live according to that external standard of ‘just right’.

It’s the job of the artist and writer to reflect what they see and feel. This expression of their art and talents must be larger than life.

A simple definition of synesthesia is that it is a crosstalk or overlapping of sensory experiences that for most people remain separate. Researchers find a higher proportion of creative people are synesthetes.

Links to posts on:

Happiness as choice;

Be Exceptional;

Rodríguez;

Eccentricity;

High Sensitivity;

Write What You Know?

Being eccentric - as many creative people are - can open up our thinking and courage to try out new and different approaches to creative challenges.

Photo: Karl Lagerfeld - A profile article notes that in his home there is “a narrow room lined with shelves. On the top of a bureau were perhaps two hundred pairs of fingerless gloves, arranged in neat piles according to color (he explained that he chose the gray pair he’s wearing because of the overcast sky)."

Are you waiting for a muse? Are you telling yourself you are not creative?

Those are two of the limitations creativity author Michael Michalko addresses in his article The Seven Deadly Sins that Prevent Creative Thinking. Here are two excerpts, with some of my comments.

Author Stephenie Meyer has developed a devoted following weaving tales of romance and suspense in her young adult vampire novels. The series started with a dream. "Though I had a million things to do, I stayed in bed, thinking about the dream. Unwillingly, I eventually got up and did the immediate necessities, and then put everything that I possibly could on the back burner and sat down at the computer to write—something I hadn't done in so long that I wondered why I was bothering."
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bio.html

~~~

"I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind." - Emily Bronte (1818-1848). - From my page: Dreamwork.
http://talentdevelop.com/dreamwork.html
….
“The things that go on in my head are far more interesting than what actually happens. My fantasies are still very, very strong. … You live a third of your life when you dream. So you may as well live in your dreams — the way you want to be living. The way you want to be. I love lying in darkness.” - From Nicole Kidman – a brief profile of high ability and complexity
http://talentdevelop.com/nicole-kidman-a-brief-profile-of-high-ability-and-complexity/

"I took everything far too seriously. And then on my 25th birthday, I literally had a moment where I was like, 'Oh, it's OK. I'm all right now. It's all right being me.'"

'As a young girl struggling with dyslexia, Knightley listened to a handful of books on tape, many of which were historic literary works from authors such as Austen and Charles Dickens...'

Both naturalistic and out of the ordinary sensory experiences have inspired artistic creation since our cave painting days.

In the Introduction to his book on the topic, neurologist Oliver Sacks notes that in the early sixteenth century, the term hallucination meant simply “a wandering mind.”

Lewis Carroll may have had the brain conditions micropsia and macropsia, called “Alice in Wonderland Syndrome” – in which people “see objects around them growing or shrinking.” Dr. Sacks notes that Lewis Carroll “had classical migraines”...

One way to think about the ideas of self esteem and self concept is in terms of how we compare ourselves to others, which can suffocate our creativity.

If you are an actor, for example (or even want to be one), and compare yourself with Meryl Streep or Colin Firth, do you feel energized or deflated – inspired or discouraged?

Psychologist Elaine Aron notes that “low self-esteem is about power and influence, the result of rank. Like other social animals, we constantly rank ourselves among others – competing and comparing.”

Topics include:

Coach training;

Creativity books & research;

Less stress in business;

New Andrew Solomon book [includes quotes re Josh Bell: photo;

Sensitivity & anxiety;

Creative People Cross Boundaries

Science writer Sam McNerney summarizes a renaissance in creativity in both the lab and the pages of popular books and magazines.

Painter Robert Genn writes: "It's my experience that being creatively excited is an art in itself, often self-generated, and largely a matter of habit. In other words, active and perhaps successful artists are masters of their own dopamine..."

~~~

It may be advice often given to writers, but is the idea to "write what you know" always understood, and valuable for creating good work?

“Einstein is a classic example of a highly creative and highly gifted individual that did not do well in traditional school environments.”

That is a quote in a research paper by Kyung Hee Kim, PhD, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at The College of William and Mary.

She thinks “the cause of the underachievement of many gifted and talented students may be their creativity, which tends to clash with traditional school environments."

The acclaimed HBO series “Girls” was nominated for an Emmy Award for outstanding comedy series.

I have appreciated the perspectives of creator and star Lena Dunham on being multitalented, and on using many of her “neurotic” qualities (which we all have, after all) for writing about the lives of a group of young women in New York.

In a conversation with actor Claire Danes, Dunham talked about her creative work as actor and writer.

Many people have had traumatic childhoods, and are drawn to creative expression as part of their way to deal with it, to heal and regain self esteem.

A number of talented actors have suffered traumatic experiences, including Ashley Judd, who was sexually abused; Charlize Theron, as a teen, saw her mother shoot her father in self defense; James Dean lost his mother to cancer when he was nine, and reportedly once told Elizabeth Taylor that he was sexually abused by a minister.

Shia LaBeouf started acting at age 12 to support his mother when his heroin-addicted father abandoned the family.

Creative expression often demand an obsessive attention to detail, and even a high degree of perfectionism, but it can also become limiting and destructive.

Martha Stewart added, “I have proven that being a perfectionist can be profitable and admirable when creating content across the board: in television, books, newspapers, radio, videos… All that content is impeccable.”

Many gifted writers, actors, designers, entrepreneurs and other talented people achieve a lot, make notable contributions to the world, and gain recognition. But much larger numbers are not acknowledged by others, or even themselves.

Gender labels of art and artists can impact how we think of ourselves and others as creative people, even what is possible for us to pursue.

“If there’s specific resistance to women making movies, I just choose to ignore that as an obstacle.” // “A filmmaker is a filmmaker.”

Kathryn Bigelow