CREATIVITY
Creativity plays a central role in all our lives. It is the force behind so much of the beauty and enjoyment we experience in life. It stirs our emotions, it inspires us to produce new things, and it moves our lives forward in so many different ways. The gifts we receive from the creativity of others are so pervasive in life, that we often simply take them for granted and don't even stop to realize that someone had to imagine and create that idea, joke, art, music, book, advertisement, game, hairstyle, recipe, clothing style, furniture, building, technique, theory, invention, just to name a small percentage of creative gifts we enjoy in our daily lives.
Creativity is also a way of seeing and conceptualizing life, and regardless of whether or not you have chosen to pursue a specific creative hobby, or a creativity career, creative inspiration in its various forms is part of everyone's life. Creativity can also be a crucial component in developing your own life goals and potential. Creativity opens up your mind, your senses and your emotions, enabling you to imagine the possibilities, and then turn those possibilities into reality.
Whether you primarily participate in creative activities in your 'free time,' or organize most of your life around creativity and a creativity career, Turning Point Life Coaching can help you to meet your creativity goals and 'create' the life you desire.
CREATIVITY BLOCKS
A "creative block" can happen to anyone who is trying to do something creative, but it is especially disruptive and distressing for people who need creative inspiration in their work. When creative blocks occur, it can be difficult to remember that they're just temporary, especially when creativity is needed in order to make money and pay bills.
There are a variety of things that can cause creative blocks and there are also a variety of techniques for getting "un-blocked." Self-doubt and fear of failure are a few of the factors that can seriously disrupt the creative process. Unfortunately, the resulting diminished creativity can further aggravate self-doubt and anxiety, which
can then snowball into a full–blown creative block. Although this may come as a surprise to those artists whose creations involve accessing and depicting their experience of emotional pain, there is mounting evidence that encouraging positive thinking and emotions can assist the creative process. It is likely that positive thinking and positive emotions facilitate opening up the mind and the creative process, regardless of what specific emotions and content are then represented in the creativity project.
The process of generating new ideas can also be inhibited by getting stuck in a narrow perspective or thought process. Sometimes "reframing" the situation can help dislodge the mind from the limiting perspective. In other words, describing the situation in another way broadens the perspective, which helps to stimulate new ideas.
There are also times when the approach used to try to stimulate the creative process backfires. Focusing too intensely on a project can sometimes actually paralyze the creative process. When that happens, the creative process can often be reignited by redirecting attention onto something else - as long as it isn't overly absorbing or overly distracting. So, sometimes just letting go, and allowing your mind to simply wander for a little while, can help stimulate new creative ideas.
If your job depends on the creative process, concern about work deadlines can interfere with the free flow of your creativity. If you are struggling with how work deadlines affect your creative process, it is possible to develop strategies to help with that.