Recreating Creativity

Blossom

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Recent posts by curt and haidut have me thinking about creativity a lot lately. I was reflecting on how creative I was as a child and teen and realized when I stopped making time for creativity I became ill. It's hard to say which came first but lack of creativity and ill health seem very intertwined with one another. As an adult I've thought numerous times about being creative again but something always takes priority. My intuition is telling me that for continued improvement I must make creativity a priority in my life once again. I would love to hear from anyone who has rekindled the creativity fire in their life and the benefits they felt from doing so.
 

Ben

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True creativity can't be initiated without relaxation. In most people this happens during sleep, but this can be done faster. When you want to think of a creative solution to a problem, stop doing anything including thinking about the problem. Just "exist". Do this for a few minutes, then when you start thinking your ideas and thoughts will be fresh. It's this way that many discoveries have happened, not thinking frantically about the solution to a problem. When you do that, you don't think outside of the box which is your narrow thinking. But creativity looks at the whole, the big picture, and finds solutions which are outside of the box.

Creativity is a skill, just like intelligence or athletic ability. No matter how uncreative you are, you can still improve your creativity. Except that it's much more important than intelligence. I find the popular "brain games" that are meant to increase intelligence to be silly. What is needed so desperately today isn't intelligence, but creativity, independence, strength, internal happiness, and a sense of responsibility.
 

Adnada

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Ben said:
What is needed so desperately today isn't intelligence, but creativity, independence, strength, internal happiness, and a sense of responsibility.

I love this. And it is exactly these needs that the current system which we are subject to dissuades. And so I would add courage to the list, because to be creative, independent, and responsible (and therefor autonomous), leads to much criticism. We are to bow down to the priests in white lab coats and gods in judiciary dresses. To be creative is really to be free from tyranny of thought. And to be free in thought opens up endless possibilities.
 

Curt :-)

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Great posts guys :):
I'd like to add that I think being an artist is awesome and is an important role in society; they create something literally out of nothing, and it goes out into the world to affect peoples conciousness- that's HUGE in my opinion.
Every artists statement is unique and special, and has a life and a feel of it's own. Pretty amazing when you think about it :):
Art = Life
 

tara

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I agree that artists play an important role in society. I think it is often undervalued and underpaid, though a handful of artists get very highly paid. Some artists help us see aspects of reality that the powerful oppressive structures would prefer us not to notice, and some inspire and encourage positive change in society.
I also think it's great if everyone keeps making art - helps keep our minds open and flexible. It is a shame when people get discouraged because they are not experts.
I don't distinguish between creativity and intelligence - I think they are basically the same thing. And learning skills gives us more ways to express creativity/intelligence.
I'm not an artist. I think it would be good for me to make a bit of time for art - creativity.
 

Ideonaut

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Ben said:
post 38273 True creativity can't be initiated without relaxation.
From experience, I don't think any special relaxation is necessary for creativity. It's a habit and a skill and it helps to have mental tools for it. I think my ideograms (neoideograms.wordpress.com) are one of the most creativity-stimulating things around. I create with them constantly, automatically, whenever using or exposed to language. And they are art.
 
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DaveFoster

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If serotonin does anything, it destroys creativity. It makes you cold, logical, calculated and isolated. It makes you feel as if you need to prove something to the world, or else you're inferior. It makes you EVIL.
 

Parsifal

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DaveFoster said:
If serotonin does anything, it destroys creativity. It makes you cold, logical, calculated and isolated. It makes you feel as if you need to prove something to the world, or else you're inferior. It makes you EVIL.
So autists and sociopaths are in the same boat? :mrgreen:
 

hmac

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William Blake said; "the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their Genius". This could be paraphrased to read that matter is the vehicle through which our essential nature (Poetic Genius; Energy) expresses itself. I think Blake saw the Poetic genius as being the animating force of life and so it's possible to make a connection between this idea and Ray Peat's notion of Energy (poetic genius) and Structure (outward form) being interdependent. Both Peat and Blake, then, believe that creativity is at the very centre of what it is to be an organism.

In this context it's possible to see how the suppression of creativity by a culture that constantly channels awareness towards predetermined and rigid terminal points could result in chronic health issues: If energy (expression, creativity, poetic genius) cannot flow then structure degenerates.

Coincidentally, this cultural narrowing of perspective is often applied to the idea of creativity itself. We now see creativity as a skill possessed only by those who create literature, music, films or art. This makes us likely to miss the occasions (if we aren't involved with these disciplines) when we are creative. Any time we conjecture as to the nature of something and make a decision without referring to some preconceived cultural reference point we are being creative. I think being creative is about looking at the world through your own eyes and interacting with our environment meaningfully and directly.
 

answersfound

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DaveFoster said:
post 108983 If serotonin does anything, it destroys creativity. It makes you cold, logical, calculated and isolated. It makes you feel as if you need to prove something to the world, or else you're inferior. It makes you EVIL.

+1

I have a friend who lost his father and started taking an SSRI. What a disaster. He is not only losing his hair, but he has also become extremely competitive and sensitive. He has this fake happiness about him that you can see right through. He's just not the same giving person I once knew before he started taking the meds. He's highly caught up in his image and career.
 
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DaveFoster

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Parsifal said:
post 108991
DaveFoster said:
If serotonin does anything, it destroys creativity. It makes you cold, logical, calculated and isolated. It makes you feel as if you need to prove something to the world, or else you're inferior. It makes you EVIL.
So autists and sociopaths are in the same boat? :mrgreen:
Many autists are somewhat sociopathic. When I'm in an autistic mood, I tend to be very anxious and care very little for the well-being of others.
 
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Amazoniac

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Blossom, I don't know if you're still in your quest but it looks like you're pursuing authentic pleasure/joy rather than creativity. Many people can be extremely creative especially when they feel sick or under pressure. I think it has to do with being more present and fully aware under ill health: when future seems uncertain and all you have is now. Which is basically the mind of a kid.
You should read Civilization and its discontents; or just stare at pboy's avatar pic for a few seconds..
 
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Blossom

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Amazoniac said:
post 109261 You should read Civilization and its discontents; or just stare at pboy's avatar pic for a few seconds..
Thanks for the ideas Amazoniac, especially the second one as I know that's your area of expertise. :lol:
 
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Amazoniac

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Blossom said:
post 109268
Amazoniac said:
post 109261 You should read Civilization and its discontents; or just stare at pboy's avatar pic for a few seconds..
Thanks for the ideas Amazoniac, especially the second one as I know that's your area of expertise. :lol:
Try not to sleep during the first chapter.

Also check Metropolis and Mental Life:
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/berlin/pdf/ ... opolis.pdf

pboy asked me to tell you this:
The underlying point behind all this discussion is that as soon as humans started to gain control over natural resources, more free time was available. As a consequence of that, humans started to think about the future and formulate explanations for the reality. Those are great habits but it's easy to excessively detach yourself from the present moment and worry about everything, which is basically what happaned during the Baroque period, sometimes referred to as Baroque crisis, when people realized that with science, humanity had more questions than answers, and those answers could be flawed or a misinterpretation of nature and reality; so there must be a method to minimize those errors. Testing a hypothesis nowadays is just a consequence of that.
Related to Simmel's text, what we experience today is an identity crisis, because we grow up with so many choices and so much responsability over our own future and fate. We don't have clear references or entities to relate to, join and be proud of or to rebel against and choose another path. An example is how people before grew knowing more or less what they were going to do, continuing their family business, etc; knowing that they had a choice to take it or leave it and follow their own path; those were clear paths. But now, we have many choices available and we can easily shape our identity with them. You can eat anything from everywhere at any time, not limited to your local traditions; you can wear anything you want, not what's imposed; and so on. This type of freedom gives us an immense sense of lost and vagueness.
Another interesting point is that there are two ways to exert politics: using fear or convincement. I know, nothing new here. But what's not often discussed is the progress of how the society is being controlled. Before, people were controlled by fear and shame. Being an outcast was horrifying, but not anymore. Anyone who lives in a small town nowadays and doesn't want to be judged, moves to a big city. So shaming won't work that effectively anymore. Now people are controlled by their own mind: as responsability and guilt. You don't wake up with someone telling you what to do anymore, threating to punish you if you don't do what you're told. And it's not your alarm that wakes you up, it's the sense of obligation and guilt that does that. And this ties all back to the first text, where you have the duality inside fighting against each other: the pleasure (and your first day of life being basically pleasure driven) and the responsability. In other words, it's understandable that most of us are experiencing what you described here. The hard work is to find the sweet spot of balance, which I don't think that it necessarily requires forcing yourself to reach some state of mind.
 
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Blossom

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I read through this most recent reply a couple days ago but needed to take some time with my reply (and I had to work). I have found over time since my original post that my natural creativity has come back somewhat and in balance with many other things that I actually value as much or more than creativity.

I believe it was the night before Amazoniac's reply that I learned of the tragedy in Paris. Using the word tragedy to describe the events seems rather lacking. It got me to thinking that creativity seems almost a petty concern for me right now in light of the recent events but I suppose that is a natural part of grieving. How can creativity flourish in the midst of terror? I don't live in or near Paris but I did shed a few tears for the victims, and their families, friends and neighbors :cry: . It could have been any of us. This is exactly what Amazoniac wrote about above on controlling people through fear.

@Amazoniac, you always have such interesting reading recommendations! You probably didn't know this about me but I usually find historical and sociological discussions fascinating. Thanks for your thoughtful reply. It makes me wonder if we should start a book list in topics not directly related to Peat?
 

Regina

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William Blake said; "the Poetic Genius is the true Man, and that the body or outward form of Man is derived from the Poetic Genius. Likewise that the forms of all things are derived from their Genius". This could be paraphrased to read that matter is the vehicle through which our essential nature (Poetic Genius; Energy) expresses itself. I think Blake saw the Poetic genius as being the animating force of life and so it's possible to make a connection between this idea and Ray Peat's notion of Energy (poetic genius) and Structure (outward form) being interdependent. Both Peat and Blake, then, believe that creativity is at the very centre of what it is to be an organism.

In this context it's possible to see how the suppression of creativity by a culture that constantly channels awareness towards predetermined and rigid terminal points could result in chronic health issues: If energy (expression, creativity, poetic genius) cannot flow then structure degenerates.

Coincidentally, this cultural narrowing of perspective is often applied to the idea of creativity itself. We now see creativity as a skill possessed only by those who create literature, music, films or art. This makes us likely to miss the occasions (if we aren't involved with these disciplines) when we are creative. Any time we conjecture as to the nature of something and make a decision without referring to some preconceived cultural reference point we are being creative. I think being creative is about looking at the world through your own eyes and interacting with our environment meaningfully and directly.
:thumbsup:
 

Ideonaut

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"Creativity is a skill, just like intelligence or athletic ability."
I've found that to be true with my ideograms. I'm more skilled at creating new ones than I used to be. I have a fuller toolchest for my creations and am better at using my tools. Complementing particles of creativity are particles of iconoclasm--of rejecting the conventional and same. But rather than be reactive, I try to remain artistically sensitive and true to my sense of what really works for me, to produce . . . particles of delight.
 

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