The Joy of Creativity
5 minute read
Are you creative? I am, with a massive side serving of imposter syndrome. I never thought I was, you see. First and foremost I was rubbish at ‘art’ (as defined as an academic subject) in school, which made me file myself firmly in the ‘not creative’ pile. With a phobia of paper maché and an ongoing inability to draw anything that will not look like a six-year-old did it, why wouldn’t I? And as human beings, we are very good at filing ourselves away, forever clinging to childhood identities such as sporty, funny, clever - or, sadly, not clever, not arty, not good enough.
As it turns out I’m extremely clingy. Throughout a career in the decidedly creative area of PR & Marketing, I constantly reverted to my imposed ‘not creative’ identity. Don’t come to me for fluffy ideas, but I’ll whip you up a speech in no time! I feel it all starts in our early days at school when we are taught what picture we need to draw - here’s where the clouds go and the boat goes there. Straight lines are what are called for - neat letters and ideas that everyone is comfortable with. We focus on preparing our young for the ‘real’ world - and this real-world does not understand or long for creativity. In fact, it adores conformity. And if there is one thing little humans learn quickly, it is to conform.
This conformity can only cause an ache in all our hearts because it feels to me like all humans are themselves created in order to create. Does not everything start with creation, that divine nano-second where something begins? Is creativity not one of the best ways by which we can express our own uniqueness and broaden our minds and contribute to society?
A good friend of mine once told me that her mother would often say that ‘all young people are beautiful’, something that was easy to scoff at given that when we ourselves were young we could easily point to who was and wasn’t beautiful based on a blend of western beauty ideals, the school’s whimsical social pecking order and which Doc Martens one might choose or - gasp! - not choose to wear. Older, wiser, I gradually began to see it - that inner light, that life force which exudes from absolutely everybody and especially the young. It is the beauty of potential and uniqueness - of perfect imperfection. Imagine if we encouraged absolutely everyone to practice creating, from the heart, without judgment. How beautiful would that be?
It took my giving up paid employment to find my own creative streak. When you’re at home with small children you tend to have to cook a lot and colour stuff in. You might start baking birthday cakes, as I did, that look a bit wonky but that you are immensely proud of. You end up telling stories and planting bulbs and creating hideouts from blankets and chairs and brushes. For escape, I discovered Instagram and the joy of taking pretty pictures and writing bits of captions and stories and blog posts. And probably on some random Tuesday morning, it hit me that maybe, just maybe, I was a creative person after all.
And it feels like there’s not a lot of room for creativity inside the workplace because with a pay cheque can come a commitment to blend in with an organisation’s idea and definition of what’s creative and what’s not. In the real world, it’s the bankers and lawyers that earn the big bucks, while artists seek out a living, committed to creativity in return for a life of perilous economic standing. We push children to excel in dance and music lessons but just as a nice-to-have hobby.
Creativity isn’t seen as something that grown ups need necessarily occupy themselves with. And so we continue to ache and feel something is missing.
I, along with literally millions of others, am currently meandering my way through Brené Brown’s new book Atlas of the Heart. It’s quite the tome - full to the brim of wonderful nuggets and interesting information. Like so much that I read and listen to and which fascinates me, 95% will vanish from my knowing within approximately seven to ten days. But that other precious five per cent? That will make this book worth the arm cramps. And what a nugget Brené delivered in terms of her understanding of joy. She refers to joy as “the good mood of the soul” and based on her team’s research defines joy as “an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation”.
I cannot but think that joy and creativity are linked. When I think of my soul being in a good mood, of feeling connection and pleasure and appreciation I think of daydreaming, of helping my daughter to cut pictures out of magazines for a collage, of becoming engrossed in a gardening project. In spite of what we have been told, creativity is not a minority talent or a skill to perfect, it is innate. And no matter how small you think it is, whatever you might manage to create on any given day is beautiful and a true reason for joy.
Now who would possibly want to say no to creating a little more joy?
Laurie Morrissey, January 2022
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