Difference #1 — Getting to know my creative self

I just read a blog post written by Carolyn.Gregoire@huffingtonpost.com titled 18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently. I found it both enlightening and at times even comical in the spot-on description of myself. Instead of quoting the entire post at length in a single setting, I decided I would let the world get to know me through this explanation of behaviors - one excerpt at a time.

Here is the intro to the post -
18 Things Highly Creative People Do Differently

"Creativity works in mysterious and often paradoxical ways. Creative thinking is a stable, defining characteristic in some personalities, but it may also change based on situation and context. Inspiration and ideas often arise seemingly out of nowhere and then fail to show up when we most need them, and creative thinking requires complex cognition yet is completely distinct from the thinking process.

Neuroscience paints a complicated picture of creativity. As scientists now understand it, creativity is far more complex than the right-left brain distinction would have us think (the theory being that left brain = rational and analytical, right brain = creative and emotional). In fact, creativity is thought to involve a number of cognitive processes, neural pathways and emotions, and we still don't have the full picture of how the imaginative mind works.

And psychologically speaking, creative personality types are difficult to pin down, largely because they're complex, paradoxical and tend to avoid habit or routine. And it's not just a stereotype of the "tortured artist" -- artists really may be more complicated people. Research has suggested that creativity involves the coming together of a multitude of traits, behaviors and social influences in a single person.

"It's actually hard for creative people to know themselves because the creative self is more complex than the non-creative self," Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist at New York University who has spent years researching creativity, told The Huffington Post. "The things that stand out the most are the paradoxes of the creative self ... Imaginative people have messier minds."

While there's no "typical" creative type, there are some tell-tale characteristics and behaviors of highly creative people."]

Here is #1
They Daydream 

"Creative types know, despite what their third-grade teachers may have said, that daydreaming is anything but a waste of time.
According to Kaufman and psychologist Rebecca L. McMillan, who co-authored a paper titled "Ode To Positive Constructive Daydreaming," mind-wandering can aid in the process of "creative incubation." And of course, many of us know from experience that our best ideas come seemingly out of the blue when our minds are elsewhere.

Although daydreaming may seem mindless, a 2012 study suggested it could actually involve a highly engaged brain state -- daydreaming can lead to sudden connections and insights because it's related to our ability to recall information in the face of distractions. Neuroscientists have also found that daydreaming involves the same brain processes associated with imagination and creativity."

I often find myself sitting in my chair at work, head tilted back looking blankly at the ceiling tiles above me. The meaning of this behavior is not always the same, sometimes it is to think through a problem, occasionally to clear my mind, and frequently to just shift my thinking. I often times marvel at how sometimes I can tuck a thought into my head and not think about it and then it just kind of manifests at a later date with an answer, solution or alternative seemingly out of nowhere. The subconscious is an amazing thing.




Excerpts taken from:Carolyn Gregoire
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/04/creativity-habits_n_4859769.html