blackbird

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

Difference #5 — Getting to know my creative self

This is a continuation of a blog post written by   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 one excerpt at a time.

Here is a repeat of 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 #5

They turn life's obstacles around.

"Many of the most iconic stories and songs of all time have been inspired by gut-wrenching pain and heartbreak -- and the silver lining of these challenges is that they may have been the catalyst to create great art. An emerging field of psychology called post-traumatic growth is suggesting that many people are able to use their hardships and early-life trauma for substantial creative growth. Specifically, researchers have found that trauma can help people to grow in the areas of interpersonal relationships, spirituality, appreciation of life, personal strength, and -- most importantly for creativity -- seeing new possibilities in life.
"A lot of people are able to use that as the fuel they need to come up with a different perspective on reality," says Kaufman. "What's happened is that their view of the world as a safe place, or as a certain type of place, has been shattered at some point in their life, causing them to go on the periphery and see things in a new, fresh light, and that's very conducive to creativity."

Maybe this is why some people seem so judgmental and narrow minded, maybe they either haven't or are refusing to let past failures, or negative life experiences teach them. Maybe they are still blaming someone else instead of just accepting responsibility and moving on positively. Who knows, but I know as for me, I like to believe that for whatever reason I  really try to see every angle of an issue. I'm not so self-absorbed to believe my way is the only way, but that being said, I will admit I do like to do things my way. I do think I have a knack for finding alternate uses for things or ways to accomplish a task differently from the norm.

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