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We’ve all heard someone say things like, “Everyone is an artist” and “We’re all born naturally creative.” But most of us smile and nod (and think to ourselves, “Yeah, right!”) when we hear something like that, much in the way that we do when someone says something like, “Everyone is beautiful – fat, thin, tall, short, etc.”
We’ve been so conditioned to believe in societal definitions and “rules” about what art, success and beauty looks like that it’s often hard for us to fathom any other alternative, and so we spend our time actively pursuing more knowledge, following other people in our field, and trying hard to create or be something that fits those societal definitions of success. But this only dulls our creativity. As Keith Johnstone, originator of the Impro theatre movement says, “Striving after originality takes you far away from your true self, and makes your work mediocre.”
We’re All Naturally Creative
The paradox is that, when you’re being yourself, rather than trying to imitate success, you’ll be your most original and creative. This natural creativity can’t be learned – it’s already there! We don’t need to do anything to increase or improve it. What we have to do to unleash it is to UNLEARN what we’ve been taught about design, creativity and life itself. You have to unlearn your education about how art and life SHOULD be, in order to allow your natural creative genius to emerge.
The dullness was not an inevitable consequence of age, but of education… I began to think of children not as immature adults, but of adults as atrophied children.
Keith Johnstone
Reconnect with Your Natural Creative Genius
Ultimately, that part of ourselves that’s trying so hard to be creative, original and successful is on our side – it’s trying to do something for us, so we don’t need to fight it. I like Martha Beck’s explanation of the conflict around creativity and self-expression that we often feel. Martha explains that we have two parts to ourselves: an Essential Self and a Social Self. Our Essential Self is the part that is innate – the person we’d be regardless of whether we’re brought up in the rural Himalayas or central London. It knows what we love and who we’re meant to be, it holds our natural creativity, and it’s main agenda is our happiness. Our Social Self, on the other hand, is the part that’s developed since we were born into the world, and it’s concerned with finding out the “rules” of our tribe.
You see, humans are a species that are born into the world completely dependent on the adults of our species, in order to survive. So we learn, from an early age, to look to others to find out the “rules” for survival. And we’re a tribal species – we thrive when we’re connected and collaborating with others. Deep down, we all believe in “safety in numbers” and fear rejection by the tribe. So the Social Self is the part of you that’s looking out for your safety, and wanting to ensure that you’re accepted by your tribe.
So there’s this tension that can develop, between your Essential Self that wants you to be happy, creative and fully self-expressed, and your Social Self that wants to ensure that you’re safe and accepted by your tribe. Ultimately, the only thing standing between us and our creative genius is fear – fear of failure and fear of rejection.
Instead of seeing people as untalented, we can see them as phobic.
Keith Johnstone
How to Switch Your Creativity (Back) On
1. Relax
Stress triggers biochemical changes in the brain and body that narrow our visual perception and our thinking, making it harder to be creative, because we can perceive much less information. Use muscle relaxation or breathing exercises to relax yourself when you feel yourself getting stressed.
2. Imagine Yourself as Naturally creative
Some businessmen who had showed up as very dull on work-association tests were asked to imagine themselves as happy-go-lucky hippy types. They were re-tested while they were in that persona, and they showed up as far more imaginative. Create a vivid picture of yourself as a naturally creative, relaxed, playful, spontaneous and imaginative person, step into the picture and see the world through your own eyes, and then create and respond from that place.
3. Switch Off Your Social Self
We all have that Social Self part that’s continuously chattering in our minds, about all the “what ifs”, catastrophizing, and making us fearful. Schiller said, “…In the case of the creative mind, the intellect has withdrawn it’s watcher from the gates, and the ideas rush in pell-mell, and only then does it review and inspect the multitude…” So make a conscious decision to put your critical voice aside for a while, knowing that you can do the critical review of your work afterwards.
Some great ways of gently pushing your Social Self’s chatter to the background include meditation practice, listening to music or comedy while you’re working, or holding your tongue still by placing the tip of your tongue up against the front of your palette. It’s been found that when we chatter to ourselves, our tongue moves ever so slightly inside our mouths. Holding it still stops the chatter!
4. Don’t Try to Be Original.
As soon as you’re trying to be original, you’re moving away from your natural creative genius and you’ll start producing imitations of success, which just never have the same compelling quality as natural, raw genius. Be completely in the moment, be deeply curious, observe what is and respond… and see what happens.
An artist who is being inspired is being obvious. He’s not weighing one idea against another. He’s accepting his first thoughts… The best ideas should be as effortless as perceiving.
Keith Johnstone
Unleashing your natural creativity isn’t just about being able to produce more awesome design work or writing. Getting out of your Social Self’s fear and returning to your natural creativity will give you a whole new perspective on life and your world will seem more fun, more full, more beautiful, more mysterious, and more compelling.
About the Author: Through her Bottom-line Bookclub, “Resource Miner,” Cath Duncan offers accelerated learning programs for professionals who want to develop the Agile Living Strategies for thriving in these turbulent times. You can follow Cath’s blog at www.mineyourresources.com and on Twitter she’s @cathduncan
I’m fascinated by these ways we try to explain our existence, such as the essential and social self you mentioned (btw. the Martha Beck link is broken).
I’ve also heard, that one way to see our persona is that we have multiple ones, and depending on the situation we bring forth the one that seems most appropriate. E.g. when I’m at work and interacting with clients they will definitely see a different side of me than when I’m hanging out with my friends, or when I’m alone with my girlfriend.
It doesn’t even have to be so drastic change of situation. I’m pretty sure that I’m bringing forth different qualities when I’m posting on facebook, writing my blog, or having a dinner and watching a movie.
In this regard, a useful advice I’ve gotten is that you should strive to bring forth your best self no matter what the situation.
Another interesting way to understand ourselves is that we have three brains: the reptile brain, the mammal brain, and the intellectual/logical brain.
Of these the reptile brain is the physical one, concerned about reproduction, safety, and security. The primal instincts we have are happening at that level.
The mammal brain, on the other hand, is the social and emotional one. It allows us to relate to others and feel empathy, love, affection and other more ‘sophisticated’ emotions.
We tend to think, that logical/intellectual is the area where we operate most of the time, but I’m starting to think otherwise. First of all, both the mammal and the reptile brain can take over the thinking part: we may feel sadness without a logical reason, or we have a one-night stand although intellectually we know nothing good will come out of it.
Now, it has been said that art resides in the area where the reptile (hands) and the mammal (heart) brains meet. If we think about the qualities that are associated with different brains, maybe it would be beneficial for an artist to try to develop her physical and emotional brains.
Just some thoughts that came into my mind while reading this article 🙂
//sami
Sami, there are lots of models that attempt to describe how our personalities are structured. Of course they’re all metaphors for something that’s so much more than the model. I’ve found Martha’s model really useful for thinking about how we deal with internal conflict and resistance. In many ways, the Social Self maps to the Reptilian brain – both hold the agenda of safety and survival first and foremost. The social self believes that you need to have other people liking you in order to be safe and secure.
As for “putting your best self forward,” this is where it gets interesting. We all want to put our best selves forward but who’s version of “your best self” is it? Who you really are (your essential self) or who you think other people would consider your better self (your social self)?
I practice self hypnotism everyday to allow my energy and inner self to communicate with my outer personality. I can not live without that form of meditation, but it really is not a meditation, it`s just aligning oneself to the true being or energy that is our spirit. I then feel much more creative flow and ideas, it`s a channel to our greater self. What comes from that source is far more beautiful than anything on earth. We need to keep the channel open instead of shutting it down to chase plastic needs or sense of belonging. The key to my artist life is to balance the plastic needs with the spiritual needs and I am not talking about God, I am talking about spiritual nature, the landscape, the earth. I am doing it very well and my artwork shows more of the spirit of nature than the chase of the latest fad.
Great to hear that you’ve found some practices that work for you, Esther. I think hypnosis, meditation and other practices that get you relaxed and into your body are very effective ways of accessing the essential self. Thanks for sharing!
@Cath, ahh… now we’re getting to the really interesting area 🙂 What is your real self, then? Do you know what your real self is? And how is that different from the mask you wear in social situations?
What if you genuinely feel that you’re a very social person, but everyone else’s opinion of you is that you seem a bit quiet and introvert, that you seem to enjoy listening to others much more than being the one talking? Which one is the real self then? Is it what you feel like, or is it what you are in the objective reality, in the eyes of others?
I think… that even the real self is a construct. It is a set of behaviors and characteristics that come naturally and “feel right” but even they are not static and will change over time. So, what is the essential self then, really?
And if it is a construct that changes over time, then it makes sense to incorporate positive and desirable attributes into the real authentic you and to try to change or banish the unwanted ones.
I know this discussion is probably heading towards metaphysics and there’s no conclusion, but I find these ideas fascinating.
//sami
You’re right, Sami, it’s a bit of a rabbit hole that we can disappear into for days 🙂
You aren’t who you think you are and you aren’t what other people think you are either. Joharis window is an interesting exercise for exploring the facets of yourself from those different perspectives, but I think it’s important not to get into trying to figure out who’s perception is “right” because they’re all just perceptions. It’s great for stimulating discussion and discovering how who you think you are sits with who other people think you are.
With Martha’s model, the Social Self isn’t who other people think you are. It’s your construct and it’s who you think you “should” be, based on what you think the social group that you reference would be impressed with or find acceptable.
Sometimes there’s a disjunct between who you are (essential self) and who you think you should be (social self) and other than causing internal conflict and stress, this gets in the way of the creative process. In that event, it can be useful to explore what stories you’re telling yourself about who you “should” be and how that sits with who you really are, and to make conscious choices that’ll align your social and essential selves and ease the internal conflict so you can get back into a creative, productive state.
The key is conscious choice, and being aware of your social self stories because the social self can often be quite unconscious. With awareness you can choose whether or not you want that story to guide your life choices and ensure that you’re not just living a life that’s all about doing what other people expect of you inspite of your essential self wanting to create something else.
@Cath, I think I understand what you’re saying. Nice way to bring the topic back from the rabbit hole to a more analytical context 🙂
I probably went too deep to the psyche and personalities after reading the article in the first place. The whole thing makes a lot more sense now, and I can clearly see how it could help in certain situations to adopt this kind of “am I being authentic to myself or just trying to please others” critical mindset.
//sami
Sami, “rabbit holes” are good fun and I’m thrilled that my article stimulated your thinking so much. And rabbit holes are great places to spend a bit of time down if you want to develop your creative thinking! I just wanted to be sure that I explained the Martha Beck model well enough that people could use it, since I’ve found it really useful.
Thanks for helping me with that 🙂
Just read this after posting to my blog. What jumped out at me was your use of the word “unlearned,” Cath, how we have to unlearn certain ideas in order to unleash our creativity. I talked about a related subject – unlearning the traditional use of a thesis statement – on my blog today, which is an offshoot of what you’re discussing here. If you follow the “rules” too closely, what you produce will be formulaic.
Here’s my blog post, in case you’re interested: http://woowooteacup.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/throw-away-the-textbook-on-thesis-statements/
Mary, your post is a good example of getting a better results by “unlearning” rules you were taught. It reminds me of Seth Godin’s “Purple Cow” book, where the central point is that to stand out in a noisy world you need to be different and remarkable. A lot of the people who are most successful with their ventures are the ones who were pretty renegade in school and didn’t invest much care in learning and following the rules. It can be a real advantage! Of course, there are some things that involve doing it “the right way,” like accounting and interpreting the law. But as Dan Pink says in “A Whole New Mind” and his latest book, “Drive,” these days more jobs require creative problem-solving and inventing your own way rather than following the rules.
Cath,
Excellent article and back and forth with the posters.
Best,
Marc
SLC, UT
Thanks, Marc!
Super post, great roundup of ideas. The core concept here, that it’s the social, learned self that tends to be responsible for most of the resistance we feel when ‘trying’ to be creative, is really worth pondering.
I am not absolutely convinced by the idea that there is an entire, fully-formed inner self that has nothing to do with the social world and the self we have learned there; in my view the two are intricately entwined and can’t really be said to exist independently. However, I do think it’s a useful metaphor to concentrate on to help center and quiet the mind and tune out some of the noise (both internal and external).
One of the most destructive forms of this noise, for me, is the inner critic that imagines that we are constantly being judged by others around us. I find this especially crippling when someone I hold in high regard as an artist is around, and this certainly strikes me as a behaviour that has its roots in the social world – like other social animals, we are wired to be constantly evaluating our place in the hierarchy of the pack or tribe.
If the metaphor of an inner, inherently creative self can help me find a space away from that habitual and pointless self-doubt, I’m all for it!
Tobias, you’re right that it’s just a metaphor. Just like the metaphor of the conscious and unconscious mind, and the metaphor of the right and left brain, we’re not actually two “parts” – we’re an integrated whole. I’ve found it a useful metaphor though. It helps me to recognize and dissociate from the Social Self stuff when I’m doing self-criticism and worrying about what other people think. It becomes a short-hand for noticing when I’m doing the kind of thinking that blocks my creativity, which makes it easier to get out of that. Stephen Pressfield does a similar thing in his book “War of Art,” where he uses a metaphor that describes resistance as a separate part within you – as if it has a mind of it’s own. (great book, if you haven’t read it yet!)
And that inner critic stuff you talk about ties in neatly with what Martha Beck calls the “generalized other.” I think you’ll love Martha’s book, Finding Your Own North Star – it’s one of my all-time favorites and the Bottom-line on Finding Your Own North Star has had a great reception at the Bottom-line Bookclub.
great thoughts, really makes you more openminded when thinkink about creativity this way.
I was making almost all the mistakes you wrote, so thank you for help.
All the best,
Michal Matovcik
Just stumbled onto this blog. Excellent post! I am working on launching a new project, and reading the Johnstone quote, “Striving after originality takes you far away from your true self, and makes your work mediocre”. It’s like a lightning bolt went off in my head. I get it. Thanks for helping me to stop “striving” and get back into the creative flow!
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