The CCS Ultimate Creativity List...

[Dan Goodwin]

I had an idea based on a discussion in the Thirty Days of Creating group. Let's create a combined list of all the many different ways we can be creative.

There must be hundreds!

Then anyone who starts to feel they're not being very creative can visit here and realise how much they're creating and not acknowledging.

It's easy to think of yourself only being creative when it's some recognised art form, like painting a picture, or writing a story, or taking a photograph.

But what about all the other ways, like how you dress, preparing a delicious meal, creating connections and relationships with others, creating space in your house and mind for new creativity, to give just a few examples...

Everyone free to contribute, just list below all the different ways you create, or could create...

[sueokieffe]

problem solving is very creative and often overlooked. there's nothing like a "good idea" or "a great way of doing something a different way"

creating this list is a great idea, btw, dan!

[Dan Goodwin]

Yes that's a good one Sue. A mind that can take complex problems and come up with elegant effective solutions is highly creative. Scientists or surgeons for example...

[Wendy]

Oooh, I agree with you here - definitely. Visual (creative) problem solving is something I feel very passionate about. Keeps my mind engaged and excited and gets my creative juices flowing! :)

[Renuka Pillai]

I go to workshops with live models. The workshops usually last only 2.5 hours. I take the painting home, spray it with re-touching varnish and work on the background, try to finsh th painting to an exhibitable quality...then frame it.

I go landscape painting, the colors and light are tremendously inspiring. I wish I had more time in my life to be creative.

[Dan Goodwin]

Creating space I think is a very important and very overlooked one. We cannot create something new if there isn't space for it to be born into, then to evolve.

This could be literally physical, like clearing up your desk so there's enough room to actually sit down and write / draw / collage etc. Or it could be in your mind, allowing yourself to accept how important creating is to you. Or it could be something like meditation or yoga or tai chi, which again lead to the clearing of clutter in your mind, a creating of space in some way, for new thoughts and ideas to come to life.

Or it could be about creating space emotionally. Say you have three close friends that you dearly love but all drain you with their negativity and demands and worries. By reducing the time you see them, or lessening their impact on your own mental and emotional state, you're creating for yourself the space for new friendships, hopefully more positive ones...

[Francine]

I'm in..thanks Dan..

[Dan Goodwin]

Great Francine! So what are some of the ways you create?

[LaRee H. Morgan]

Yes, indeed I realize there are many, many creative outlets. I'll do my exhaustive list later, but to start I have produced (well, with help!) six children! Isn't that creative?

[Dan Goodwin]

Well of course! Aside from the initial creative act, being a parent and bringing up children is one of the most creative things any of us can do. You're creating a life, a person.

Having said that, I think the single biggest creative work any of us create is ourselves, our life.

[Diane O]

Kick the creativity killer out of your head. My mother criticized and redid everything I did so I battle lots of indecision and creative blockades. Acknowledge the problem, then kick it aside, then plunge in without second-guessing every move whether it's art, writing, music, rearranging your house, planting a garden or trying a new recipe. Enjoy the outcome, good or bad. Even the bad stuff may have some good elements, plus it's a learning experience, plus it's something you can call your own!

[Dan Goodwin]

Plunging in, and enjoying the outcome, and the experience, is a great approach to creating! And yes we learn from every creative project, whatever the outcome... Good advice Diane. What are your favourite ways of creating?

[Robin Joy Dore]

There are a lot of ways to be creative and it's not even in areas we would even consider right brained. These are only a few that I can think of.....
Through creating electronic items
Through engineering items
Through geometric math
Through physics
Througn science experiments
Through making the same object out of as many different types of media as possible