Audre Lorde, an American professor and philosopher once said, “Creativity is the language we use to communicate the urgency of our dreams for a better future.”
Creativity is the lifeblood of our younger generations. Creativity is the source of all innovations. It is the product of new perspectives, and the language of our dreams.
Over the years, we have grown to associate the concept of creativity with young people and children. A child’s sketchbook is often filled with images of concepts and things that no one could have ever imagined before! A young person’s diary is overflowing with inventions and thoughts that could change the world as we know it.
Despite this, there seems to have been a sudden drop in creativity amongst us during recent times. Is it true that our imaginations have begun to shrink? Have we started to limit ourselves unintentionally?
Creativity is often believed to be a tool used by artists, musicians and writers to conjure up art that stimulates the mind and reflects the beauty of our world through a lens that we may not have used before.
Creativity, however, is not just limited to the process of creating art. It exists in the way we meet the world every morning. It comes out in the way we fix even the most mundane problems with fresh ideas. Creativity is, by itself, an approach to life. It is necessary for us to exist peacefully.
Recently, I discovered that the male Pufferfish uses its fins to create beautiful spiral designs in the sand in order to attract suitors. This process of creating the designs is extremely energy and time consuming for the fish, sometimes taking as much as seven to nine days to complete. The final result of this creative process is a circular spiral drawn into the sand. These circles can have a diameter of nearly six feet.
Why do the fish do this? How does the spiral in the sand help attract potential suitors?
Well, further research and study have gone on to discover that pufferfish may not, in fact, have an aesthetic reason to do this. Instead, they may just have the desire to create a soft area for the female fish to lay her eggs. The spirals and channels that we perceive as designs, may have no greater purpose than to allow the collection of all the eggs safely at the centre.
As in the case of the pufferfish spiral, we may find ways to bring out our creativity serendipitously, even in the most mundane activities.
If you find yourself feeling bored or trapped, make creative choices or take imaginative efforts to find the little joys in life. Try documenting your most interesting experiences in a scrapbook or journal. Use songs or mnemonics to help you study or remember tasks rather than simply memorising.
Developing a habit of creative choices will eventually begin to act as a form of introspection. Your life and your work will reflect who you are as a person, and you may find your inner peace.
