by Lisa Forbes
I’ve always been more of a creative type than a logical and linear thinker. I’m not intelligent in the traditional sense – I’m intelligent emotionally, kinesthetically, and interpersonally. I like to make things. I like to create. I like to think outside of the box, partly because I find it fulfilling but partly because I’ve never liked doing things a certain way just because everyone else does it that way. I dislike traditions and being told a new idea doesn’t hold value because “we’ve always done it this way.” I feel the most in tune with myself when I am walking through the world uniquely and in a way that fits my true nature.
But then, I entered academia as a graduate student in my masters and doctoral programs and eventually as a faculty member and there was a subtle and slow decline in my creativity and free-thinking. It was so subtle that I didn’t even notice that I was being recruited into a linear, in-box, and like-minded way of being. It was kind of like this – do you know that if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will immediately jump out to safety but if you put that frog in a cool pot of water and gradually heat the water to a boil, the frog won’t notice the subtle yet dangerous increase in heat and it will die. Graphic, I know, but that’s what was happening to me – but instead of a frog dying, it was my creativity. I have many theories about what it is within academia that kills creativity but that’s too much for this post.
Over years of being in academia, I began noticing that I wasn’t thinking outside of the box much anymore. I noticed that I had stopped creating – both personally and professionally. The day I realized this was a sad day for me. A little later I came across the idea of fun in teaching and I felt like I had gone back to my creative roots except as I tried to think up fun and playful pedagogical ideas, I was having a hard time thinking beyond what had been taught and modeled to me. It was as if my creative neural pathways had shriveled from under-usage. But then, I found the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.
This book was critical in re-strengthening my brain to think outside of the box and to become more creative and wacky. I highly suggest it to anyone who lost their creativity or believes they just “aren’t a creative person.” This book argues that all of us are creative, it’s just that somewhere along the way, we have been shamed for creativity and thus we shut it down and we learn to block it out. Either through being shamed for creative work you produced (e.g., “horses aren’t blue” or “that looks nothing like a spider, it’s a good thing you’re doing well in math,” etc.). Or somehow you were implicitly or explicitly sent a message that creativity isn’t valuable (e.g., “you can’t make any money being an artist so get a degree in something that matters and will pay the bills”). These moments of shame construct creative blocks that then prohibit us from “being creative.” Then we get into habits of not creating and we limit our mind and our creative potential. The Artist’s Way is a 12-week workbook that serves as a path to creative recovery. It asks you to do various steps and activities that are supposed to 1) unblock your creativity and 2) bring a flood of creative thoughts to you.
I don’t want to sound dramatic but this book changed my life, not just as a creative being but also as a person. It encourages you to get back in touch with your “inner artist” which is essentially the child version of yourself that in many ways you have rejected. Ouufff, I know, it’s deep and scary stuff but if you are interested in cultivating your creativity and approaching your work (and life) from a new and expansive lens, give it a read! Even better, find a small group of people that will go through the 12 weeks with you as accountability partners and creative inspirations. The world doesn’t need more of the same. It needs people to challenge the status quo, to think outside of the box, and use creativity to solve and expand our ways of being.
