"When you walk let your heart lead the way
And you'll find love any day, Alfie, Alfie."
In my daily wondering ( mind wanderings?!) I ponder about what makes our creativity flow.
I came upon a very interesting article/blog post called 10 Reasons Creative Folks Make Us Crazy from Liz Strauss of Successful and Outstanding Blog(gers), written back in 2006. I know, I know, it's sounds like one of Letterman's list that might have been written by a bunch of haters, but NO, it is really a great article.
In her writing she discusses the views of Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi who wrote the book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. Specifically she talks about his 10 Dimensions of Complexity of the Highly Creative Personality and how, as she states it, "Each item is a paradox, a complexity, a contradiction that’s frustrating to others when they exist together at odds in one human being".
The 10 Dimensions of Complexity of the Higher Creative Personality:
1. Creative individuals have great physical energy, but they become extremely quiet when they are at rest. This restful period can lead others to think that they are not feeling well or that they are unhappy, when the truth is they are fine.
2. Creative folks tend to be both highly intelligent and naive at the same time.
3. Creative people are disciplined and playful simultaneously. In some creative people, this can mean that they are responsible and irresponsible at the same time as well.
4. Creative minds move between a spectrum of fantasy and imagination and a firm grounding in reality. They understand the present and need to keep in touch with the past.
5. Creative individuals seem to be both introverted and extroverted, expressing both traits at once. An image to explain this might be that they are shy showoffs, if you can picture that.
6. Creative people are sincerely humble and extremely proud in a childlike way. It requires ego to have a risky, fresh idea. It takes self-doubt to hammer it out to a workable form.
7. Creative folks don’t feel as tied to gender roles. They feel distinctly individual. They don’t feel the barriers of authority or the rules of what they are “supposed to do.”
8. Creative individuals are thought to be rebellious. Yet, in order to be creative one has to understand and have internalized the traditional culture. Therefore creativity comes from deep roots in tradition. Creative people are traditional and cutting edge.
9. Creative people are deeply passionate about their work, yet can be extremely detached and objective when discussing it.
10. Creative people are highly open and sensitive, which exposes them to pain and suffering, but also allows them to feel higher values of joy and happiness.
