Expand Your Creativity

Jim here, a favorite cartoon of mine shows two lab-coated scientists standing before a white board filled with scientific notation. Between the first part of the notation and its conclusion there is a space filled with the words “And then a miracle occurs.” One of the scientists, pointing at the miracle spot says, “I think you need a little more detail right here.”

Creativity is associated with that which comes from the beyond. And although some of aspect of every creative moment feels like it comes from “somewhere else,” in fact it all arises from the unconscious dimension of your mind. Your creativity doesn’t just happen by magic. The process and roots of your creative expression can be understood and enhanced.

So I suggest reading “The Courage to Create,” by Dr. Rollo May, one of the most prominent thinkers in the American Psychological pantheon, and a man I hold as one of the teachers in my life.

Creativity is about “something new trying to emerge.” From where? The Unconscious. And in that process we are thrown into a struggle between overturning what has been in favor of what will be. A person can be overwhelmed by that tension, and the anxiety that is always a part of it.

Even today creativity is often suspected to be the product of neurosis and therefore the offspring of abnormality. And it is if normality is held to be conformity with the consensus culture. Creativity, by definition, goes beyond what is and becomes a threat to that which is claimed as “the right way to be,” or, more simply, “common sense.”

Rollo May, himself a painter, talks his struggles with his own creative impulse and makes the book more of a personal document than and academic treatise.

I can’t guarantee that you will have my same response, and though have never met him I have used Dr. Rollo May as a guide, a supporter and comforter, and “The Courage To Create” as a trusted friend.

Enjoy – Jim