Creativity

I consider myself to be a pretty creative individual, maybe not so much in my writing but I am artistic, and I have creative thoughts and ideas. I came across this Building blocks of creativity article on the psychology today blog. The people in my life always tell me how creative I am, from the little sculptures I make, to the scrap booking I do and even telling stories. The building blocks article suggests that creativity may result from childhood play and imaginary friends.

When I look back to my childhood I am flooded with memories of games my friends and I would make up to play, and the "artist" of the week awards I won a couple times while I was in grade school, to taking ceramics in high school. The household I grew up in, reading wasn't really pushed as an activity, and I was a mischievous child so I remember being grounded a lot, which included the T.V; so I was left with nothing but my imagination. I remember coming home from school and being bored out of my mind so I would just lay in bed and stare up at the ceiling for hours and just let my imagination run wild, the day dreams I would create were almost as vivid as the dreams I had while sleeping. This became one of my favorite activities as a child since I was left with nothing to do. During this time I also wrote short stories and practiced my sketching, even when I wasn't grounded these became activities that I enjoyed and still enjoy today. Day dreaming is still one of my favorite activities and it comes in handy during long meetings and classes.

Could you imagine a world if imaginary play would be restricted? If all children were restricted from using their imagination would we of had such great artists such as Picasso , Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Dali? or great literary authors like Poe and Hemingway. Everyone should take a little break from life to dream a little.