Week 1: Are play and creativity related?

An increase in play increases creativity. How? Say you’re put in a situation where you are asked to play a game. A game that involves role play that mimics the games that children play, for example “House” or “Office”. You automatically start playing your role in the game, forgetting the outside world and just becoming more creative with your character. Play brings out the childish side of an individual, which in turn ignites creativity. 

Unfortunately, during the process of maturing and growing, due to that fact that people become more aware and subjected to judgments and opinions, one’s creative mind shrinks drastically. So, if you compare the mind of a child to that of an adult, it is very easy to tell that a child’s creativity is leaps and bounds ahead of an adult’s. It is through play and games, that we can revert back to our childish self and thaw out our frozen creative side. 

Playfulness however, cannot be taught. It can be influenced and shown, but it is upto a person to decide whether they want to open themselves up to it. 

Week 1: Ted Talks

Tim Brown - Tale of Creativity and Play          Children are very imaginative and creative in nature, but adults are stunted in their thought process. Ever thought about why this happens? Tim Brown, through his TED talk explains how this is so. As a child, there is no fear of judgment or opinions. A child does as he or she pleases, thereby letting their imaginative side go wild. As one grows up, they become more aware and subjected to external opinions and judgments, which starts to hinder their creativity. Tim educates his audience that one should at times think like a child and just let go, be creative, and not fear anyone.

Elizabeth Gilbert - Your Elusive Creative Genius  After you’ve attained success, what happens after? This is how Elizabeth Gilbert starts off her TED talk. After writing a best selling novel - Eat, Pray, Love - Elizabeth is constantly being bombarded with questions based on how she could ever top a success like that again and how she would out do it. Apparently any creative person, be it an artist or an author, has a reputation of being a depressed alcoholic or drug addict. Why is this so? Elizabeth brings to our attention the common notion that “creativity and suffering are somehow inherently linked” and “artistry in the end will always ultimately lead to anguish”, hence the reputation. From her journeys to Greece and Rome, she learned that in their ancient time, it was believed that creativity was not born with an individual. In fact, it was believed to be an entirely separate entity, a “Genius”,  that would approach a particular person and ignite the spark of imagination and the whole creative process. Through this talk, Elizabeth inspires us to be creative. She ends her speech telling us not to be afraid, not to be daunted, and to continue being creative.