Non Creativity is learned behaviour
This is Killiney Bay on a calm Summer’s day. Rising up behind it is Killiney Hill Park with a panoramic view over the city on one side, and the Irish Sea stretching towards Wales on the other. To the South, the Sugarloaf mountain punctuates the Wicklow skyline. It’s a storm beach that changes with the weather and it’s populated with seals, porpoises and cormorants, and that rarified bird the curlew, who makes my favourite seaside sound…
This beautiful spot is the place I get to call home and on days like this, I count my blessings.
Heading into Summer, one of my favourite activities is sea swimming: it’s my go-to full-immersion Mother Nature experience. I know plenty of brave souls who do it all year round but I’m not one of them! And while you’ll hear me muttering expletives when I’m getting in (holyfe**kinjayzusthat’sfreezing!!) I commit myself for the season.
When I’m in the sea, I have no choice but to be in the moment. And when I’m in the moment, ideas start to flow and solutions to problems present themselves. Nothing feels insurmountable except perhaps the prevailing current, so then I have to focus, push hard and get into a rhythm. I stretch out my arms and kick my legs and lift my face to one side to breathe, and when I heave myself out of the water onto the beach, I feel spent and calm and still, but deeply energised: like I’ve plugged into the main power source and my batteries have recharged.
And after I get my breath back, I realise I’m on terrific form, even if I wasn’t on bad form beforehand. It’s like medicine, or as it’s often called, Vitamin Sea.
Drying off and watching the children play, I reflect on this connection with the natural world, the source of creativity itself, and how it’s in me and how I’m in it. And how it feels like a giant power circuit that’s available to anyone any time, if only we’d take the time to plug in…
And even when it’s not swimming season, I always find that just getting out and connecting with nature connects me with my creative self again…
It always amazes me when I meet someone who says, ‘oh I don’t have a creative bone in my body, I could never write a book.’’ (Lots of people think like this!)
You can try and convince me all you like, but I’ll argue vehemently every time that actually, yes you do: every bone, sinew and particle of you is creative, and there’s nothing you can’t do and that includes writing a book.
You’re part of the creative world. You were born this way and you only have to go for a walk in nature and pay attention to feel it. And the more you connect with it, the more you connect with yourself and your creative power.
Creativity is our natural state so if you’re giving yourself reasons for not writing your book, like ‘I don’t feel inspired’ it might serve you better to remind yourself of who you really are and that it’s actually non creativity which is the learned behaviour.
And there’s science behind this. Fifty years ago, a scientist called George Land tested creativity in astronauts. He used the same test to conduct a study on children and followed them from the age of 5 through to adulthood. At the beginning, 97% of the children believed and showed they were creative, but by the time they reached adulthood, 95% believed and showed they were not.
You can feel creative and inspired again, and it doesn’t have to be hard or take ages. In fact, it’s naturally joyful and fun and happens quickly, and in my experience there’s no better teacher than Mother Nature.
So get yourself outside. Go for a walk or a swim if you can. Get out into the garden and dig the weeds, or park yourself on a chair with a cuppa and listen to the birds, or take a stroll in the park and see where it takes you…
Whatever you do, I guarantee that you’ll feel more your creative self and all the better for it.
Love,
Anna
