Ignite! The 5 Rs – Creativity, Happiness & Wellbeing

Rick Hall explores how creativity might equate to happiness and wellbeing

A feature that unites the children in all the photos we take of Ignite! projects is their beaming happiness. It is time to celebrate the connection between creativity and wellbeing.

But how exactly does creativity, as defined by Ignite!, equate to happiness and wellbeing?

Here are some of the things that we think are important: resilience, resourcefulness, reflectivity, risk taking and the ability to make connections between the different ideas and experiences that surround you. But how exactly might these characteristics lead to happiness? And, perhaps more importantly, how can they be achieved?

Once we have researched and proposed some speculative answers to these questions, we can conduct tests, find evidence and eventually devise some learning activities to reveal and exercise these characteristics, and to reveal the joy in trying them out and achieving something unexpected.

The outcomes and impact of what we propose include:

·        Young people who are happy, excited, engaged, motivated and self-motivated, and whose self-esteem and self-confidence are raised.

·        Members of a workforce who are motivated, engaged, innovative and happy to come to work.

·        Teachers and learners who share the same goals.

·        People who share a work space, a learning space and exult in their cleverness, creativity, who

o       celebrate each others ideas,

o       do not hide their failures but explore and share the new learning to be derived from trial and error,

o       share the positive life-affirming excitement at seeing and making connections,

o       broadcast their resourcefulness and ingenuity,

o       authenticate the intuitive and counter-intuitive.

Notes from the Ignite! Creativity & Wellbeing Discussion – 3 November 2011

Doing & Making

·        Externalising thought/emotion – creating a ‘real’ external thing

·        No pressure and self belief

·        What circumstances/environments do we need to be ‘in the zone’?

R for Reflection

·        Creativity as something which is intrinsically reflective

·        Reflection = growth: Doubts and questions are part of our everyday lives – it is how we improve our skills and grow

·        The habit of critical thinking is not encouraged until graduate studies

·        The importance of equipping ourselves to cope with questioning – the giving and receiving of both praise and criticism

·        Rehearsal – ‘rehearsing the dive’ – and gaining confidence in doing so

·        Value of reflection to prevent excessive divergent thinking/creative exploration – going too far into the unhealthy

·        The importance of ‘Discourse’, supporting and requiring social intelligence

Link between creativity and ‘madness’ – are all geniuses a bit crazy?

Possible indicators of genius:

·        Breaking norms

·        Working to make unusual connections

·        Ability to see through a different lens

·        Plays with dimensions

·        Examples: Thomas Heatherwick and Tim Hunkin

Social perceptions of genius and madness

·        How can we tackle stigma and change the language/conversations around mental illness?

·        People don’t see the slog to the creative idea/end/solution – they see depressed/crazy –and/or the dazzling outputs

·        The role of culture – needs to be a fertile ground to receive new ideas & not dismiss “the crazy ones”

Importance of play & the genius

·        Playfulness can be a key element of creative genius

·        Example of Grayson Perry

·        Playing with ideas and intangibles

Working alone

·        How does being alone help/hinder creativity?

·        The creative way of life, e.g. being freelance, having choices, links to isolation

·        Resilience

·        Nobel prize outdated – so many people/minds play a part and everyone working together, difficult to recognise just one person

·        Any merit to arguing in your head? Sharing ideas and opinions allows you to refine, rationalise and re-enforce them

·        Is the idea of the lone genius over? - Lone creatives (i.e. poets) – benefit from collaboration and/or supportive communities (while still working alone)

·        Need to find ways to get ideas & thoughts ‘out of my head’ – need for outlets

Trust

·        Trusting others not to put you down

·        Writing thoughts down frees you; sharing these thoughts/personal experiences publicly, with a wide range of people, can help reduce public stigma (Internet)

R for resilience

·        Resilience = growth

·        How do we equip people to deal with confusion or ambiguity? Resilience - without which results in fear, vulnerability and perfectionism

·        Being in a state of flux – the not knowing can be productive

·        Young people questioning identity etc – how can we raise awareness of wellbeing/encourage & enable conversations from early ages?

Are anti-depressants & drugs supporting us in creative futures/wellbeing? Are they the only answer?

·        Too often drugs are the first resort and the side-effects can be hard

·        Can creativity help people out of depression and anxiety?

·        How does/can community support for mental illness use creativity?

·        If we were to incorporate creativity into our daily lives (5 Rs), through our schooling and into adulthood would we be happier? Better equipped to cope with difficulties? Able to see alternatives? Value and tolerate differences?

Rick Hall is Director of Programmes for Ignite!

W: http://www.ignitefutures.org.uk/