Smiling helps you overcome creative obstacles

I love this science! For many years, I have known that when I am facing a frightening or stressful situation, forcing a smile helps me to relax. What science has discovered is that smiling also has specific effects on the way your brain deals with errors.

A very thorough (and completely humorless) study involving people holding pens in their mouths in various positions showed that those who held the pen in a "smile" position had very different responses to making mistakes.  Basically, they didn't care much.  They felt good, happy, at peace with the world.  They were high on dopamine, the reward system of the brain.

Is unconcern about errors a good thing? It is when you're facing a creative hurdle. One of the difficulties of creativity is tolerating the risk of failure.  Your brain's danger alerts may lead you to quit before you solve a problem if (as is likely) the path to a solution involves makng mistakes before you reach your goal.

Inhibition around making mistakes is important when you're driving, taking a test, or balancing your checkbook.  So don't knock it.  But when you're free-associating, opening your mind to intuition, or playing with an idea, errors don't matter.  In that early phase of the creative process (the "open phase"), all ideas are equal. Making judgements comes later, during the "closed" phase. Then, error detection is very helpful.  Feel free to frown, purse your lips, or be stone-faced.

When you're coming up with ideas, though, force a smile.  It doesn't matter how you're really feeling, the smile will clear the way for your brain's creative capacity.  You can say the letter "e", or hold a pencil in the right position between your teeth, whatever works for you (that should make you giggle).  Just smile!

Creativity really matters when you're stuck

Caught up, as we are, in the practical demands of daily life, creativity naturally takes a back seat.  But there are times when you simply have to be creative.

The clearest of these is when you're stuck.  If you find yourself having the same arguments over and over again, making the same mistakes again and again, unable to solve a work problem, moving from diet to diet and never getting anywhere, or otherwise feel like you're stuck on repeat, then you absolutely need to be creative.  Your life is too precious to waste on dead-end patterns.

Here's what I suggest:  at the very moment you realize you're stuck, stop.  Just stop and let the reality sink in.  Realize what a sad waste this pattern is.  If you really feel sad about it, make a commitment to change it.

Motivation is absolutely everything to creativity.  Use your motivation to spark a creative process of exploration.  Tap into all of the parts of your life that do work.  What are your strengths?  What are the strengths of others involved in the problem?  What inspires you?  A particular movie, book, your religion, someone in your life?  How could that help you? 

Along the path of this exploration, you will find inspiration.  An insight will emerge that helps you to climb out of your rut.  Seize the opportunity and create an open space for your life. 

Why we create, and how to do more of it

Creativity is not the sole province of geniuses and artists; it is an essential human impulse. Creativity is how your brain explores new experiences and information and integrates them into your understanding of the world. If you were not creative, you would not have been able to adapt to the changing circumstances you have faced in your life; you would still be an infant.

Creativity starts with an inner motivation. It may be stimulated by external inspiration, as when a painter dips a brush into the wrong pot, but finds that the unexpected color brings new life to her work. But what seems to be external stimulus has to find a positive, receptive place inside a human being.

The key to being creative is to find something that motivates you deeply.  Wishing is worth nothing; to create we need to be willing to invest time and effort, and to accept risks.  Without motivation, creative ideas will rise and fall like leaves in the wind. 

Creativity is founded in desire.  A child sees its mother walk, and is determined to gain that freedom and strength.  A poet yearns for the perfect way to say something.  A reformer is willing to sacrifice everything to make the world a better place.  Find what motivates you, and you are on the road to creation.