\u00a0\u201cCreativity is intelligence having fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 – – – Albert\u00a0Einstein<\/p>\n
WhenI was a kid, we had a summer guest house called The Tide Rock House in Old\u00a0Orchard Beach, Maine. Many of our guests were Canadian, enjoying the beach for\u00a0their yearly two-week vacation. The Tide Rock House had a comforting salt water\u00a0smell, soothing pastel colors, a long row of rattan rocking chairs on the front\u00a0porch, and the aroma of bacon and eggs wafting in from the dining hall where\u00a0the guests cooked their meals. I had my first kiss in that house, a quick peck on\u00a0my lips from a boy named Bobby, and each morning after breakfast, I pulled the\u00a0shades down in the living room so no one could look in and see me. I used the\u00a0side of the old piano as a ballet barre, I put on a record of classical music\u00a0and I practiced my plies, arabesques and pirouettes.<\/p>\n
One\u00a0of our guests walked downstairs one morning, sat on a rocking chair on the\u00a0porch and she began to knit. I sat on the chair beside her, rapt, watching her fingers\u00a0fly over the needles. One morning, she took her seat on the porch, reached into\u00a0her knitting bag and pulled out an extra pair of needles and a ball of blue yarn.\u00a0\u201cThese are for you,\u201d she said. She cast on twenty stitches and showed me how to\u00a0move the needles backwards and forwards. I focused as she looped the yarn,\u00a0flipped the needles around and then she handed them to me. \u201cHave a try,\u201d she\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
It\u00a0was hard to copy what she had just done but she was patient with me and when I dropped\u00a0a stitch, she got it back on the needle. I relaxed into the rhythm of knitting\u00a0and purling and before I knew it, I had finished a whole row. When she thought\u00a0I was ready, my first project was a tennis sweater for my father. It came out several\u00a0sizes too large but he made a big deal out of putting it on so I could see it when\u00a0he was heading out to play tennis.<\/p>\n
This\u00a0hobby has always soothed my soul, I love to make beautiful things, and today,\u00a0when I watch TV, it gives me something to do with my hands. I call it a hobby\u00a0but it feels more like a calling. In my spare room, there are pattern books\u00a0from all over the world and a wall of shelves of home-made sweaters, jackets,\u00a0shawls, scarves and hats. I call it \u201cThe Cagan Collection,\u201d and when the\u00a0shelves are filled to overflowing, I give things away and make some more.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0was inspired to write this blog when I spoke with a friend who was going\u00a0through a difficult illness. \u201cI hate getting up,\u201d she said, \u201cbecause all I can\u00a0think about is my health and I feel depressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u00a0kind of creative things do you like to do?\u201d I asked her. \u201cPainting, singing, reading,\u00a0dancing, writing, designing clothes? Something else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0used to paint,\u201d she said, \u201cI really liked it, but I haven\u2019t done it in years. I\u00a0don\u2019t have an easel or any canvasses anymore and I have no idea where my paints\u00a0and brushes are.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s\u00a0go out and buy some,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
When we got home from the art store, she began sorting her new brushes and mixing paint colors. She was inspired and her life became something more than her illness. She had begun to feel the satisfaction of losing time and creating something wonderful in an uncertain world.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0believe we all have some form of creativity in us, it\u2019s part of being human,\u00a0but maybe you don\u2019t know what yours is. When I was interviewing Magic Johnson\u00a0for his book about business, I asked him, \u201cYou always knew what you wanted to\u00a0do. What would you tell people who don\u2019t know what makes them happy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTry\u00a0everything,\u201d he said. \u201cIf something doesn\u2019t feel right, try the next thing. It\u00a0will come to you if you don\u2019t give up.\u201d He knew a lot about never giving up.<\/p>\n
Activating\u00a0your creativity is an effective distraction, a way to tame an overactive mind. It\u00a0helps you change the channel and focus on what feels good. I\u2019m not suggesting\u00a0you hide from the truth, whatever that might be, but maintaining an upbeat\u00a0state of mind in the midst of difficulty, slowing down and breathing more deeply,\u00a0can help lower your stress levels, strengthen your immune system and fill up\u00a0the emptiness of being bored. Or the terror of being afraid. It’s gratifying to\u00a0put your feelings on the page, express your emotions on the canvas, strum a\u00a0guitar or move your body to get the kinks out. The more you flex your creative\u00a0muscles, the more you\u2019ll want to keep on doing it as you find a sense of\u00a0fulfillment, purpose and meaning without needing or wanting anyone else\u2019s\u00a0approval.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There\u00a0is so much chaos in our lives, it feels good to make something we are proud of,\u00a0hear something that nurtures us or do something that makes us feel better in\u00a0our bodies. But it isn\u2019t always easy. The commitment to creativity takes courage\u00a0and confidence in oneself. It takes guts and will power to get started and stamina\u00a0to keep on going. But if you don\u2019t move forward with what you want to express,
it will be lost forever and the world will be deprived of something important\u00a0and valuable. You just never know what will resonate with someone else and make
them feel less alone and more engaged.<\/p>\n
Creativity\u00a0is each person\u2019s unique expression in this life and if you keep at it, you\u2019ll\u00a0see that the well never runs dry. When Russian Composer, Igor Stravinsky\u00a0created \u201cFirebird,\u201d his music was so innovative and different from anything\u00a0that had ever been done before, the audience walked out on what became one of\u00a0the most highly prized creations in the world of music and ballet.<\/p>\n
Maya\u00a0Angelou said, \u201cYou can\u2019t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you\u00a0have.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0\u201cCreativity is intelligence having fun.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 – – – Albert\u00a0Einstein WhenI was a kid, we had a summer guest house called The Tide Rock House in Old\u00a0Orchard Beach, Maine. Many of our guests were Canadian, enjoying the beach for\u00a0their yearly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":2477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2478"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2479,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2478\/revisions\/2479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andreacagan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}