Lighten Up the Literal

I remember being appalled when a high school English teacher told my class "Not everyone is creative..." It has always been my belief that not everyone thinks that they are creative, but everyone has the potential to be creative. It just takes a willingness to ease off the left-brained gas-pedal. You are required to let go of the dependancy: to lighten up on the literal. You have to be willing to look at an object and push past the urge to see it as has been prescribed to you. Think for a moment about a candle. Prescribed notion: WAX. WICK. LIGHT SOURCE. HOT. DON'T TOUCH. THE END. A creative person acknowledges the prescribed notion and then asks further questions, and the inner dialogue might go something like this... "How big is the candle? Small. What shape? Round. What color? Purple. Is it lit? No. Does it have a voice? Yes... of a  teenager. Is it male or female? Male. Does it have a personality? Yes, he questions everything. Is it living in a box with a family of candles? Yes. Does it have a story? YES! Do you know that story? Absolutely." Creative people don't just think about what a candle is, but what it provokes. What story does it provide? They not only ask themselves these questions, but instantaneously provide the answer based on the feelings they have when they look or think about the candle.

So becoming creative is like working out - but rather than keeping the body fit, they ask themselves questions to keep the right-brain fit . And you can exercise your creative brain at any time. Once you let go of the literal and stop believing that is is "silly" to see something as it has been prescribed to you, a candle is no longer a candle. A table is no longer just a table, and in time you will find that the old adage of a cigar being just a cigar makes you chuckle inside. You have the uncanny ability to know that nothing is as it appears.

To free yourself of the literal, look around you! The first object your eye is drawn toward, ask yourself the essential five questions: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHY, WHEN? You don't have to be a brilliant writer and put it all on paper and flesh out a complete story, you just need to find out how much thinking outside of the box delights you.  An inatimate object is what is it, yes of course, but it alwasy has the potential to be much more based on what you decide for it from your own history and how much you are willing to let go of the literal meaning: how much you step away from the containment of prescribed notions. It is just like you... are you the exact person that other perceive you to be? No. Never. You are much, much more (and how wonderful that is to be unique!)

NEXT INSTALLMENT: THE IMPORTANCE OF AND HOW-TO-GUIDE FOR LETTING GO OF THE STIGMA OF WHAT IT MEANS TO BE CREATIVE.