Imagine someone asking you “How some hours a week do you spend working?” or “What do you do?” you are likely to answer something like, “I am a full-time student and I work part-time at a section store,” or “I am a full-time mom of three boys,” or I am a professor,” or “I am a computer analyst”, etc. Your answer describes the each and everyday routine of what you do for a living, which is a occupation that gives you income, a social identity, a sure professional status and, sometimes, public recognition. However rewarding, very ofttimes a occupation includes duties, tasks and requisites that we are obliged to perform, whether we like them or not. Our freedom to do only what we like in our occupation is closely always limited. This is a main reason why so galore people suffer from job-related dissatisfaction and see their work as the necessary evil they ought to endure in interchange for a per month paycheck.

Now, imagine someone asking you “How a great deal of hours a week do you spend creating something that gives you joy?” or “Do you have a originative habit that helps you handle stress?” Think of your answer: you may take a little longer to give a reply and, when you do, you may say something like: “Hmm, you know, I’d like to be originative but, truth is, I’m too tired”, or “Well, I’d love to have a good deal of time for creativity, but I’m too busy with other things,” or “It would be astounding to have a originative habit but that’s a lavishness for the rich and I have bills to pay” or “Me, creative? But I’m not an artist, I am an office manager!”

If your answer to the question when it comes to creative thinking resembles any of the answers above, it is high time you changed your attitude toward your capacity to be creative. In this chapter, you will be introduced to a number of mythic characters and real humans who consider ability to create not as a luxury, but their birthright. The truth is that we are all born with the capacity to be creative, just as we are born with the capacity to think, dream and imagine. But, while a good deal of of us carry on to honor creative thinking allround our lives and take pleasure in the gains of a originative habit, some others betray our creativeness as we seek joy in habits that are not only non-creative but, oftentimes, self-destructive.

The prices we remunerate when we stifle our right to be originative are as high as those we remunerate when we stifle our dreams. In my exercise as a psychotherapist and coach, the majority of clients complaining in regards to sensations of depression, insomnia, panic attacks, low self-esteem, or sense of meaninglessness are the ones who ignore their dreams and their own originative impulses. Over the years, I have helped a number of humans reconnect with their natural capacity to create, observing them take delight in the gains of their creativity: a recovered self-confidence, an bettered capacity to handle life’s daily stress, freedom from depression, and a sense of feeling of satisfaction that no medical treatment alone may ever catalyze.

As you are working through the fourth phase of this method, it is necessary that you experience the joy of developing and preserving originative habits. Reconnecting with your ability to create will grant you to be spontaneous and daring as you suspend judgment in regards to the outcomes of your originative efforts. Your gains from getting originative will be a sense of sustained pleasure, inner freedom and independence from other people’s approval. The more you concede yourself to be creative, the more self-confident you will be and the better you will like yourself.

CREATIVITY 101

“To create” means “to cause to exist”; “to fetch into being something that has never existed before”. Everything developed is firstborn imagined. Therefore, ability to create is the humane action in which we use constructively our imagination by giving material form to our originative ideas. I In this context, a originative person is not only prolific in ideas but likewise active in materializing originative ideas in the real world. This originative input enriches not only the person life of the creator, but likewise the world at large.

Creative persons are not inevitably professional artists. They come from all walks of life and their creativeness applies to all distinct elements of our civilization: they may be scientists discovering the concealed laws of the universe or new cures for terminal diseases; business persons creating breakthrough prospects in national economies; lawyers excelling in their field thanks to their originative problem-solving ideas; visionary politicians leading nations to freedom and prosperity; teachers creating modern methods for the classroom; farmers creating breakthrough methods of farming or breeding; cooks creating culinary masterworks or revolutionary cooking methods; administrators guiding organizations into success through originative leadership; police detectives solving mysteries and incarcerating crooks thanks to originative thinking. Age, level of education and socio-economic status do not matter: a originative person may be a child, an adolescent, an adult, or a senior. He or she may be single or married, divorced or widowed, childless or with children. Individual deviations may be unlimited. But there are three characteristics, listed below, that all originative persons portion in common, which you must also develop as you work with this method:

a. Creative People Honor their Creative Impulses

Creative humans recognise the kinship amongst ability to create and productivity, and they are careful to keep them in balance. They nurture their originative needs by taking the necessary time and space to access imagination and stimulate originative thinking. And they fetch their originative ideas into fruition by being productive. They likewise honor their creative thinking by protecting and fostering their ideas and by following a discipline that involves hard work, concentration, isolation, strange decisions, sacrifices, commitment to the originative purpose, and trust in their inner voice. Nevertheless, in spite of the demands of the originative process, staying loyal to their originative pursuit is never a burden for originative people. The joy from seeing their finished creation is so pure, that it redeems all the strenuous attempts exerted for the duration of the process.

Examples of movie characters portraying originative people abound. Some of them are introduced in this chapter. I give hope or courage to you to see the respective films and detect how dissimilar those characters are, yet how similar in the way they honor their originative impulses. These characters represent simple persons yearning for the joy of creating, much as we all do. As you watch the films, let them inspire you to reconnect with your own ability to create and feel the joy that you see them experience in the films.

Working Girl, is the story of a young woman’s determination to fetch her originative ideas into fruition, having to protect them from being appropriated by her boss. Tess McGill, the main character, is a thirty-year old administrative assistant who lives in Staten Island and commutes each day to her work in the Manhattan financial district. On the ferry, she reads and, in the evenings, she takes classes. Tess wants to become something more than a secretary. She is bright, talented, informed, and, most importantly, she has originative ideas regarding mergers and accomplishments that she presents to her new boss, Katharine Parker, hoping to be cherished and offered a better position in the company. But Katharine has dissimilar intentions: when Tess offers her a brilliant idea that will save a big company from a alien takeover, Katharine steals it and presents it to her clients as her own, advising Tess to not mention it anyplace else.

It is not too long before Tess finds out that her creative thinking is being exploited. She vows to protect her idea and use all means available to make it happen, even if this means that she will pretend to be Katharine. While Katharine is away recovering from a skiing accident, Tess assumes Katharine’s identity and follows through with her plan, fighting to see her idea become reality until the very end, even after her true identity is ran into and she is exposed as an imposter. But, thanks to her persistence and willingness to take risks for her own originative idea, Tess does not give up. Exposing Katharine minutes before she signs the deal with the clients, she proves that the idea was in the first place hers, and wins. When Oven Trask, the client, asks Tess why she had to do this and danger her reputation, her answer is:

“You may bend the rules a great deal once you get to the top, but not while you’re attempting to get there. And if you’re someone like me, you can’t get there without bending the rules.”

Oven, admiring her courage to fight for her idea, responds:

“You’ve got a real fire in your belly, Ms. McGill.

Tess’s answer to this supplement only means that fighting to protect one’s creativeness is never easy:

” I’m not rather sure what you mean, sir. I’ve got something in my belly, but I think it’s nervous knots.”

Tess McGill is not an artist. Her creativeness is not indicated through poetry, writing, or painting, but through brilliant ideas creating multi-million dollar breakthroughs in the financial world. But, just as an artisan who fights to protect her work from being appropriated, she fights to have her idea recognized as being her own. She is diligent, thorough, brave, and she loves what she does. She does not rest until she sees it take form in reality. And, giving careful consideration to her fixed means, she thinks and acts creatively all around her ordeal versus all odds, until the truth surfaces and she fulfills her dream.

Another tribute to originative people is the epic Titanic, which is filled with characters honoring their ability to create till their last moments, even as they are drowning with the “unsinkable ship” into the abysmal depths of the North Atlantic. The story is told eighty four years later through flash backs by Rose de Witt, a survivor, as she is sitting in her pottery studio. Rose is a hundred and one years old and she is still creating pottery. Surrounded by her works, she recalls her fateful travel and introduces Jack Dawson, a young artisan and the love of her life, who passed from physical life for the duration of the tragic voyage. She expended only hours with him, but their love became immortal.

As she recalls their moments together, Rose brings us eighty-four years back to “the most (erotic|sexual pleasure|sexually arousing moment of her life”, that she lets us witness it: hours before his death, Jack is drawing a nude of her wearing only a necklace with a big, blue diamond. The beauty of a seventeen-year old Rose in love is immortalized in the drawing, seen through the eyes of the artist. “I couldn’t stop shaking” old Rose confesses, alluding to the (erotic|sexual pleasure|sexually arousing intensity of the experience that stayed with her forever. Jack’s art captured a lifetime of love that pulled through his death. For Rose, his art did not only create her drawing; it developed Jack’s immortality.

As Rose remembers, we live with her the tragic scenes that unfold as the ship is when it comes to to sink. We are shown five musicians of the ship’s orchestra completing their last piece of music. We watch the unknown musicians bid their last farewell and walk away; except for the violinist, who stays in the same place and starts playing solo. As the other orchestra members listen him play, they stop, return and join him in the piece. Amidst a crowd of screaming passengers running in vain to save their lives, these musicians peacefully receive their imminent death and choose to celebrate life with their music, until the dark ocean swallows them playing their last note. Defying death by remaining originative till one’s last breath is one of the most powerful messages in this epic, which is likewise a tribute to inner freedom, immortal love, and the inexorable right to honor one’s truth.

b. Creative People Regard Creating as Healing

Creative humans are healers. They give rise to to fetch wholeness to the inevitable wounds inflicted by life. Their originative output is their answer to aggression, deprivation, unfairness and injustice that, unfortunately, abound in reality. Through creating, they bestow toward increasing beauty, concord and love, without which life can not exist. Creativity is their only weapon versus the afflictions of depression, boredom or loneliness and the source of strength, courage and hope. Creative people do not grant the burdens of life to admonish them. They construct in spite of the each day pressures and dramas to conquer pain, fear, poverty, disease and, even death.

“When I dance, something happens and I sort of disappear” says Billy Elliot for the duration of his consultation with the Committee of the Royal Ballet Academy. “It’s hard at the beginning, but then something happens and I commence flying. I feel free. I decrease rapidly into the air like a bird, like electricity. Yeah, like electricity…”

Billy calls “electricity” the divine light that sparks in him when he is immersed in the originative process, enlightening his existence and the world around him. Through dancing, his essence becomes one with The Creator as he, little Billy, disappears. The joy of dancing heals his grief for his diseased mom, his worry for his ill Grandma, his sadness for being mistreated by his brother, and his sorrow for being rejected by his father. Billy’s wholeness is in his dance. That is when his each and everyday life becomes secondary and he feels veritably alive.

There is no routine livelier than the originative process. Its essence is the very stuff of Life, which is Nature’s will to push beyond limitations in order to accomplish Creation. And, once the creation is accomplished, there is no joy deeper for the creator than the joy of sharing it with the world. A progressed myth describing how the originative procedure brings wholeness not only the originative agent but also to those who commune with the originative outcome is Babette’s Feast.

Based on a short story by Isan Dinesen, Babette’s Feast is set in remote Frederikshavn, a little Lutheran community on the Jutland peninsula in Denmark, in the second half of the nineteenth century. The villagers are fundamentalists adhering to a rigid puritanical dogma. Their life is consecrated to religious observance, reciting of the scripture, material poverty, and avoidance of all temptations of spirit and body. Their Spartan homes and churches are devoid of ornamentations or furniture that might provide the slightest comfort. Their manners are restrained; wordy interactions are restricted as silence is enforced to maintain the spiritual tone of relationships; indulging in simple delights such as feed or other, more complex, physical desires is plainly unfathomable. For this community, joy is a sin.

One day, a French woman arrives at the village, providing her services as a maid to Martina and Philippa, the two unmarried daughters of Pouel Kern, the diseased spiritual leader and founder of this community. During his life, father Kern managed to forbid his daughters to have any kinship with the outside world, forcing them to abandon all probabilities of marriage or career. Due to his intervention, Martina’s ended her love for a young officer wanting to marry her, while Philippa ended on her own accord her friendship with a Parisian opera singer, scared of the joy she experienced for the duration of their singing lessons. Years later, the same opera singer sends Babette to their home, who agrees to be their servant and work without wages. For fourteen years she does so, following diligently the community’s rules, cooking simple meals, looking at the silence, and helping the two sisters with their community service.

No one knows that Babette has been a gourmet chef in “Café Anglais,” a famous French restaurant, until, one day, she asks the two sisters if she may prepare a lavish French dinner for the entire village, to celebrate their father’s 100th birthday. Babette offers to remunerate for the entire feast, with the cash she won in the Paris lottery. The sisters hesitate but at last agree, on the condition that the guests observe the vow of silence all around the meal, so as not to indulge in pleasure. Babette orders the feed from France and sets out to prepare the feast. Soon the ingredients arrive: live turtles for soup, game and meats for the main courses, a wheelbarrow full of offal, bottles of champagne and fine wine, and trunks with fine china, silver, crystal glasses, lace linen, and imagination candles. For days Babette works at the kitchen, creating a feast of love, a true art masterwork that will evermore change the life of the community.

As the evening of the feast arrives, the villagers congregate around a table where they taste caviar with mussels in vodka sauce, turtle soup, quail filled with foie gras and truffles, fine meats, highpriced cheeses and exquisite deserts. As they raise their glasses to drink Veuve Clicquot, superb champagne, they cannot help it: moved by the spirit of the feed and enveloped in the delight of it is taste, they break the vow of silence and get started interacting. For the original time they realize that spiritual successfulness may be enjoyed through material abundance. As the joy of tasting Babette’s feed is lifting every one off the ground into higher spheres, the retired General, Marina’s discouraged suitor from the past, of a sudden raises a glass to announce that not one thing is impossible. Babette’s abundance has brought to everyone joy beyond words, endowing their spirit with the hope that no probability in life is genuinely missed, as long as one wants to achieve a dream wholeheartedly. Her feast, creating such spiritual and aroused abundance for that deprived community likewise proved that the one who gives rise to is never poor.

While the villagers delight in the majesty of the senses, Babette, alone in the kitchen, delectations in the feeling of satisfaction of her dream: her culinary art has healed an entire village, banishing everyone’s fear of joy. Looking at us, she reaches out with a plea that speaks for the desire of all originative humans to develop wholeness:

“From throughout the world there goes one long cry from the heart of the artist: Give me leave to do my utmost.”

c. Creative People Pursue their Projects to Completion

Out of the originative projects you have begun over the years, how a good deal of have you genuinely finished? Remember, “to create” means “to fetch something into full existence”. If your originative projects are started out ideas that have never found completion, they do not count as originative endeavors. Sorry, but these are only abandoned attempts in a patient manner awaiting your honorable attention.

We all have “abandoned efforts” hiding someplace at home, in our drawers, in our computer’s hard drive, even in our mind: a screenplay that is twenty-five pages before completion; an not complete needlecraft, quilt or knitting project; a bookcase we built in the garage but never varnished or placed in our son’s bedroom; an antiquate car that we have been rebuilding for the last ten years; a alien language that we never learned to speak fluently; a dance that we never learned to dance without stepping on our collaborator or causing public embarrassment; a recipe for the particular cookware we purchased but never unpackaged; an idea to exaggerate our business that we never pursued beyond writing it in our notepad; and so on.

What causes us to abandon our originative projects and betray the joy of creating? A frequent comprehensible statement is that we stop the originative routine because we give into “fear of criticism” or “fear of failure”. This is only partially unfeigned taking into account that, in reality, we engage in a lot of self-destructive endeavors, ignoring criticism and inviting failure in our health, finances, as well as personal and professional life: we indulge in junk feed knowing that our cholesterol count will go up; we watch innumerable hours of television, neglecting to commune with friends, family, and loved ones; we spend cash compulsively, knowing that we are damaging our credit; we cut corners at work, knowing that we will in the long run be came across and called accountable; and so on. The truth is that the reason for abandoning originative projects is not our fear of criticism but our fear of dedication to a challenging process, period. It is in our nature to abandon a originative habit when arising difficulties cause uneasiness and to indulge in detrimental habits just because they are easy and without delay gratifying.

One of the most deceptive beliefs regarding the originative routine is that it is a continuous source of joy, freedom and success. Nothing could be further from the truth: the originative routine is as challenging as any other endeavor and it requires heartfelt commitment from the beginning to the end. Every originative project presents challenges, obstacles, troubles and difficultnesses that suspend pleasure until we resolve them. This is why the joy of ability to create is ten percent in starting a project, zero percent in persevering through it is challenges, and ninety percent in achieving it. But, once the creation is completed, the experience of the creator from sharing it with the world is filled with pure delight. In western religious teachings, the Creator’s profound, restful enjoyment from having finished the universe is described as the Seventh Day of Creation. Creative people seek this joy and, therefore, do not abandon their attempts as undesirable children; instead, they treat their originative projects as children requiring to be parented until they become self-sufficient through consistent love and dedication in spite of challenges and rough spots.

An example of originative person who accomplished her project with awful determination, overcoming criticism and personal attacks of national proportions, is Maya Lin. Her story is the theme of the documentary A Strong, Clear Vision, a tribute to her originative work with a particular focus on her noteworthy achievement, the Vietnam Memorial Wall. In 1981, as a 21-year-old senior architecture major at Yale, Maya Lin won primary prize in the contest to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in the northwest corner of the Mall in Washington D.C. She had proposed a simple, graceful, and abstract design of two 247-foot-long walls of polished black granite, set under grade and connected at a 125-degree angle, on which the names of all the more than 58,000 American dead and missing from the war would be carved in letters a little over half an inch high and arranged chronologically, according to the year of death or disappearance.

Lin’s winning design did not get enjoyment from the public acceptance one would have expected. As soon as it was publicized, it triggered the bitter criticism of a little but powerful group of Vietnam veterans in regards to it is color, proposed placement underneath ground level, and lack of heroic quality. The design was characterized a “black ditch” or “black gash of shame.” A few conservative politicians supported the opposition until a compromise was reached. Following a number of highly publicized meetings, in which Maya Lin was personally attacked and repeatedly forced to defend her project, it was at last consorted to add to the monument an American flag on a 60-foot pole and a group of three realistically-modeled, seven-foot bronze figures of Vietnam-era American soldiers by another artist. Fortunately, these additions were placed far sufficient away from the wall so that it is artistic integrity was not badly affected.

Maya Lin withstood unfair, chauvinistic and, occasionally, racist attacks with admirable strength and inner composure. She never compromised the integrity of her vision or negotiated the principles of her conception: the Memorial Wall was a healing monument, supplying visitors an intimate and contemplative experience as it permitted them to experience the deep sense of loss it conveyed. Lin’s continuing or repeating behavior resulted in the extraordinary success of her project, once it was completed. The monument was committed and officially opened to the public on November 11, 1982, Veteran’s Day. Since that day, more than ten thousand humans per day visit the Wall; amidst them are Vietnam veterans, families of the fallen, and the public at huge who experience unfathomed healing as the names of the dead or missing, which seem to float on a transparent black plane, exert their power evoking strong emotion. Additionally, as the visitors may see their own face dimly reflected on the polished black granite, they are invited to enter a dimension in which life and death are two facets of one continuous experience. The monument, in silence, speaks to each visitor in a very personal yet universal way when it comes to life and death, grief and loss, and embracing what one cannot change.

Another remarkable woman who left a bequest of overcoming difficultnesses in order to fetch a originative project to completion is Roberta Guaspari, the heroine of Music of the Heart. Based on the Roberta’s real life, the film tells the story of a schoolteacher’s struggle to instruct violin to underprivileged children in East Harlem. After her desolating divorce, Roberta finds herself with two children and in need of work. A music teacher facing few chances for work, she becomes conscious of an opening at an East Harlem public school. After convincing the school important regarding the value of instructing music in her school, she is hired. Roberta begins her work in a problem-ridden environment, filled with burned-out, underpaid teachers, accustomed to suppose very little of themselves and the school system. In addition the children, most from bothered families, have little help at home for academic accomplishment let alone learning the violin.

Roberta begins working with the eagerness and stubbornness of a neophyte, as the children challenge her authority and question the value of her work. But she does not get intimidated. Showing determination, awful inner strength and authenti interest in the children, she in the long run wins their trust and connects them to the violin. As her students learn to play, their bettering self-confidence has a positive influence on other distinct features of their lives. Their parents, formerly skeptical in regards to Roberta’s function in their school, detect their children blossom and start out to respect and admire Roberta. She has earned everyone’s trust.

For ten years Roberta’s program flourishes, earning great reputation in the City until, in 1991, the school board seizes the funding. Roberta will not concede this to happen. Determined to give the biggest fight of her life, she summons the support of the parents, a journalist, and a number of the world’s best violinists, and organizes an astounding concert at Carnegie Hall to raise funds and save her program. The concert, in which she and her students percentage the stage with artists such as Isaac Stern, Arnold Steinhardt, Itzhac Perlman, and Sandra Park, is a extraordinary success and raises funds that ascertain the survival of her program for assorted more years.

Roberta Guaspari is a living legend. An Italian-American woman who made Harlem her home, she had been playing the violin since nine years of age. Music gave her peace, sanity, and inner strength when her divorce shattered her life. She brought her gift to inner-city schools and shared it generously with the children, endowing them to honor their creativeness and always pursue their dreams.

THE CHARACTERISTICS OF A CREATIVE HABIT

In the next section you will be encouraged to formulate a originative habit following commended activenesses and exercises. As you discover and nurture your own originative habit, keep in mind it is main characteristics. A originative habit:

1. Gives you energy.

2. Holds your interest.

3. Gives you the freedom to make errors and see them as learning experiences.

4. Challenges your thoughts, stretchings your imagination, and generates new discoveries and problem-solving ideas.

5. Increases your self-confidence and self- acceptance.

REEL FULFILLMENT IN ACTION

A. MOVIE TIME! WATCH A MOVIE FOR FUN, LEARN A LESSON FOR LIFE

The following films portray dissimilar characters with one thing in common: their lives are determined by their willingness to be creative. Choose a film and watch it alone or with your groups. Answer the questions at the end of the list in writing and talk about your answers with your group. Repeat the same with more films of the list, as your time permits:

A Chef in Love (1997); directed by Nana Dzhordzhadze

Amadeus (1984); directed by Milos Forman

Artemisia (1997); directed by Agnes Merlet

Babette’s Feast (1987); directed by Gabriel Axel

Big Night (1996); directed by Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci

Billy Elliot (2000); directed by Stephen Daldry

Camille Claudel (1988); directed by Bruno Nuytten

Chocolat (2000); directed by Lasse Hallström

Finding Neverland (2004); directed by Marc Forster

Frida (1988); directed by Paul Leduc

Frida (2002); directed by Julie Taymor

Immortal Beloved (1994); directed by Bernard Rose

Like Water for Chocolate (1992); directed by Alfonso Arau

Maya Lin: A Strong, Clear Vision (1994); directed by Freida Lee Mock

Music of the Heart (1999); directed by Wes Craven

Pleasantville (1998); directed by Garry Ross

Pollock (2000); directed by Ed Harris

Shall We Dansu? (1996); directed by Masayuki Suo

Shall We Dance? (2004); directed by Peter Chelsom

Surviving Picasso (1996); directed by James Ivory

The Agony and The Ecstasy (1954); directed by Carol Reed

The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947); directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Titanic (1997); directed by James Cameron

Working Girl (1988); directed by Mike Nichols

Questions to Answer:

1. What role does creative thinking play in the life of the main reputation of the story?

2. How does the environs respond to the main character’s creativity?

3. What other forces in the life of the reputation do oppose his/her creativity?

4. Notice that these forces may be not only external, but also internal.

5. How does the reputation stand up for his/her need to stay creative? How does he/she defend his/her creativity? List his/her activenesses and valuate them.

6. How does the story reach you and what lessons did you learn with regards to your own creativity?

7. What are you prepared to do to be more creative?

B. PRACTICE CREATIVITY: EXERCISES FOR YOU

1. Developing a Creative Habit

1. Think of something you have long wanted to do or something you applied to like doing as a child but later abandoned because you got on with life obligations. It must be something that applied to give you pleasure.

2. Set time isolated and start out the routine of constructing a originative habit. At the beginning you may feel awkward, as altho you were out on a initial date. Do not give up; in time, awkwardness will dissipate and will be substituted by delight.

3. From time to time, check your progress of getting originative by running through the five characteristics of the originative habit described above. Remember: you will know that you are getting originative because you will feel inner joy and trust in your capacity to resolve difficulties in unusual, new, breathtakingly intellectual ways!

2. How Much Do You Avoid Being Creative? A Check-in

1. Use a each and everyday schedule to count the number of hours you spend watching television in a week.

2. Also, count the hours you spend each day surfing the web, chatting on the internet, or reading and writing e-mails.

3. Promise yourself to spend half of this time on television and the internet and the other half doing something creative. Challenge yourself.

3. Dare to Be Creative: Some Ideas

1. Do something you have wanted to do by have been postponing for a long time. E.g.: learn how to cook, work on your car, embellish a room in your house, invent a business idea, learn how to dance, get started a collection, learn how to make jewelry, learn a alien language. Follow your desire and listen to your heart.

2. Make it your habit to do something constructive or originative when you are in the grips of an unhelpful emotion, such as anger or sadness. Keep a log of your activenesses and progress. You will be amazed with the results in your life, in a very short time. (Hint: Watch Billy Elliot dance his anger off in the film listed above.)

3. Join a group or a class and learn to do something with your hands (e.g.: pottery, gardening, baking, making jewelry, welding, making furniture, knitting, etc.) Engage your body in the originative process, peculiarly if you spend hours in an office.

4. If you like music, join a choir or learn an instrument. Organize music nights at your home. (A client of mine coordinated ‘opera nights’ in her home; her guests dressed up as famous opera characters and each performed their favored aria. Then, they had champagne and a lavish, home-cooked dinner.)

5. Finish a project that you started out and abandoned a lot of time ago. When you finish it, have a party to celebrate your finished creation.

6. There are hundreds of books and video-tapes on craft-making. Borrow a few from your public library and read through them. Find a craft or action that interests you and emerge yourself in it. Allow yourself to have fun in the process.

7. For Christmas, a birthday, or for a particular a holiday, make your gifts for your family, friends or loved ones, rather of buying them: they may be hand-made cards, home-made cakes, a craft, a knitted sweater, a carved toy, a framed sketch, a collage, anything that stimulates your fantasy and gives you pleasure to create. Invite your family to do the same. Hand-made gifts are particular and very significant not only for those who receive them but likewise for those who make them. They are less likely to be thrown or put away, and gain value as time goes by.

8. Take a cooking class or create your “Party of Chefs”, in which you invite friends to participate in a collaboratively cooked dinner. Rent a cooking video, open your recipe books, and have a lot of fun creating in the kitchen!

9. Interview three people that you consider originative in any domain. Ask them when it comes to their originative habits and their kinship to their creativity. Ask them when it comes to the gifts they received from their originative habits. Ask for counsel of how to construct and maintain a originative habit.

10. Write the names of three people who drain your originative energy due to their actions, words, or attitudes. Resolve to limit your contact with them to the minimum, and use your time to invent a originative habit.

11. List three actions that drain your originative energy or consume your time from having a originative habit. Resolve to stop engaging in those actions without delay and save your originative energy.

C. THINGS TO REMEMBER

● Creativity needs exercise to grow into a habit.

● When are originative you feel free. When you feel free you have an open mind that allows others the freedom of being creative. This makes you beautiful and, very often, irresistible.

● Creativity and Joy are twins.

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