grounded in potential

Handan T. Satiroglu
Handan T. Satiroglu, in addition to writing professionally, has also taught Sociology at Northern Virginia Community College, the second largest community college in the United States. Her lectures have largely concentrated on theoretical and empirical discussions encompassing current social, political and cultural debates. She currently splits her time between Alexandria, Virginia and Segovia, Spain.

         When I was a child, I loved to dance around the brightly colored table in our common room area. For hours on end, I would glide, flash, and twirl effortlessly before a gasping audience of kings and queens. In a mood of high drama, I was the quintessential ballerina, playing the title role in a Greek tragedy. The white fluffy tutu, or the meticulously applied makeup were not the most important aspects of my play-world--it was the act of creating a dream, a fantasy that was vital. But then I earned an education. I studied the masterpieces of Foucault, Rembrandt, Mozart and Dostoevsky. And before long, I realized how frivolous my artistic ambitions were compared to the works of these great artists. So I did what I came naturally--I buried my burgeoning creativity and cast immense doubt on who I was and what I could do creatively.
         
         How many of us can relate to this? We've all felt the pangs of inadequacy when it comes to opening the floodgates of creativity. All too often, those of us who set out to be creative stop dead in our tracks by fear, guilt or self-doubt. As Julia Cameron explains in The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity,

this is because as a culture, "we tend to define creativity too narrowly and to think of it in elitist terms, as something belonging to a small chosen tribe of 'real artists.'" By the time we are adults, we have internalized the myth that creativity is a natural gift bestowed upon those with unusual psychological states or "mad" minds, and "regular" folks lack the capacity to express themselves artistically.
         
         But the truth is (as anyone who has watched a child play knows) we can all be creative. While many of us might have become estranged or alienated from it, Cameron assures us that "creativity is part of us--just as blood is part of our physical body--and we each can tap into the greater creative energies of the universe and pull from that vast, powerful wellspring to amplify our own individual creativity." You have all that passion aching to declare itself, moment by moment--it is only a matter of cracking open the mind gates that have kept your creativity in exile. So take heart: the damage is not irreversible!
         
         Here are three suggestions to help you transform your world for the better by rekindling the dormant creativity within.
         
         All work and no leisure keep the creative life at bay
         
         In the rush of our accelerated lives, few people realize that one of the best ways to boost creativity is to immerse ourselves in leisure, or "goof-off" time. It used to be that most Americans had time to socialize at the local bar on weeknights and get away on the weekends. As we go forth into the twenty-first century, however, our high-tech life combined with the frenzied pace and insecurity of the workplace has fostered a culture of workaholics. Ask most Americans how they are doing, and you will hear desperate stories of burnout and frustration. Indeed, according to the latest report by the Census Bureau, the average number of working hours per day for Americans climbed from 8 hours in 1986 to 8.8 hours in 2005. An increase of .8 hours might not sound like much, but it translates into an astronomic 200 extra hours--that is nine additional days of work a year.
         
         Leisure time--a simple, intrinsic human need to foster creativity--has been the ultimate casualty in the battleground of work. In our modern world, productivity is a virtue, and idleness or play is a character defect. As work consumes our lives, we fail to relish and live in the moment. Living in the moment would help us to unblock the spirit and welcome the artistic stream of energy available to us. Thus, leave behind the bland and mechanical one-dimensional world of computer monitors, TVs, cars and beeping cell phones, and go out and play, whether at the beach or at your favorite bike trail--as long as it's far enough away from the mind numbing routines of our everyday lives. Experts agree that the dislocation from the desk sets the stage for us to be attuned to the moment, to relax and feel connected to the inventive part of our brain.
         
         Sweet dreams are made out of creativity
         
         Everybody feels invigorated and fully alert after a good dose of shut-eye. But can you feel more creative after a sound night's sleep? The answer is a resounding yes, according to a study conducted at the University of Luebeck in Germany. In a controlled experiment, German scientists found that individuals who got full eight hours of sleep were three times more likely to figure out an implicit rule to a complex mathematical problem than their sleep-deprived counterparts. While the connection between creativity and sleep has long been speculated, the results of this particular study "give us good reason to fully respect our periods of sleep--especially given the current trend to recklessly curtail them," the scientists claimed.
         
         The reckless negligence of sleep should be a cause for concern. A poll conducted recently by the American Insomnia Association found that more than a third of Americans experience bouts of sleep disturbances, while an estimated 20 million in the country suffer from the torments of chronic insomnia--the kind that deprives them of a restful sleep

almost nightly, leaving them unproductive, unimaginative and exhausted for months on end.
         
         "Bed is a medicine" invites a wise Italian proverb. Even history suggests that explosions of creative energy and inspiration can spring forth from the unconscious work of sack-time. It is said that the renowned chemist Dmitri Mendeleev devised the periodic table upon awakening from a deep slumber that showed him where to lay the elements in the table. The nineteenth-century German chemist Friedrich August Kekule, discoverer of benzene's ring structure, elucidated that the ring structure of benzene suggested itself in a somnolent vision of a snake chewing its own tail.
         
         Another recent celebrated case is that of contemporary guitarist Keith Richard of the Rolling Stones who acknowledged that the signature guitar riff in the song "I can't get no satisfaction" came to him in his sleep, while Paul McCartney of the Beatles dreamed of his ballad "Yesterday" in his sleep. While these cases might seem exceptional to us, there is no question that a good dose of snooze can help us nurture the elusive creative seed. So, next time you perceive sleep as yet another wimpy indulgence, think of how much you might be short-circuiting your creativity. When it comes to sleep, don't settle for less!
         
         Creativity comes with taking little risks at a time
         
         "Think of your tiny risks as a form of self-training," Cameron advices her audience in her book Finding Water. "You are learning to say, 'Yes, I can' instead of 'No, I can't." A great deal of good comes from our just taking the plunge, and moving outside of our comfort zone. Creativity comes from experimenting with new, untested waters, and a willingness to win or lose. When the prolific author Natalie Goldberg is asked how she fuels her creativity, she motions holding a pen and moving it across a blank page. The secret to creativity, she makes it clear is to just do it--no rules, no regulations, no fears, no doubts but only the constant flow of creative energy with no guaranteed outcome. This message invokes the famous quote by science fiction writer Ray Douglas Bradbury: "Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't try to do new things. You simply must do things." Risks and all.
         
         But silencing that deeply ingrained critical mind can be harder than we might think. In my quest of that extraordinary flow of creativity, I recently dabbled in oil painting. As I was trying to be creative, it soon became clear to me that I wasn't pursuing the right goals. "Wouldn't it feel good to just paint?" our teacher asked me, "without having to think of the outcome; if it is good or bad, mediocre, meaningful or superficial." The primary purpose of the class, she instructed her nervous students eager to give birth to the next masterpiece, is not necessarily to become great painters, but rather to explore the act of creation, as a way of awakening to our true nature. As I tuned in to her infectious expression on the importance of opening ourselves to the moment and foregoing plans, preconceptions, expectations and fears, I found myself gleefully dipping my brush into the thick swirls of color, allowing my brush to experiment wildly on the canvas, almost in the manner of a kindergartener. Unlike a kindergartener, however, I am embarrassed of the outcome.
         My embarrassment is closely tied in with my unwillingness to take a risk with my creativity because like most Americans, I want a guarantee of a successful outcome; a large and bodacious "pay off." But as my instructor reminds me, in order to liberate our artistic expressions, we need to immerse in tasks with no tangible outcome. That means engaging in non-goal oriented activities and just losing ourselves in the sheer joy of creating. As the nineteenth-century American humorist and writer Mark Twain put it eloquently, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."
         
         Creativity is an essential part of our lives, without which we can exist, but not feel pleasurably alive. It is the essence of a balanced life, the doorway to a serious and transformative spiritual existence. And yet, many of us have forgone our natural wonder and creativity in our quest to "get ahead" in life. The plethora of family and work obligations has left us with neither the energy nor the time to tap into our creative sources. It need not be like this. Many of us, when we were younger, dreamt of painting, dancing, composing and writing. So, I say, start now. Get foolish, give these suggestions a try. Who knows? If we are creative for what it's worth, we might discover what every child knows about the essence of life.
         
         "Most people would be surprised if they saw how much they adhered to a routine in their lives," says Dr. Benjamin Olshin, Director for the Center for the Creative Economy at The University of the Arts. "People in modern, Westernized, industrialized societies tend to get up, eat, and work according to fixed schedules that don't change with the seasons or their geographical location," he says. Such a rigid schedule, according to Dr. Olshin, translates into little mental stimulation, since there is hardly any change in one's external environment.