How spontaneous dancing is a creative gift to yourself When my daughter was three her she’d dance wildly on the rug in our living room. Clutching a bear in each hand, aa spare stuffed down the front of her tutu, she’d jump up and down, arms (and bears) waving. I’d Read more…
And how doing something else can help unlock creativity When I was a kid we had one of those ping pong tables that folded up so you could play by yourself.Exactly the kind of relaxed and unfocused activity that gives your brain a rest while sneakily opening the door to Read more…
and why it’s not just for kids My first piano lesson, my father and I rocked up to the local Catholic convent to meet my teacher. One hundred years old, at least! Long black habit. Ruler in hand to rap my knuckles every time I made a mistake…you get the Read more…
Hey hey, in this week’s Creativity Helm newsletter, I talk about black holes and compare creativity to an event horizon… To find out what they have in common, follow this link ⚫️
and how they can boost creativity Do you think imaginative play belongs to children, and that most of us grow out of it? I don’t think that’s true. It’s just that we learn to call it something else: design, storytelling, art, dance, coding, music, even strategy and problem-solving. Creativity, in other Read more…
We’re hardwired to seek patterns and predict outcomes. We love certainty and what we know, and we want to get things right and not make mistakes. But creativity lives in that exact space of not knowing what comes next, of having to make a choice instead of following in someone Read more…
How music can help make some space in our heads for creative thinking Do you remember how it felt to be bored when you were a kid? Absolutely nothing to do except weave strands of grass or stare at the clouds. This kind of boredom triggers a state in our Read more…
Why we like to stick to the same songs instead of trying something new (and what this means for creativity) I don’t know about you, but I have songs I keep coming back to, over and over again. I know exactly how they’re going to sound and how they’re going Read more…
and why we can all be listening to it When I was a kid we didn’t listen to classical music. My mother taught herself to play chords on the guitar so she could sing songs (Skip to my Lou! Khumbaya!) to her primary school classes, and, when he was younger, my Read more…
How Easter eggs can spark creativity When my daughter was little, I’d sneak out early on Easter Sunday morning, in snow, sun, rain, or whatever else a Swiss spring can throw at me, to hide lots of little eggs around our garden. She’d find most of them but invariably I’d Read more…
