With puberty, the child's brain changes to resemble an adult's. The theta brain waves and the wildly creative flair of the child begin to fade. Some people, however, continue to tap the richness of theta states later in life. Thomas Edison put the hypnagogic state to work when he was an adult. He had an unusual technique for doing this: He would doze off in a chair with his arms and hands draped over the armrests. In each hand he held a ball bearing. Below each hand on the floor were two pie plates. When he drifted into the state between waking and sleeping, his hands would naturally relax and the ball bearings would drop on the plate. Awakened by the noise, Edison would immediately make notes on any ideas that had come to him.
Letting Go
When people reflect on those times when they have been most fully creative and expressive, they often describe it as a "letting-go" experience. It is at that point that creativity occurs.
It may be in doing vigorous exercise or in concentrating on some simple, repetitive task. It may be just as you are falling asleep, in dreams, or just as you are waking up. Many find that they routinely get a useful insight in the shower. Meditating, stretching, playing an instrument, dancing—these are other ways that people have of surrendering to their own creativity.
The following two approaches can also help move you from being stuck to letting go:
Creative People On Creativity
Spalding Gray, writer
"I have a box beside my desk where I throw everything that's on my mind about issues I haven't solved. It's like my life puzzle. I just dump that box out and go through it and begin to make an outline. In that process I begin to work what I would call creatively. Or like a creative editor. What signals me that it's working is butterflies in my stomach. It's a feeling of being turned on. When I first started working that's how I knew that these stories were delightful, that they tickled me and would probably translate, although I was never worried about that.
"Creativity is mainly beginning to see the fabric of the structure, the structural fabric of the overall theme of what I'm talking about. It's looking a little bit more into the thematic center of it. It's looking into that and then shaping it so that it is a predominate feature. Almost like an obsession or something that is lighting like neon. The creative part is finding a structure and fabric that has resonance.
"My process differs because most of the creativity goes on publicly. I never pre-write the monologue. What happens is that I make public discoveries. And the audience sees that I make that discovery. The creative part of things is the part you have the least control over. Always, I find I'm smarter and more creative publicly, in front of people. The monologue really grows and has its life. There are public discoveries because I'm forgetting myself in front of the people.
"Creativity is a quick, clear message that translates into understated art that presumes and assumes nothing of another person's learning or intellect."
Steve Dunleavy, reporter
"Creative people are committed to risk. The creative person always walks two steps into the darkness. Everybody can see what's in the light... the real heroes delve in the dark."
Benny Golson, musician
"Creativity comes by breaking the rules, by saying that you're in love with the anarchist."
Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop
"Creativity is cutting holes to see through."
Ally Sheedy, actor
"For me, the creative moment almost always occurs during a dream state. I wake up certain that I have created something but I am unaware of what it is at the time. The creation becomes realized during a later conscious state in its entirety. But I recognize it as the memory of an earlier idea."
John Waters, director
"The most important thing I think to get into a creative spirit is to make time every day to do it, so it becomes a ritual and a routine. I write everyday from exactly eight o'clock to noon. I have to create that order to be able to do it. But thinking it up certainly happens all the time. Sometimes it's like work for me so I carry little notebooks around. Generally I do it at the exact time everyday. But once I'm into it I even dream about it.
"It's not possible to pinpoint before I'm going to write something. I go out exploring horrible bars or different places, even though I'm not going to write about that. I have to go explore places so I purposely go to places I was always afraid to go.
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