5 Beautiful Articles About Creativity

I’m fascinated by the healing power and simple magic of creativity. These articles look at why we create, how it helps us to cope with life and why it resonates so deeply with us all. It doesn’t matter what you create, it could be as simple as creating a nice meal or it could be creating a magnificent piece of art or even simply shaping some fairy lights into a heart and taking a pretty photo, it’s all profoundly good for the soul.

1. Coping And Creativity With Elizabeth Gilbert
   Author of Big Magic, Eat Pray Love and City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert talks about the soothing power of creativity and the importance of talking to yourself kindly.

   “There is something about creating something with your hands that is incredibly neurologically relaxing. And this is why human beings spend so much time creating. It’s not just practical. It’s also really, really soothing to do it.”
   https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/articles/coping-and-creativity-with-elizabeth-gilbert
   

2. Psychology, Art & Connection with Kia Cannons
   Kia Cannons is an abstract artist who I discovered on Instagram when I was really drawn to the energy in her paintings. She’s an empowerment coach and podcaster too and writes a regular column for Psychologies magazine. Kia talks a lot about her own journey from being told she ‘wasn’t good at art’ to making a full time career based on a passion for doing what she loves.
   “Art is a great messenger of emotions. From artist to viewer, it has the power to give us a sense of focus, allowing us to exist in the moment causing us to reflect on things we often lose sight of in the bustle and overwhelm of our everyday lives.”
   https://affordableartfair.com/inspiration/psychology-art-human-connection/
   

3. What Is Creativity by Maria Popova from Brain Pickings
   If you haven’t discovered Brain Pickings yet, you are in for a treat! This site, created by the curious, beautiful mind of Maria Popova is an absolute feast if you’re passionate about literature, creativity, philosophy and psychology. This article exploring the very essence of what creativity is features descriptions from some of the world’s greatest thinkers. I love this quote from Tom Bissell,

   “To create anything … is to believe, if only momentarily, you are capable of magic. … That magic … is sometimes perilous, sometimes infectious, sometimes fragile, sometimes failed, sometimes infuriating, sometimes triumphant, and sometimes tragic.”

   https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/09/06/what-is-creativity/
   

4. Why Creativity Is Too Important To Be Left To The Artists by The School of Life
   The School Of Life looks at another angle in this article, pointing out that being creative and thinking creatively is often connected to our pursuit of making our lives better in some way. People often say they are ‘not creative’ because they don’t write novels or paint masterpieces but there are so many more ways that we are all creative to improve our every day.

   “… when we repaint the bathroom and choose a more pleasing colour that we noticed in a book about houses in India; when we cook a meal and arrange the asparagus on a serving plate in the way they did in a film; when we introduce a set of icons in a report so that the main points come across more clearly… [ ] In every case, we are being creative because we are spotting an opportunity to make an improvement and increase our pleasure in life through an act of rearrangement and combination.”

   https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/why-creativity-is-too-important-to-be-left-to-artists/
   

5. Why We Create Music from Already Alive
   Already Alive are a creative studio based in New York & LA. A video rather than article but to really get across why we create music, you need music, right? This is a beautiful collaboration between 15 songwriters and composers celebrating their desire to make music.

   “I want you to feel what I feel.”

   https://www.alreadyalive.com/films/why-we-create-music/