Living a creative life everyday.
[Music]
okay
i love to move without structure goals
or expectations
i love to skip down the street
and jump into puddles
i’m not only doing it because it’s fun
but i’m also doing it because it helps
me to stay curious
courageous and resilient
it allows me to think
around the edges
and to fully feel and express my
emotions
being physically playful
helps to maintain a playful state of
mind
and that is a key to being creative
courageous and resilient
being playful helps me to be
undaunted not intimidated by
difficulties or disappointed by
discouragement
it allows me to stay audacious and to
take risks
you might ask yourself how’s
playfulness connected to being creative
and resilient
and i will answer that for you today
but firstly
i want to invite you to think back
to time when you were little
and the world was filled with wonder and
excitement
life was about enjoying the little
things
going on adventures
being present with each other you might
have built a tree house or
run for the fields barefield
you might have made up wondrous stories
in your mind
life was full of enchantment and
surprises
we enjoyed the unpredictability the
messiness the risk-taking we embrace the
exuberance of our bodies
as children we instinctively played with
movement sound
and gestures to make sense of the world
around us
we are all born creative
curious and hungry to explore the world
yet when is the last time you jumped
into a puddle
danced under the moonlight
or pretended to rule the world
most of us have forgotten that wildness
within us those creative and instinctual
parts have been put to the side as we
acquired kids jobs mortgages
who hasn’t heard stop playing around
there’s work to do be serious
there is a common perception that
playfulness is only for children
or worse for the lazy or the idol
but far from being a useless activity
playfulness and thus imagination and
creativity
is a world of understanding both
our external reality
and our internal subjective world
often our most advanced mental functions
like abstract conceptual thought or
problem-solving skills are not able to
resolve problems
instead the earliest glimmers of
understanding emerges images metaphors
and symbols
if we take our imagination seriously and
give it concrete expression we set into
motion a process of understanding and
integrating even the most difficult
experiences
creativity is our ability to come up
with and act upon novel ideas and
solutions
and the reality is in for ever-changing
world like ours we desperately need to
be open to unconventional solutions
lives faster than ever we are under
pressure there will be forever hiccups
setbacks difficulties we need to find
ways to stay open and resilient
times of change and flux can be very
vulnerable experiences and it doesn’t
matter whether it’s a new job those
unpredictable people around us epidemic
or if we’re just asking ourselves what’s
next
so how can we keep these abilities open
because effect is if we keep
doing the same things over and over
again if we maintain the same patterns
if we are relying on set routines we
will only and always choose the most
familiar answer and that’s usually the
least interesting one
we need to be able to deepen our
thinking so that we can see all the
contradictory multiple possibilities to
grab the most innovative innovative
solution we can find
so how can we
step
into the unknown
and deal with whatever life has to offer
what should i say whatever life throws
at us
play might just be the answer
experiments conducted at the mit
indicate that play is at the very core
of creativity and innovation
yet studies in patient medicine show
that free play time for children has
reduced by over 70 percent in the last
20 years
a lack of free play in early childhood
although
allows us to indicate a susceptibility
to criminal activities and addiction so
children who are deprived of play
whether due to poverty absent parents or
an over-structured childhood are more
likely three times more likely to be
arrested for a crime at the age of 23
than compared to children who actually
had a playful upbringing or attended a
play orientated preschool
it has also led to the common phenomena
that since we kind of reduced play time
and childhood and education that really
innovative companies are training or
teaching the employees to play again in
order to awaken that dormant creativity
so why do research stress so much the
importance of apply for the early
development of the brains on children
children doing play they learn to
calculate possibilities they make
assumptions about their physical
surroundings they adjust their
perception according to the input of
others they develop chronological
awareness play is linked to language
development self-control social skills
and empathy
play also allows children to integrate
and work through
very difficult experiences such as
natural disasters drama grief loss of
violence
and for adults
play is an evolutionary process
it is a profound biological process and
it affects
our outlook on life as adults
so
playfulness for adults is energizing and
it releases our brain from the linear
sensible thinking so we can actually
make all those unconventional
connections
an atmosphere of playfulness allows us
to communicate and express our feelings
to connect to each other in a direct and
honest way
we get to know ourselves and become
present in the here and now
playfulness releases us from
perfectionism because we’re allowed to
tinker to experiment and to make
mistakes
playfulness helps us to recover quickly
from stress
remain curious in our work stay open
and have more fun in life during play we
can lose ourselves and find ourselves at
the same time
without play adults might end up getting
burned out or tired from the constant
hustle and bustle
without play adults might become unhappy
without really understanding why
so very often if we are able to reawaken
those playful and creative instincts
we’re also unlocking a big positive
change in an adult’s life
let me just specify the difference
between play and games for the one in
the audience who go like i play cards i
should be fine there is a difference
between games and play so games have are
priori rules and those rules need to be
followed during the game to make the
game enjoyable you cannot just match
qriket with football
play on the other hand has no rules
it affords us to be present in the here
now we need to improvise and go with the
flow so the brain is forced to come up
with it ad hoc in the moment solution
and that’s the creativity in it during
play we
aim to be creative and that’s how we
learn
creativity although is like a muscle
if you’re not gonna use it you will lose
it
you cannot sit back on your couch and
wait for creativity to strike you like
lightning
you need to build it into your daily
life like a practice
and that process is necessarily
different for each one of you because
creativity like our dna is unique to the
individual
there are although a couple of things
you can do to boost that playfulness and
i want to share some things for you
today to integrate in your life
think back when you were little
what did you enjoy doing as a child what
were those activities where you just in
the moment and you did not consider the
outcome
you want to take those memories and
translate them into sensations now so
find an activity and make it matching to
your current circumstances
if that’s a little bit too abstract
practice ambidexterity
ambi dexterity will actually enhance
your ability to use both sides of your
brain to come up with a solution
if you sit in front of your computer and
feel a little bit blur
get up
move in a non-linear abstract way that
connects to your feelings for about 30
seconds to a minute
my office got actually used to my graded
outburst i promise
if you feel stuck with a problem get up
go for a walk don’t think about it
focus on your surroundings
feel the wind on your skin
smell the air watch the clouds go by
research has shown that innovative
thinking increases by 58
just after a 10-minute leisurely stroll
give yourself time in the day to do
something without purpose
daydream
stay out of the window
effective people actually do stare out
of windows
the interesting thing is that we’re not
staring out of the window to find out
what’s going on outside
but it is paradoxically
a discovery of the contents of our own
mind
engage in some form of free movement
during the day that has no structure or
expected outcome
if you’re exercising to burn fat you’re
actually not playing
free imaginative play
might include fantasies like being
someone else
or something else
or it might just be that you skip down
the road and
jump into a puddle
free imaginative play is crucial
it makes us better adjusted smarter and
less stress
so
to make take time to play and to make
sure you play schedule time in your day
through it
live a creative life
and take time to play
[Music]
you