What Lies Within Us The Transformational Power of Creativity
[Music]
what lies behind us
and what lies before us are small
matters
compared to what lies within us
emerson’s words are both timeless and
timely we have just passed a temporal
landmark
a year into our journey through a global
pandemic
so this is a natural time to pause and
reflect
think about what has gotten us through
this far
and what lies within us that can help us
emerge from the other side
creativity the ability to
imagine to be curious to
generate something new and unique this
is our
birthright creativity is what brings
into being the thoughts and ideas
that are unique to us as individuals
we’re creating when we
express dream or wonder
creative thinking enables us to
visualize
a future state when we are in the midst
of
immersed in a present state that feels
or may actually be intolerable
creativity allows us to see windows
where others see walls as adults
in our society we often impose a false
binary
around this concept of creativity and
the idea that you’re either creative or
you’re not
is not only reductive it is absolutely
untrue creativity is available to
all of us it’s an equal opportunity
asset
as a licensed creative arts therapist
and global leadership educator
i’ve had the pleasure of doing the work
that i love
in more than 30 countries and i’m not
done yet my passion
is helping people move through adversity
by connecting with the wellspring of
their own creativity
i’d like to take you on a trip we’re
going to make three stops
an orphanage in addis ababa ethiopia
a primary school in tusla bosnia
and a convention center in little rock
arkansas
our first stop is ethiopia
in 2007 i traveled there to work with
hiv-positive orphans
in children’s homes across addis ababa
and my role was to coordinate with the
medical teams and the staff
to ensure that the kids psychosocial
needs were getting met
one day when i arrived at a particular
orphanage in the dusty outskirts of the
capitol
i was greeted by shouts of joy and 46
pairs of feet
running to greet us in the courtyard
after playing soccer for about an hour
we all moved inside
for some refreshments and art activities
i handed out paper crayons and markers
which were accepted with tiny hands and
hushed reverence
i then told the children to
use the art materials to create a
picture of something that makes you
happy
my colleague then translated my words
into amharic
and quiet settled in the room and the
children
began to draw so
imagine my surprise when after five
minutes
the room is silent crayons down 46
children
sitting silently having all drawn
what amounted to be the exact same
picture and i turned to my colleague and
quietly
inquired as to how he had translated my
instructions
because how could it be that this one
flower
was the thing that made all of these
children happy
then he told me that someone had come to
the residence earlier in the year
and had taught the children the right
way the correct way to make
art so that is exactly what they had
tried to do
so that night when i returned to the
guest house
i raided my room and my suitcase for
any kind of object that had a unique
shape
that i could then put inside a bag
the next day when i showed up i pulled
some of the older kids off to the side
and i said we’re going to draw again i
gave them paper
crayons and markers but this time i said
before we draw
i want you to put your hand
inside this bag and reach around in
there until your hand finds a shape that
it likes
when you find that i want you to
imagine what that might look like
even though you haven’t seen it with
your eyes and then i want you
to draw it on your paper when they
finished their drawings
we all moved into a tight circle on the
floor
come on do you see the thing that you
drew
yes they said yes the item that had been
drawn the most
was my plastic toothbrush holder
so i modeled feeling its shape
exploring it looking at it from
different angles
and i passed it to the little boy beside
me
and said what do you think it could be
i don’t know he said quickly and passed
it off to the right
the next little girl took it and said
it’s blue yes i said
what else is it
it could be an airplane
yes i said it could be an airplane
what else could it be the next little
girl took it
and spying the seam around the middle
she pulled at both sides and
pop it opened a smile washed across her
face
as she said i could put some stones
inside
and shake it to make music
yes i said
yes our work
and our play reached a different level
after that day at the orphanage they had
unleashed their own creativity
and it was like a fire had been lit
inside their tiny frames
shedding a brighter light into their
world
at a very basic level
creativity is integral to life itself
the thoughts that we think that we
create
have a profound impact on the ways in
which we
interact with the world our thoughts
create our beliefs which inform our
behaviors and
color the meaning that we make from the
experiences that we have
so there’s a reciprocal relationship
between how we perceive the world
and how we act in it how we actively
explore or shy away from our own
agency it’s time for our second stop
several years after the war in former
yugoslavia
i had the pleasure of traveling to the
beautiful country
of bosnia for several consecutive
summers
i went there working with a team of
creative arts therapists and
psychologists
to help educators work through
post-war trauma in their classrooms with
their children
the first year we started in a town
called tusla
and on the second day it became apparent
that before we would
really coalesce as a group we needed to
work through
just a little bit of resistance
here’s what it looked like all right
so in art this morning you all chose
a symbol to represent yourself and then
you drew it on paper
then we wrote a three sentence story
about the symbol
where the first sentence was a statement
about the symbol
in the second sentence something happens
and in the third sentence something is
changed
so now we’re going to build on that
activity
and we’re going to act these stories out
excuse me we can’t act these stories out
they’re about symbols yes
they’re about symbols but what do the
symbols represent
well they represent us but you still
can’t act the story out
let me read mine to prove it to you
there was a candle by a window darkness
came suddenly
and tried to blow the flame out but the
candle’s flame didn’t go out
instead it grew stronger
you see thank you for that
beautiful story and beautiful metaphor
so let me ask the group is there anyone
here who thinks
that maybe just maybe
it can be acted out
okay great yes
yes come on
would it be all right with you if these
four tried to act out your story
sure they can try okay
let’s watch
am a candle burning in a window
a great wind blows in and tries to
extinguish my flame
but instead i grow stronger
shining a light for everyone to see
i am a candle and my flame brings warmth
to
all those around me
i am a candle and even as i grow
smaller my light shines strong
for everyone to see
so we acted out the stories in fact
we went on to collaborate with this
group of educators
to build a creative arts based
curriculum
to heal trauma that was ultimately
rolled out across the country
and in developing this curriculum we
accidentally stumbled on
a huge realization while the initial
intent
had been to help children heal from
trauma
we realized that the adults who were
teaching
and parenting the children had their own
traumas
that had been compartmentalized and
never expressed
so a delicate parallel process emerged
where the teachers were able to safely
explore
and contain these feelings that they
would be guiding the children through
now it’s time for our third stop
little rock arkansas after hurricanes
katrina
and rita devastated the city of new
orleans
a large group of educators and students
were evacuated to little rock
so i traveled there once again with a
group of creative arts therapists
to design a curriculum that would help
both the teachers
and the students begin to process the
loss
and move toward healing a few days
before i started my work with the
teachers
i chanced upon a public fountain
that had been drained of its water
underneath the layer of grit in the
basin there were all of these
coins mostly pennies and some other
objects that had been tossed into the
fountain
so i immediately filled my pockets with
these coins
knowing that they would somehow be
integral
to the work that i was going to do with
the teachers i didn’t know how yet
but i knew that they would the first day
of our work with the teachers was very
somber
very sad their stories of loss
were heart wrenching so i knew that our
second day
we needed to begin with a little bit
more structure they needed to have an
activity
that would allow them to have emotional
distance from the trauma
that they had just left behind in new
orleans
so when they entered the room on the
second day
i invited them to sit with me in a
circle
on the floor in the center of the circle
there was a bowl that i had filled
with the coins and one discarded ring
and i told them every coin
in this bowl was someone’s wish
as we pass the bowl around i invite you
to touch the coins
hold them in your hand find one that
speaks to you
and when you find your coin listen to it
what story does it tell you
whose wish does it hold and did that
wish come true
or not once you have your answers
write them down in the form of a short
fictional story
so they all wrote stories and we shared
them
in circles of four then we chose one
story to dramatize as a large group
and the one that was selected was
actually the story about the discarded
ring
the heroine of the story was named becky
and the ring had been given to becky by
her fiance
who had promised her the world and then
left her right before the wedding
becky was devastated
and as she stood by the fountain
holding the ring she was deciding
whether to give up on life
altogether or to let go of the past
and try to move forward
in casting the ring into the fountain
becky made her choice she decided
that she would move away from the life
that she had planned
and step into with cautious
optimism the life that was
awaiting her stories
connect fantasy and reality
they’re the gatekeepers between inner
and outer worlds
and in working within a fictional frame
this gives us a degree of psychological
safety
we can explore feelings and situations
that might be too
overwhelming to confront directly
in telling becky’s story and acting it
out
the teachers were able to explore their
own stories
of loss and despair but with
a degree of separation they were able to
tread alongside becky
as she made the choice to take the
vulnerable journey
towards renewal and hope
well i’m afraid our trip together
is coming to an end but i hope that your
journey with your own creativity
is just beginning so as we live our way
into the coming months and years
remember your creativity is a
vital source of rejuvenation that is
always with you
and tapping into your creativity will
help you
move through adversity find answers to
your questions and
questions for your answers
so think of each day
as a blank canvas and know that
you are creating when you are
imagining moving singing
dancing writing gardening cooking
connecting with people that you love
creativity lies within you
so use it to discover and express who
you
are fully and deeply for all of the days
that you are privileged
to walk on this earth
you