Creativity: The Voice of the Heart

Creativity gives light to feelings and emotions and a voice to the heart. We’re all born with this gift, but things like routine, stress, and structured and controlling jobs can completely silence the voice of innovation and creativity.

Creative people aren’t just the ones who know how to draw, write books, or design effective publicity campaigns. Creativity also involves the capacity to find alternative solutions and relate better to the people around you.

These days, creativity is an important job requirement for many companies. So much so, that businesses like Google include tests that barely even have to do with information technology in their selection processes. Questions like “how many uses would you give a plastic plug cover?” or “if your boss gave you a million dollars, what’s the best thing you could do with it?” hold a lot of weight.

Creativity and intelligence

The debate over the association between creativity and intelligence is deep and long-running. The answer is simple: there are no firm conclusions. People who are highly intelligent have a high creative potential, but they don’t always give creative or original answers. At least this is what multiple studies on the subject have demonstrated.

So you could say that people who are more creative than others have usually have a different way of seeing the world, and above all, of thinking and feeling.

It’s difficult to measure one’s creativity on just one scale. In reality, creativity is reflected in many different areas of life: devising plans and strategies, cooking, decorating a house, dancing, playing an instrument, dressing in style, interacting with people, loving others…

The power of emotions

Creative people who work at big businesses know very well that emotions stimulated through the senses can be very powerful when it comes to increasing sales.  For example: there are clothing brands that use distinctive fragrances in their stores that clients can immediately identify. The upholstery in many secondhand cars, meanwhile, are infused with the “new car smell” because companies know that this will please their customers and probably increase the chances of a sale.

Also, the brain is emotional, and it’s emotions that take you away from your rational side and push you to take unexpected steps, like making a purchase or simply getting sudden inspiration.

The most creative people have different ways of perceiving and reasoning that are worth learning more about. Consider the following:

Learn how to be more creative

Edward de Bono coined the term lateral thinking, which strays from from the analytical and unidirectional to leave room for more options and pathways. It involves forms of unconventional and divergent reasoning, like fantasizing, utilizing metaphors, and breaking stereotypes.

Creativity involves being more centered with yourself, your emotions, and the stimuli around you to achieve an appropriate balance. You have to let yourself become immersed in the process and be open to suggestions, but you also need to be able to focus on the goal.

Colors, smells, sensations. Did you know that certain colors and smells please the brain more than others? Blue and green are calming, vanilla and jasmine are relaxing, the smell of coffee is stimulating… But at the same time, it’s not enough to just be in a room full of pleasant colors and smells. You need natural lighting and a window to look out of and focus your thoughts.

To conclude, creative people, above all, are those who have flexible thought processes and an open mind. Creativity is an ability that we can all develop and make use of to feel more free and connected with the flow of life.