Enhance Your Well-Being Through Creativity
Is personal creativity something that is mutable or is it a finite ability with discreet boundaries and limitations? Early life experiences as children may cause us to think of ourselves as creative or not; yet, within the last 3 decades psychologists and other social scientists are exploring the concept that perhaps we can learn the essential elements of creativity and use them to improve our lives and psychological well-being; also, defined as happiness by the following author.
Psychologist and author Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi (professor and former chairman of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chicago), believes that although creative persons are different from one another in a variety of ways; they all have one thing in common: “They all love what they do.” They are not driven by dreams of fame or making lots of money; instead, it is the opportunity to do the work that they find most enjoyable. He found that it is not the career that determines the level of happiness; it is how these individuals perform their work. They derive a certain level of enjoyment from their work.
Through interviews with many people of various skills; such as, architects, athletes, chemists, engineers, historians, musicians, physicists, sociologists, and writers; Csikszentmihalyi has identified some commonly mentioned key elements of an enjoyable experience:
- There is a balance between challenges and skills.
- Action and awareness are merged.
- Distractions are excluded from consciousness.
- There is no worry of failure.
- Self-consciousness disappears.
- The activity becomes an end in itself.
Inherent Motivations that Can Enhance Creativity
According to Csikszentmihalyi, people focus their life activities in
accordance with two powerful motivations. One is the ability to enjoy being
creative for the sake of exploration and invention which has over generations
enhanced human society’s ability to survive in an unpredictable world. The other
is to derive pleasure from comfort and relaxation which allows us to rejuvenate
ourselves and to recover our energy in order to maintain overall health and
well-being. A balance of these two motivations can lead to enhanced
creativity.
Csikszentmihalyi offers some suggestions for enhancing our own creative
energy which he believes may enhance an individual’s well-being or
happiness:
- Try to be surprised by something every day.
- When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it.
- Recognize that if you do anything well it becomes enjoyable.
- To keep enjoying something, increase its complexity.
- Make time for reflection and relaxation.
- Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible.
- Produce as many ideas as possible.
- Try to produce unlikely ideas.
Although the use of creativity is believed by some psychologists to contribute to the experience of well-being or happiness, the connection between creativity and well-being is quite complex. In that, during a creative activity an individual may not necessary feel a sense of well-being or happiness; instead, the individual’s focus is on the activity. The opportunity to experience well-being occurs after the experience or during a moment of distraction within the activity.
Csikszentmihalyi suggests that we focus on ways improve the opportunity for creativity to be experienced in our everyday lives. In general, many social scientists researching creativity encourage society to promote and to pursue creativity in all age groups as a way to enhance societal well-being. Additional information on creativity can be obtained through the following references.
The UCSF Faculty Staff and Assistance Program (FSAP) provides confidential assessment, counseling, and referral services that support the well being of both the individual and the organization. FSAP is located at the Laurel Heights campus at 3333 California Street, Suite 293. Please contact us at (415) 476-8279 or visit the HR web site at:
References and Resources
- Csikszentmihalyi, M., (1996). Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention. HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
- Csikszentmihalyi, M., (1997). “Happiness and creativity.” The Futurist, Sep/Oct: 31(5).