The
game I am speaking of is the structure through which we perceive and thus
conceive of ourselves and the world around us. If you were to distill down how
you perceive the world into a paragraph, a sentence and then to a word, what
would it be? I have found the word for me both surprising and sobering. I
invite you to consider the question in a quiet moment, concluding with the word
that best representing your present construct of your Universe.
The word that best reflects my current, that is not daily,
or weekly, but persistent world view is "polarity." I do not mean
duality, contrast, or even dichotomy, but opposition in a way that stops possibility.
As a visual artist, my orientation is creating, which I distinguish here from
creativity. In creating, I speak of making something that was not there before
you conceived of and created it. It could be a business, a meal, or the idea in
a conversation. Creating is also different from problem solving. Although many
problems arise in the creative process, overcoming them supports a greater
vision and is not the goal in and of its self.
The structure of polarity does not invite creation because
the two ends of the spectrum fight each other. In my studio life at last
polarity is not an active dynamic, however in the rest of my life the conflict
between negative and positive valence often truncates my options. The word
valence is usually used in psychology in relation to emotions. In different
cultures, eras, and even in relation to gender, the same emotion can considered
negative or positive. That some emotions are better than others is a value
judgment, an example of how our teaches us to think in polarities that is not
necessarily there.
Karla McLaren in her book, The Art of Empathy, a Complete
Guide to Life’s Most Essential Skill, talks about the how intense research
on empathy is happening worldwide in more than a half dozen academic
disciplines. Neuroscience is revolutionizing our thinking about feelings. There
is more and more agreement that any emotion that comes up is valid, and
emotions in and of themselves do not have a negative or positive valence. No
emotion is invalid. How it feels and what you do with it, of course, is another
question.
Emotions are indeed a natural response that causes damage only
if repressed or acted out. Creating emotional polarity of good and bad lessens
the opportunity for accurate perception, growth, healing and understanding. Emotions
are a lucid example of how we are enculturated into polarity-based thinking which
truncates our possibility of creative response. We have done the same thing when
we pitch the masculine and feminine against each other. They are not opposites.
They are compliments, for they inform each other. We have recently witnessed in
our country the state of congressional dysfunction when the two political
parties are polarized.
What is it exactly that attaches us to positions of
right/wrong, good/bad? It is not principles of ethics,I believe, but identity.
That is what we can or want to identify with over-rides our values. The more we
react without reflection, the deeper the ruts of our polarities. We have all heard of Viktor Frankl, the Austrian
psychiatrist and survivor of Auschwitz. He had a first-hand experience of what one
might call clear-cut polarity of right/wrong or good/bad and yet he did not identify himself as victim.
This is what he learned from that experience.
Between
a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose
our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. The last of
human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.
Let us consider identity in the realm of those in a culture
who are creating with an identity which allows them to go beyond the rigid
constructs of the norm. There have always been a few who were able to hold
their identity loosely and expand what was thought infeasible. They have a
curiosity and willingness to play and work which factors which cultural norm
feel contradict each other.
Within inter-disciplinary research many old beliefs of
creativity are being discarded. After 30 years of research and the publication
of his now famous ‘flow’ theory, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has worked with ‘creatives’
including; Nobel Prize winners, Poets Laureates, and well-known authors, composers and artist
of all disciplines. In his book Creativity,
he interviewed one hundred creative people across a range of professional
fields. Contrary to popular myth, one of
their common characteristics is a generalized equilibrium is the enjoyment of
life with a constant willingness to expand the edges of what has gone before --
they are adept in the art of internal adaptation as life conditions change because
they see more options than most of us. I know personally know how the roller
coaster of doubt and elation in the studio can undermine or support the
creative process.
There have always been a few who were able to hold their
identity loosely and expand what was thought infeasible. Let us consider those
in a culture who create with an identity which allows them to go beyond the
rigid constructs of the norm. They have a curiosity and willingness to work with
factors, which like Frankl, do not fall into the construct of polarity.
Within inter-disciplinary research many old beliefs of
creativity are being discarded. After 30 years of research and the publication
of his now famous ‘flow’ theory, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has worked with ‘creatives’
including; Nobel Prize winners, Poets Laureates, and well-known authors, composers and artist
of all disciplines. In his book Creativity,
he interviewed one hundred creative people across a range of professional
fields. Contrary to popular myth, one of
their common characteristics is a generalized equilibrium is the enjoyment of
life with a constant willingness to expand the edges of what has gone before --
they are adept in the art of internal adaptation as life conditions change because
they see more options than most of us. I know personally know how the roller
coaster of doubt and elation in the studio can undermine or support the
creative process.
Linda Graham in her book, Bouncing Back, Rewiring Your
Brain for Maximum Resilience and Well-Being uses the latest research in
neuroplasticity of the brain to prove that what we once thought was hard wired
is not. Here are just a few of the kind
of awareness shifts that help you rewire your brain for resilience, well-being,
and I would add, more possibilities for creating. In the book she offers exercises
that help you to see different perspectives, create new options and discern
choices, interrupt self-talk, and facilitate deeper brain integration as a way
of reconditioning old identities.
