Katherine Riggs got in touch the other day. She is a cranio sacral therapist working in London and is developing a course aimed at people who want to connect with their creative potential more fully. As part of her research she developed a questionnaire to find out how other people experience their own creativity, what preconceptions they have about creative pursuits, where they draw inspiration and what blocks them. The question ‘What is creativity?’ being the overarching principle.
She sent the questionnaire to me with the guideline that, ‘the first answer that pops in your mind – no matter how ridiculous – is the right answer’.
Completing the questionnaire made my squeeze into words a way of being I hadn’t expressed before. I think a year ago, before I wrote this book my answers would have been different.
Anyway here it is, and my answers for your perusal.
How would you have answered differently?
Let me know at the bottom of the page.
Creativity Questionnaire
• Do you consider yourself to be a creative person?
Yes.
• How do you know?
I know by a combination of what I create and how I solve problems. Also I am often told I am creative by other people.
• To what extent do you feel a need or desire to be creative?
I don’t think I ever feel a need to be creative, I just find myself creating. Whether it is arranging napkins or writing a piece of music or painting a picture it just kind of goes on.
• What words describe how it feels when you are involved in a creative activity?
Dynamically tense, happy, frustrated, inspired, free.
• Do you work in a creative field? If so, to what extent does this fullfill your creative drive? If not, would you like to work in a more creative job?
Yes, I work in a creative field. Expressing my creativity is always a balance between what I envision and the means at my disposal.
• What is creativity?
Creativity is where I take my perspective and I express it in my external reality.
• Where does it come from?
On a good day it comes from the deepest part of me.
• Are we born with creative potential or is it a talent that only some possess?
I only know about me and yes I was born with creative potential. I think it requires a certain amount of self esteem to think my perspective is worth expressing. My observation of people who don’t express their creativity is that at some time in their lives they decided they weren’t creative. [If I was designing a course aimed at individuals who wish to connect more fully with their creative potential this is where I would focus. From my experience of treating people with creative inhibitions it nearly always comes down to a traumatic incident where the person decided that being creative was too dangerous. The book, 'Drawing on the right side of your brain.' has some great exercises for highlighting this.]
• Creativity is _______% inspiration & _________% perspiration.
• Creativity is 100% inspiration & 100% perspiration.
• Complete the sentence:
Artists are – like the tour guides for reality. They draw my attention to things I might not have noticed. They give me a window into how they see things.
An artist always – moves me.
An artist never – conforms.
• I could be a (more) successful artist/writer/musician etc if only ___________________.
I feel like I am completely successful as an artist. Whether people like my creative expression or not is not something I control.
• Was there a time in the past when you felt more or less creative than you do now?
No.
• Have you ever experienced a creative block? What was that like?
Sometimes the gaps take longer to fill in but I have found that continually returning to the creative project ensures it’s completion. I agree with Woody Allen when he said that, “90% of success is showing up.”
• What, if anything, made it better?
Knowing I will come up with something.
• Free association: please write the first thing that pops in your head?
Artist – freedom
Writer – luxuriant
Musician – spontaneous
Actor – powerful
Painter – flowing
Architect – form
Sculptor – extractor
Composer – divinely driven
Poet – precious
• If you have a creative talent to what extent, if at all, do you have an obligation to use it?
I don’t think of it of it as an obligation. It is part of who I am. Like singing in the shower, I don’t feel obliged to sing, I just do it.
• Being a creative person enhances my life by:
Revealing parts of myself I was unaware of until I saw them expressed. It also fills my life with things I have created. It is very satisfying for me to create something.
• Being a creative person negatively affects my life by:
I don’t think it has affected my life negatively.
• Criticism. Who criticised your creative pursuits?
Family, friends and strangers.
• In what way?
I was related to as ‘slow’ in school. I was accused of being, “away with the fairies.” or “off in my own world.” often. There was a general pressure to conform, to stop being different.
• Remembering this criticism, how do you feel right now?
Like I do when I rub a scar on my body. It has healed but the memory of the pain lingers.
• Do you spend as much time as you would like on your creative pursuits? If not, why?
Yes.
• Do you spend too much time on your creative pursuits? How do you know?
No. I don’t see how I could. I make time for eating and sleeping and my family and friends but these are all part of my creativity expressing itself.
• Do others think of you as a creative person? Why or why not?
Yes. Lots of people have told me.
John, thanks for sharing and posting! You’ve inspired me to actually answering my own questions now.
My answers are here:
http://katherineriggs.co.uk/2011/05/19/all-the-answers/
Great answers Katherine. Honest, funny and insightful. I really get what you say about cranio sacral work being the ultimate expression of your creativity.