To Spark Creativity, Pursue Happiness

[optimistic from CHris Jimenez on Vimeo.]

If you want to increase creativity, it helps to be happy. Positive emotions increase our curiosity in the world around us and open our minds to new experiences, skills and ideas. In PBS’s series This Emotional Life, they discuss the link between creativity and positive emotions:

Researchers have found that creativity is less likely to occur in the presence of sadness, anger, fear, and anxiety—and that it is more likely to occur with positive emotions, such as joy and love. One study found that people are more likely to come up with a creative idea if they felt happy the day before, and then they feel happy when they are creative. Creativity contributes to an “upward spiral” of positive emotions and greater happiness.

Just by being creative, we can kick start an upward spiral of positive emotions which allow us to handle the often negative environment we create within. In an interview with Core77, Vice President of Design at Sonos Tad Toulis discloses that the best part of his job is spending time with people who are “pessimistic optimists.” This immunity to negativity is an essential trait for creatives. To remain pessimistically optimistic, Toulis explains the most important quality in a designer:

Stamina and thick skin. Design is an activity where you’re daring to think of something that doesn’t exist. And that takes a certain amount of hubris. And you hear no so much, and you’re told why things won’t work so often, that at some point it really does engender people who don’t seem to listen to that. And that’s a strange trait; I think it happens because you just get immune to it. But I do think perseverance and stamina are tremendously important traits in being a designer.

What happens when the stress becomes too much to bare? We can create our way out of that as well. In an article from The Telegraph, they suggest three activities inspired from our childhood to reduce stress: coloring, writing and physical play. By focusing on a simple repetitive task, coloring calms our mind and acts as a meditative technique. Writing for 15 to 30 minutes about a stressful life event improves not only your mood, but also physical health, memory and sleep. And how could jumping on a giant trampoline or playing in an adult ball pool not put you in a good mood?

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