Creativity Exercises
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org, please feel free to visit the school website)
1. Examine a
problem situation that you have experienced in the past or are experiencing
now. Review the events and the conversation, the actions and reactions that
transpired. Now, imagine someone else, a celebrity or famous personality
you admire taking your role and see how it transpires.
2. Spend a day trying to do everything with your opposite hand. If you keep
forgetting, try bandaging your predominate hand or putting it in a sling.
Notice how much more thoughtful your actions become about your daily events.
Make note of any impressions or insights that come from seemingly inconsequential
things; for instance, how long you leave the water running when you brush
your teeth, how you notice what’s actually in the third shelf on your
medicine cabinet when you have to reach across, etc… Think about anything
that occurs to you to do differently as a result.
3. Buy a child’s watercolor set or a book of construction paper and
some child’s scissors. Spend an afternoon painting or doing a craft
project (if this is unusual for you). Go to the park or a museum and practice
drawing or painting just for fun and without judgment. Do you find yourself
noticing more detail or forming new or different impressions about a tree
or a painting or sculpture.
4. Do a predrawing (one in which you are unconcerned about the ultimate
outcome or the realistic resemblance to the object). Draw one of a person,
one of a hand and one of an object like a chair or table. Write on the back
how you felt about them and put them away. Now, draw the object upside down.
Change the way you see it. When you’re finished turn the drawing around
and look at it. What do you see? You’ll probably find that you are
interfering by trying to draw what you think instead of what you see. When
you don’t easily recognize the object by taking it out of its context
and form, your thinking can’t produce an association and you “see”
the lines, curves, edits, and shapes as they are. This exercise is bound
to make you feel irritated and uncomfortable as your perception doesn’t
want to let go…it wants things in boxes, so to speak. It is disorienting,
but this is precisely what we need to learn to do…not process the
complete information because we categorize and label it instead of truly
seeing or experiencing it.
5. As rapidly as possible, list the uses for an ordinary brick in one minute.
Now spend three minutes drawing the same object with an ordinary pencil.
If possible, perform this exercise along with a child, or get a child to
perform the same exercise. Compare the two results and reflect on the information
it gives you about your own perception and imagination.
6. Take a sheet of white paper and cover it completely with soft, graphite
pencil. Now look at a simple object and attempt to erase out the parts that
aren’t there. Note what you feel, what you observe and what the outcome
is.
7. Collect a group of as many signatures as possible, both from people you
know and from people you don’t know (get some friends to help you
in this). Look at all the signatures as a type of drawing, and see what
it tells you about the person. For signatures of people you know…does
it illustrate and confirm your perception of the person? Does it reveal
anything new? For those of people you don’t know, write down your
feelings and intuitions about the person who made the signature. First talk
to friends, then try to meet the person in order to verify your perception
or to invalidate any assumptions you might have made. Ask yourself, where
assumptions were either wrong or correct, what led you in the right, or
wrong, direction.
8. Set aside a day where you are going to perform a particular act of “ordinary”
creative problem solving, such as, “I am going to spend the day getting
rid of every household maintenance problem.” It will be essential
to ask specific and detailed questions. It is a place to start in terms
of looking at the everyday routine and preconceived notions, examining the
problem(s) as part of a larger system of life activity.
9. Plan a holiday for yourself to a foreign country you’ve never visited.
Research the prices of airfares, hotels, and in-country travel. Find items
of interest to visit and plan itineraries. If a visa is needed, go so far
as to write a letter to the embassy asking for details and times and costs
of obtaining the proper visa. Find exchange rates, research foods and local
specialties. Go online and find authentic recipes from the area and try
one out, or visit a specialty restaurant. Seek out a native of the country
and ask questions. Legitimately plan and see your trip as though you were
actually going to take the holiday. Pay attention to real details, like
who would feed the pets, how much time you could take from work, could you
creatively negotiate advance pay or tie the trip into your work or educational
program and receive assistance or educational benefit? Is there a courier
service that needs someone to deliver a package who might subsidize part
of the air fare? How does the trip make you feel? Is there a sense of anticipation?
Have you fostered any new interests or appreciations that weren’t
there before? Even though you might not actually take the trip, absorb the
refreshing essence of the journey as if you did. New places, new people
and experiences foster creative energies.
10. Undertake a foreign language course…preferably an immersion class
that involves attending classes with other people. Notice any shared interests
or new interests that occur. Pay particular attention to any new perceptions
as a result of communicating in a different language.
11. Enroll in an acting class with a legitimate professional teacher, or
offer to be a non-speaking performer in a nearby metropolitan opera or stage
production.
Drawing, whether pencil drawing,
cartoon or figure drawing, fashion or charcoal, is good for the left and
right side of the brain. New art design for architectural car design simple
enough for a child brings the dragon perspective to life.