Yes...and...true for all people of all ages! Sometimes when adults who have lost touch with their creative side (that everyone has naturally) start reclaiming their adventurous, exploratory, non-obedient, moving, creative selves they feel like they're back in pre-school (I hear that a lot facilitating creative process in orgs.) because it's the last time they remembered having that outside-the-lines freedom. But that feeling fades when they get it back in their bodies and get that to be in motion, discovery, and their unique creative expression.
People will sometimes say, "I feel like I am 5" (or 8 or 10 or 3 or "in kindergarten" - some young age) when first getting back into an improv or drawing or movement activity as an adult. I've discovered, after hearing hundreds of creativity stories* over the years, that usually that age/time period corresponds with the last time that particular person remembers having creative freedom. Something happened around that age (whether by a teacher or parent or someone in authority) that shifted them out of their natural creative flow. If they say, "I feel like I'm 5" and you ask why not 6, they'll have a story to share. Once located, they can change how it plays out moving forward.
Yes, this poster has an important message for teachers, and anyone involved in the formative years of children...AND...it is true for all of us. It's never too late to re-engage with your whole body, whole brain, and whole self.
* In certain workshops, I have participants share their life's Creativity Stories - a 2-minute story about their creativity, whatever the means to them. (Sometimes I have them do this non-verbally, depending on the group and the workshop - more details on that activity coming in my book). 2 minutes means they get to the essence pretty quickly. I've been doing that for about 15 years, and one common pattern in every story (at least for pre-millennials) it that is has a time in it where their creativity was squelched by someone or something outside of themselves. It was never that they just decided on their own to stop creating, or that on their own, they though they not creative. Each story has a time when something challenged it. What happens after that varies for each person, but each has a time when their natural, organic, beautiful creativity was challenged, held back, negated, judged, blocked, punished, threatened, made fun of, etc. The younger generations grew up in a digital world where creativity is more expressed and valued, so they did not all necessarily have that same challenge. Some did. And many people they work and collaborate with did.
Yes, this poster has an important message for teachers, and anyone involved in the formative years of children...AND...it is true for all of us. It's never too late to re-engage with your whole body, whole brain, and whole self.
* In certain workshops, I have participants share their life's Creativity Stories - a 2-minute story about their creativity, whatever the means to them. (Sometimes I have them do this non-verbally, depending on the group and the workshop - more details on that activity coming in my book). 2 minutes means they get to the essence pretty quickly. I've been doing that for about 15 years, and one common pattern in every story (at least for pre-millennials) it that is has a time in it where their creativity was squelched by someone or something outside of themselves. It was never that they just decided on their own to stop creating, or that on their own, they though they not creative. Each story has a time when something challenged it. What happens after that varies for each person, but each has a time when their natural, organic, beautiful creativity was challenged, held back, negated, judged, blocked, punished, threatened, made fun of, etc. The younger generations grew up in a digital world where creativity is more expressed and valued, so they did not all necessarily have that same challenge. Some did. And many people they work and collaborate with did.
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