We are likely to lose 90% of our creativity by the time we reach 30.
Creativity is inspiring and unique, but as precious as it is, we face the risk of losing it with the passing of years.
Going further into this imminent danger, Dr George Land and Beth Jarman conducted an extensive research where 1,600 kids between the ages of 4 and 5 were found to score a 98 percent level at “creative genius” characteristics.
However, five years later, only 30 percent of that same group of children scored the same level, and again, five years later, only 12 percent managed to do so. When adults, only two percent scored this genius level registered at a younger age.
The duo then dived into the process of divergent thinking; which is the ability to look at a particular problem and propose multiple solutions, and came to find out that with age, creative progress delays and eventually fades if it is not meticulously strengthened.
Why do we face a sort-of inevitable creativity decay?
Creativity is born in the mind, nevertheless, with time and a constant bombing of educational teachings, it is drained, and we could become 90% less creative than we were as kids by the time we reach 30.
The reason to this, according to the Dr. Land and Jarman findings, is because we learn to focus and hone our thoughts (convergent thinking) while we crush our instinct for divergent thought, leaving aside our creative planning.
The portal “A New Kind of Human” suggests that children, since an early age, are “dumbed down and brainwashed to accept (and even serve) their rapacious system of artificial scarcity, unending exploitation, and incessant war”.
It continues to read “the imagination can only be suppressed, it cannot be killed” (…) therefore, every night when we sleep, the imagination gets stimulated giving rest to your creative potential, which is simply sleeping but can be reawakened and rehabilitated to take advantage of potential.
Keep it alive
These are some activities you can try to keep your creative spark on and take it to its maximum potential according to INC.com.
- Take a walk while listening to music | Studies by Stanford researchers proved walking and music aid your brain, as movement — and music — are a natural mood enhancer, a link between positive mood and divergent thinking may play a key role in working creativity.
- A mind that wanders is a healthy mind | Psychologists at the University of California, Santa Barbara found one of the best ways to focus on solving a creative problem is to let your mind wander.
- Positive is better | Thinking about how each idea could go right instead of how it could go wrong could be the ultimate ice-breaker. Playfulness is the state of mind that stands at the root of our creativity.
