Welcome to the Well Creativity Challenge!
Many of us have a narrow definition of creativity. We think it’s a rare gift reserved for artists. But we’re all creative in some way, whether or not we think so. And being creative comes with big health benefits. It can energize you, sharpen your ideas and problem-solving skills and act as a powerful antidote against burnout. Research links creativity to happiness and well-being, and a 2021 study found that older people who participated in creative activities showed less cognitive decline than those who did not.
Practicing creativity, or simply interacting with it, can also make you more empathetic and open-minded, said Dr. Elizabeth Gaufberg, an associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who co-directs an art fellowship for health professionals. “Engaging with art helps people tolerate ambiguity and listen to other perspectives,” she said. “It helps people stay curious.”
And creativity is a skill that can be developed. Certain activities can prime your brain for it, much like stretching before you exercise, said Jonathan Schooler, a psychological scientist and the director of the Center for Mindfulness and Human Potential at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
That’s what this challenge is all about.
My name is Elizabeth Passarella, and I’m here to guide you through it. I think of myself as a creative person, one who took poetry classes (and almost failed statistics) in college, then chose writing as my career.
Every day this week, we’ll give you a new activity to help make your mind more limber, based on exercises that experts use themselves. We’ll prompt you to try things outside your comfort zone and ask questions that might not come naturally, all in service of thinking more freely and expansively. And no, we won’t demand you take up oil pastels (that is, unless you want to).
Your first exercise is a classic creative task used to encourage something called divergent thinking, where you generate multiple solutions to a problem instead of zeroing in on a single one. It’s a key component to novel thinking and stretching your creative muscles.
Before you tackle the exercise, here’s a piece of advice from Dr. Schooler: Quiet your inner critic. The first step to thinking creatively, he says, is to ignore the voice that says you can’t.
Ready to get started?
