Some forms of creative expression - like acting and filmmaking - require collaborating with many other people; sometimes an artist needs isolation or works best alone.

Writer Erica Jong has commented, “Everyone has a talent. What is rare is the courage to nurture it in solitude and to follow the talent to the dark places where it leads.”

Much writing and advice on enhancing creativity focuses on the individual. But creating happens in a social context, and often depends on input and inspiration from others.

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In one of his podcast series, Eric Maisel notes “Criticism is a real crippler. I’m sure that you know that. But you may not be aware just how powerful a negative force criticism can be, how much damage it can do to your self-confidence, or how seriously it can deflect you from your path.

“Almost nothing does more psychological damage than criticism.

“Criticism comes at us from the past, as bad memories and as our own introjected ‘inner critic.’ It comes at us every day, at work and at home. It even colors our sense of the future.

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Our self concept, recognition of our talents, appreciation for divergent thinking and pursuit of creativity can be guided and nurtured, or corroded and even corrupted, by our school experiences.

In his article Do schools kill creativity?, Sir Ken Robinson notes that “kids will take a chance. If they don’t know, they’ll have a go. They’re not frightened of being wrong.

“Now, I don’t mean to say that being wrong is the same thing as being creative. What we do know is, if you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.

“And by the time they get to be adults, most kids have lost that capacity. They have become frightened of being wrong… And the result is, we are educating people out of their creative capacities.

“Picasso once said that all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up. I believe this passionately, that we don’t grow into creativity, we grow out of it. Or rather we get educated out of it.”

Related post: Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

My related article Getting out of school alive.

Much writing and advice on enhancing creativity focuses on the individual. But creating happens in a social context, and it depends on inspiration from others, and on getting an audience, and support from publishers and producers. Creative work impacts other people, even worldwide. But being creative can also be inhibited by others.

Dancer, choreographer and teacher Carol M. Press, Ed.D. writes in her book The Dancing Self, “Creativity’s profound effect affirms what binds us together as a species. Creativity contributes immeasurably to the health of humankind; before we understand and accept our differences, we must acknowledge and feel our common bonds.

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“The danger of censorship in the United States is less from business or the religious right or the self-righteous left than from the self-censorship of artists themselves, who simply give up.”

Writer and director Frank Pierson (former President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) added, “If we can’t see a way to get out story told, what is the point of trying? I wonder how many fine, inspiring ideas are strangled in the womb of the imagination because there’s no way past the gates of commerce.” [LA Times May 26, 2003 - quoted in Utne, Sep/Oct 2003]

Censoring - both internal and external - is discussed by Eric Maisel, PhD in his article Are You Censoring Yourself? - in which he talks about “the artist’s relationship to society.

“Most of us would be quick to say that we are free to think just about anything and to express ourselves in any way we see fit.

“In reality, artists do a lot of measuring, somewhere just out of conscious awareness, about what is safe or seemly to reveal and what is unsafe or unseemly.

“One aspect of this self-censorship is the way we bite our tongue at our day job and, in a corollary safety measure, skip making art that reveals what our corporation, institution, or agency is up to.

“These are knotty psychological and practical matters that confront virtually every artist.”

Related Talent Development Resources page : Censorship.

Creativity coach and therapist Eric Maisel, PhD notes the word mindfulness “stands for the nonjudgmental observation and acknowledgment of our thoughts.

“We notice the thought - for example, ‘I am running from my writing’ - and acknowledge that we had the thought. The thought comes, we notice it, and it goes.

“The central goal of ordinary mindfulness is to let such thoughts come and go without experiencing pain, without holding onto them, and without turning them into monsters that eat us alive.”

But the goal of creative mindfulness, he explains, is “not only the nonjudgmental observation of your thoughts but complete right thinking that leads to authenticity, creativity, and mental health.

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