The Creative Personality: Duality of Change

It seems appropriate, during this time of year as we transition from Summer weather and schedules to Fall with a new school year and more, to discuss change.  Specifically, dear creatives, how it applies to you and your creative personality.

Creativity has been heavily researched in recent years and is often divided into several categories of interest- one of which is the creative personality.  Some of my favorite research on the subject is by Mihaly Czsikszentmihalyi.  In his work Creativity: The Work and Lives of 91 Eminent People,  published in 1996, Cziskszentmihalyi talks about personality traits of creatives.  Many of the traits he lists exhibit a type of dual nature: e.g. being both introverted and extroverted, or both high energy and reserved.  In this case, both averse to and seeking change.

For you, that means during a time of year such as this you may feel both energized and fatigued by change.  Creativity is often related to novelty, and so it follows that change can give you new ideas and energy and be exciting.  However,  creative people tend to be very passionate people and so with change comes risk of new things that are either good or bad- and felt deeply in both cases.  You may be excited for the changing seasons and new things this time of year may bring your way, while also feeling uneasy about the unknown.  

What to do?  Unsurprisingly, I will of course always encourage you to be creative.  Make new work, engage in your creative process and express the new emotions and ideas that come with change.  Capitalize on the new energy and use it to temper any more negative feelings. Be careful and don't assume that “bad” is always “bad”- things are rarely all-or-nothing and tend to fall somewhere in between- looked at the right way, most things for you can be inspiring.  Do you know for sure something is coming up this Fall that you are not looking forward to?  This is also a natural part of life that your creative personality has strengths to help you overcome.  

Explore your feelings about change and this transitional time of year in your next therapy session, and learn more about how these themes apply to you!

(c) 2017 CREATIVELY, LLC