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Maximizing your Creative Potential
CJ Liu Interviews Dr. Ruth Richards in “Everyday Creativity and the Healthy Mind: Dynamic New Paths for Self and Society.” Dr. Ruth explains that creativity is not just reserved for artistic expression such as painting or other arts. Instead, Dr. Ruth believes that creativity is something that we express every day. She challenges us to think about how we can add originality and freshness to each day by bringing a sense of awareness and reflection to who is doing the “seeing,” and opening our eyes to see the whole world view so that we are receptive to a greater field of awareness. Even if we do see our day-to-day work as creative, we often only focus only parts of creative process.
Dr. Ruth shares the 4 P’s of creativity: People, Process, Press, and Product. Person is the often-neglected aspect of creativity and includes seeing everything from cooking dinner to driving as a creative process. Process goes beyond procedural manuals and is about a process that taps into a hunch, intuition, or flexibility. Press is the condition in your environment that is conducive to taking risks and being ok with being wrong.
In the final part of the interview, Dr. Ruth shares that when we do fully embrace this new way of creativity, we can explore further depths that involve seeing the connection of creativity to beauty, empathy, and spirituality. It’s about living live as a child again with a new sense of openness.
Maximizing your Creative Potential: YouTube Video
More on Dr. Ruth Richards
Ruth Richards, educational psychologist and Board Certified psychiatrist, is professor at Saybrook University in Creativity Studies, and Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health. She has studied creativity in educational, clinical, social action, and spiritual contexts, as well as issues in aesthetics and awareness, consciousness studies, and chaos and complexity theories. Dr. Richards has authored numerous papers and chapters and a monograph, and has edited/co-edited two books:: Eminent Creativity, Everyday Creativity, and Health (with Mark Runco) and Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature, as well as writing Everyday Creativity: Coping and Thriving in the 21st Century.
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