Art Movies to Watch During Quarantine: The Creative Brain
Image Credit @davidmatos
Day 12 of quarantine on Friday, 5:30 pm. After turning off my work computer, I tried finishing my first human painting that I started last week. After absolutely messing it up, I abandoned my post and rushed upstairs for some human contact. However, neither my husband nor my children paid any attention to me. Even my mom gave me a stink eye. So, I did what every normal woman in my situation would do: poured myself a glass of red wine, sat down on the couch in my living room and picked up a lonely iPad off the table. It was Netflix time!
Many months before this virus, I really got into neuroscience and the whole notion of re-wiring faulty connections to change bad habits, become more creative and change for the better. Maybe it was coincidental that I stumbled upon The Creative Brain but after the day I had, I was ready to believe in miracles. With the entire household bent on ignoring me, and the Universe giving me thumbs up, I hit play.
Dr. Eagleman is a neuroscientist and author of several best selling books on the topic. This movie, somewhat similar to his book The Runaway Species, specifically highlights the healing power of creativity, what we can do to be more creative, and encourages all of us to have a more fulfilling life by partaking in the creative process. And best of all, gives us a blueprint that will push us to be more consciously creative.
“Creativity is the power to remake our lives”
The movie begins by showing us how our brains differ from all other species and where does our creativity comes from. Our human brains have evolved out of all the species to help us create amazing things. Some of the craziest ideas humans created, like cars, wi-fi, elevators, vaccines, Mona Lisa - all of it, everything we see today as a reality, had to start in someone’s brain as an idea. There is something comforting in knowing that all of this creative power is already in our brains and not a lightning bolt that’s only strikes occasionally. The movie pushes the idea that creativity is more of a conscious effort. And as such, requires some strength and effort from us to get out into the world, observe, and use what’s around us to generate new concepts, new designs, and new perspectives.
Throughout the movie, we get to see the power of creativity and its healing power. We see prisoners, veterans, and teachers using creativity to remake people’s lives. I was touched by the story of a US veteran who suffered from heavy PTSD and took up ceramics as a way to cope. Now he makes beautiful and poignant pieces that tell stories. Or the story about prisoners who are using acting, poetry and prose to re-write the stories of their lives and create hope for the future. Or the story about one school on the brink of collapse that turned around radically by teaching every subject in school through art. Imagine learning math through abstract art. I bet I could have grasped many math concepts better with some visually simulating and creative pieces instead of just looking at numbers.
In all of those examples, people are changing their lives and mindsets by using creativity and learning how to implement creative thinking. This is a fundamental shift and one that we must take to heart. From the moment you enter school – all you are taught is to conform and repeat what is already known or what is considered normal. Our educational system chokes creativity in many ways. Then, we enter adulthood and workforce and the story kind of repeats itself. You hear every day that creativity in the workplace is more important than ever. Yet, how many workplaces do you know that encourage creativity. This topic is fascinating and if you want to learn more about creativity at workplace, may I suggest a book called: Unlocking Creativity by Michael Roberto.
“We live in an explosion of creativity, and the pace is only accelerating. To succeed in the future that’s coming, we need to cultivate creativity…take advantage of what it is to be human, to drink in the world and produce something, anything, that hasn’t been there before.”
What The Creative Brain is trying to tell us is that our collective future depends on all of us being creative. By using what he knows about brain structure and neuroscience, Dr. Eagelman provides a simple blueprint to implement to become more creative no matter where you are in life.
Try Something New
Turns out that being creative means fighting a vital quality of the human brain. Human brains are wired to go for what’s easy, what doesn’t hurt us and it loves to take the path of least resistance. Which usually means going with what we’ve done before and what we’re used to. This rings true if you’ve ever tried to start a new habit (remember those New Year’s resolutions). So, in order to get those creative juices flowing – we have to consciously get out of this mold and try something new. This can be anything. It can be trying to learn a new skill, starting a class on a subject you have absolutely no previous knowledge of, signing up for a cooking class, pottery, learning about programming, neurology, physics. Anything that pushes you out of your comfort zone. The point is to go with a novice mindset and be ok with being wrong so that you can gain a new perspective and open new neurological pathways that can connect with the old ones and give you a boost or a window to see old things differently.
Push Boundaries
The other problem with our brains, and bit contradictory to the first point, is that our brains are also naturally wired to see new things and look for novelty. What is old becomes less stimulating but for creative ideas to spark – they have to be in this equilibrium between what’s old and what’s new. And to be quite honest – that seems like a tall glass full of contradictions. The challenge is to find a balance between what’s old and what’s new without going overboard.
Don’t Be Afraid To Fail
Again, human brains hate failures and want to do everything in its power to protect us, and our egos, from pain that failure causes. The trick is to get comfortable with not having all the answers, failing, and learning from our failures. Assessing what works and how to improve. Only by failing and honestly assessing what went wrong without emotional pep-talk can we be able to expand our minds and have courage to suck at something.
Creativity belongs to all of us, not just the privileged and educated few. It is a powerful tool in transforming our lives, changing our futures, and transforming the world for the better. I hope you are inspired to try something new today and start flexing your creative muscles.