Lessons on Creativity from a Humanistic Psychologist — Maslow
Lose yourself in the present
I am thrilled when I realize I have completely lost track of time or ignored my to-do list. It is an indication that I was immersed in something meaningful. It means I was extremely focused and no longer aware of other obligations. The only task at hand was concentrating, reading, or writing. Escaping into my own deep thoughts always feels productive and fulfilling. Yet for many of us, our lifestyles and schedules do not allow time for getting lost in creativity.
There are many things that hinder me from getting into a creative headspace. Some days there are physical ailments stopping me, like neck or jaw pain, dry eyes, or stiffness from needing more exercise. Generally, some of my lifestyle choices inhibit me from maximizing creative downtime. For example, I prioritize complex meal preparation even though it is time consuming. I enjoy it and I consider cooking an art form. I bike everywhere to do errands where I live in Japan which adds time to the commute but it is great exercise. My husband and I don’t have kids so I don’t have to shuttle them around or help with homework but I do have a social life with friends who expect quality time together. Nonetheless, I crave those days where I can get lost in a creative project so I make a point of it as often as possible.
Maslow on Creativity
When my father gave me a copy of Abraham H. Maslow’s 1971 book, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature years ago I was surprised to see a section on creativity. Maslow was a humanistic psychologist with theories on transcendence, self-actualization, and a hierarchy of needs, to name a few. I assumed the section of the book on creativity would be Maslow’s thoughts about maximizing creativity and maybe his categorization of creative types. It exceeded my expectations by being far more philosophical than I had imagined; some of Maslow’s findings on creativity align with Buddhist, Taoist and other philosophies of non-self and mindfulness.
Here are the lessons I took away from Maslow’s section on creativity in The Farther Reaches of Human Nature:
We all might have creative potential but in order to leverage it and make something of it, we have to be incredibly hard working.
“I am very certain that many, many people have waked up in the middle of the night with a flash of inspiration about some novel they would like to write, or a play or a poem or whatever and that most of these inspirations never came to anything. Inspirations are a dime a dozen. The difference between the inspiration and the final product, for example, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, is an awful lot of hard work, an awful lot of discipline, an awful lot of training, an awful lot of finger exercises and practices and rehearsals and throwing away first drafts and so on.” Page 59
Integrating creativity into our everyday lives is a conscious effort. For myself, I want to get to a place where my art is sharable and is part of my paid work. I have to fully commit to my creative ideas and dive in. I have to write that 7 minute comedy bit and rehearse it and then go get on stage (something I did in NY many times and Tokyo most recently in January 2020). I have to rehearse the dance I have imagined performing from a window for the people in the street and take notes on the choreography. I have to continuously edit my writing. I have to read and reflect and maybe respond. I have to get those charcoal pencils out of the loft and draw something instead of being comforted by knowing the potential to do so is there. I have to surround myself with creative people who are acting on their creative aspirations. Perhaps you can relate.
We are not as good as our ideas. We are as good as our ideas that we bring to fruition. Innovation is not an idea. The innovator is one who promotes and implements the idea and proves its purpose.
Creativity is attainable by being completely grounded and present.
The goal is to forget the past self and the future self so that we can be unaffected by the distractions of comparison, concern, or hope. Just do. Just create. We can forget ourselves completely and become creating beings who are not assessing how we measure up to others. We are not concerned with the outcome or being judged. We are not hopeful for ‘success’ to arise out of our creative state. We are not even bothered to care if our creations fit within a cultural definition of what is creative or valuable. We are living with a heightened level of freedom and non attachment and we enjoy it.
“…the creative person, in the inspirational phase of the creative furor, loses his past and his future and lives only in the moment…. Prerequisites of creativeness- in whatever realm- somehow have something to do with this ability to become timeless, selfless, outside of space, of society, of history.” Page 61–2
When we are wholly focused on a creative task, nothing else matters. It is like a meditation to clear the busyness from our minds.
Creative work alleviates concern about one’s self, unleashes novel ideas, and feels rewarding.
Our day-to-day tasks can be mundane and we can be too busy to do anything but the necessary logistics or meeting each deadline. When we get into a creative state, we challenge ourselves and produce original thought. We are satisfied that we generated something new instead of scrambling to keep up all day.
Being lost in the present, “…is always described as a loss of self or of ego, or sometimes as a transcendence of self. There is…an integration of some sort of the self with the non-self. There is universally reported a seeing of formerly hidden truth, a revelation in the strict sense, a stripping away of veils, and finally, almost always, the whole experience is experienced as bliss, ecstasy, rapture, exultation.” Page 62
Enhanced experiences come from total immersion in something-anything, without distraction.
Mindfulness is the key to having the best experiences. We clear our minds for that one thing we are doing so that we can do it well and get the most out of it.
“…The simplest version of the peak experience, namely fascination, concentration, or absorption in anything which is interesting enough to hold this attention completely. And I mean not only great symphonies or tragedies; the job can be done by a gripping movie or detective story, or simply being absorbed with one’s work.” Page 63
Being absorbed allows us to shed our fears and self-consciousness.
When we are immersed in our work we can create for ourselves without inhibition and without worldly concerns.
Creativity implores the “…here now self-forgetfulness and other-forgetfulness. Such a state intrinsically implies less fear, less inhibition, less need for defense and self-protection, less guardedness, less need for artificiality, less fear of ridicule, of humiliation and of failure. All these characteristics are part of self-forgetfulness and audience-forgetfulness. Absorption casts out fear.” Page 67
Creativity is supported by curiosity and remaining open to anything.
“…Becoming more courageous makes it easier to let oneself be attracted by mystery, by the unfamiliar, by the novel, by the ambiguous and contradictory, by the unusual and unexpected, etc., instead of becoming suspicious, fearful, guarded, or having to throw into action our anxiety-allaying mechanisms and defenses.” Page 67
Trust yourself.
Creativity demands trusting ourselves to be away from most worldly obligations while we are in a creative space. We give ourselves permission to be alone in this way. We trust that the world will reveal opportunity despite our not constantly working to directly affect the next step. We can do the work and be fulfilled and let the rest be figured out later.
“…the temporary giving up of straining and striving, of volition and control, of conscious coping and effort. To permit oneself to be determined by the intrinsic nature of the matter-in-hand here now necessarily implies relaxation, waiting, receiving… We must trust our ability to improvise when confronted with novelty in the future…trust involves self confidence, courage, lack of fear of the world.” Page 67
Maslow’s thoughts on creativity help us relax into the solitude of creative pursuits. We can choose to be absorbed in our work unconcerned about the long-term outcomes or how we will share our ideas. We can live in, and create in, the here and now and we will be happier for it. According to Maslow, we can go forth in wild abandonment for the sake of creative inspiration. Then, like Tolstoy, the hard part begins. Developing creative ideas into something shareable takes time, perseverance, and follow-through.
