Are you creative, and in what ways are you creative?
I am creative. I like to draw and sometimes I work with paint or chalk. I have done many different crafts and like to come up with my own patterns or modify existing patterns. I have done some alterted and embellished clothing.
I like to experiment in the kitchen, modifying recepies or coming up with entirely new ones.
I do a kind of free form poetry. I don't know if it can properly be called poetry, it is a cross between prose and poetry.
I DM D&D games. I don't usually create my own modules, but I often modify the existing ones.
I day dream quite a bit. I come up with many, many stories in my head.
How do you think creativity works in the mind?
I also do creative problem solving.
How do you think creativity works in the mind?
In MBTI terms I think it is mostly N. It is the ability of the mind to see things in new ways, to see variations on things, to combine things that are not usually combined.
It is the tendancy to think "what if." It is the tendancy to think "how else could this be done." It is thinking about possibilities.
But much of the time, it just comes by itself. You don't try to make it happen, it just happens on its own. You are sitting with a pen and paper and suddenly you have something completely new.
I am not sure if you are familiar with the concept of neurodiversity, but I think that is a big factor. Neurodiversity, in its simplest terms, mean that some of us were born with a brain that processesing things significantly different from most people.
Are there ways to increase creativity?
Day dreaming and make believe games, including D&D and other role playing games. Art, crafts, creative writing, peotry, music - assuming you make original things and don't just follow some one else's pattern.
I also think it helps to be open to new experiences artistically, musically, etc. For example listening to different types of music, looking at many different styles of art, etc.
Is creativity correlated to intelligence and/or mental illness and depression?
I think there are different types of intelligence, for example some people excell at history, but are bad at math. I think creativity is another type of intelligence.
I have seen studies that show that manic depression and to a lesser extent depression are more common with artists, poets and musicians that the general public. This does not mean all creative types have these issues.
I have several theories on this.
1) Creative people tend to be eccentric. They tend to think differently than others and often don't fit in with the croud and so feel some sense of alienation. Sometimes they are made fun of for their eccentric behavior and/or pressured to "act normal" i.e. not be themselves. These things can cause depression. They can also cause stress which makes you more at risk for mental problems.
2) This is the neorodiversity theory. The highly creative person has a non-standard brain and this non-standard brain makes the person more vulnerable to some mental illnesses.
3) At the heart of creativity is the willingness to try new things and the ability to ignore those voices, both internally and externally, that say things like "too weird, too silly, not the way things are done," etc. This ability to ignore the voices may also mean that the voices are also ignored when they warn us that certain actions or ways of thinking are harmful or unacceptable. Some of this behavior or thinking could cross the lines into mental illness.
Ilah