5 Ways to Maximize Creativity in the Caring Professions
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We as humans are all invited to co-create with the Creator of the Universe. What an incredibly invitation this is! This proposition is not left to the professional artists, alone. We are ALL beckoned, not just invited, but called to take part in the creating process unique to our creative design. The delightful and often challenging part of this journey is discovering what this contribution looks like for each of us individually and where it is needed corporately.
Within certain professions the use of creativity is obvious; others, not as much. Take the tangible example of my husband Jeff’s wood-working & recycling hobby. Driving the avenida at any time of the day, Jeff might spot a broken chair or desk next to a dumpster. The lack of second-hand store culture lures him to consider old furniture as an artistic engagement. He sees the old and reimagines it with great potential.
Back to the drive…car put quickly into reverse, resume the great evaluation period to accept the challenge or not. As he exits the vehicle he examines the repairability of the item in question. The potential of this once-said junk now awaiting re-creation of life is a primary focus. With this hobby, creation or rather re-creation is obvious. He is able take what appears to be “trash” and imagine something great. Taking it a step beyond imagination alone, he implements his knowledge and skills to give life to something old, making it both useful and beautiful! He reimagines that which is good with great hope for something even better. Imagining something new coming from something old or worn out is the kind of creative work we each are invited to in our chosen professions.
“How do you utilize creativity as a coach?” is a question I regularly engage in. I'm curious for my own growth as well as for others. As both a counselor and coach, I have the privilege of coming alongside of people in difficult times, listening to their stories of pain and uncertainty. This can either be an isolating, despairing place or a hope-giving space. I consider this creation space, because together we are creating new ways forward. Many have a limited capacity for hopefulness or the ability to see a way out. As I work with people who feel stuck in transition, the need is exponentially greater. I come alongside people in major life transition and help them to re-imagine their life with possibilities and dreams where many have lost the ability to dream. I call forth their unmet and likely unexpressed longings for their future and their world. Here are five concrete ways of doing this:
I come alongside people in major life transition and help them to re-imagine their life with possibilities and dreams where many have lost the ability to dream.
Use the language of possibilities
Part of coaching is coming alongside others to help them imagine a different way forward. We as coaches have the privilege and responsibility to engage in forward movement. We use the tools of language to help clients to think differently. For example “Can you imagine what that step might look like in your life? What are the possibilities if you let yourself dream? What comes to mind when you consider the word calling?” Deeper and more effective processing is enhanced by the use of more imaginary language.
One of the creative strengths I believe I bring to coaching is ideation. I help people think outside of their problems for potential new solutions. I help people in major life transition, who feel stuck, to think outside the box. I’m playing with the language self-proclaiming I am an innovator in vocational challenges!
2 Surround Yourself with Creativity
Have you ever taken part in a conversation around a topic of passion where people were brainstorming a different way forward? The momentum in the room builds as each person is given space to dream. The possibilities to problem solve appear endless. The future is bright. Being around people or in these settings where creativity is fostered and welcomed is inspirational, uninhibited, lacking envy or jealousy.
It wasn’t until I intentionally sought out people and spaces like this that supported my expression of creation without judgment, that I felt safe enough to explore and create from a place of security and surrender. Whether literary inspirators, children, or nature, creativity is truly all around us and readily awaiting. Tapping into creativity is essential for our integrated selves.
Deeper and more effective processing is enhanced by the use of more imaginary language
3 Integrate the body
While using familiar strategic tools, I challenge clients to a place of unfamiliarity or even discomfort to explore more holistically what their body and heart might be saying to them as they engage. I might encourage people to listen to their body as their first teacher, asking “What is your body saying to you right now?” Sometimes the answers are surprising: “I get a stomach ache when you talk about that. Or I feel tense all over. Or I feel nothing. Or I feel a complete lightness and freedom in thinking about this. Or I feel like I need to take a walk.” I challenge to not engage in processing solely with the left-brained…it’s too one-sided! I also utilize questions like “What would it look like if you showed me the way your body is carrying your emotions right now?” Extraordinary breakthroughs have come about when people invite their bodies to show up in an otherwise dominantly verbal session.
4 Use unstuck exercises
I used tools that were familiar like a timeline or giftedness set – and asked people to move a step deeper to engage in simple art or movement techniques. Art can help us reconnect to our humanness. The arts in general can speak to us on a deeper level than our intellectual mind alone can comprehend. We are invited through the use of color, texture and body movement to bypass our mind’s understanding and “think” with our heart. The world we typically perceive is challenged when we utilize the arts. Our emotions are stirred and language transcended. There is great power in the use of the arts especially for deeper processing.
We are invited through the use of color, texture and body movement to bypass our mind’s understanding and “think” with our heart.
5 Model Vulnerability
I recognize I must keep getting my hands wet with fresh paint, so to speak!
Integrating the traditionally left-brained work of coaching or counseling became experimental work for me. As well it was and still is unexplainably vulnerable space for me to explore especially when others see it. I began to recognize several years ago, that when I started to engage new ways of marrying these traditionally left-brained transition tools with right-brain exercises I felt fear quickly creep in. “How silly? How amateur? How crazy was it? Would anyone be open to it?” Looking back now, I think these are the boundary-pushing questions all truly creative processes should invite.
Because of my fears, I created in silence for months. What came from this hidden space is now The Art of Transition Workshop & Workbook (that is near finished - more on getting unstuck 1/2 way in another post). I often pictured myself holding this baby, my creation, close to my body. In a protected posture, in reality a gesture of insecurity. I didn’t want or welcome judgment or discouragement or even constructive criticism for that matter. Over time, slowly I have opened up to the criticism and to the potential that what I create might prove to be a gift for others.
I have the beautiful privilege of coming alongside of people in times of great stuckness to help them begin to comprehend how life can be different. And not just different but incredibly fulfilling! Whether through continuing to engage in my own vulnerable creative spaces, using the language of possibilities or specific integration of right and left brain. Not just me but all of us. We all are co-creators, called to bring the invisible, intangible qualities and attributes of heaven down to this visible world. We are called to imagine a different reality, an other-worldly reality brought down to earth. This is our privileged invitation as makers and co-creators. We each have a unique part in the bigger picture that only we can specifically contribute.
Questions for deeper processing: Likely you’re already doing it. What is one thing that you currently do that works well in utilizing creativity in your profession? Imagine what could change for your clients if you implemented just one of these ideas. Which one of the five suggested might you play with?
