The Importance of Creativity | Part 3
“Your mind, emotions and body are instruments and the way you align and tune them determines how well you play life.”
There is no doubt that in the ‘age of technology’ most of us use our minds more than our bodies on a day to day basis. Tied to our laptops and computers with invisible threads, perhaps we are being creative to an extent, but not in a way that fully encompasses our whole being. Now, creativity of any kind is wonderful and I do not want to indicate that certain creative endeavours could be more beneficial than others, simply because they are more physical. Writing a story, composing a piece of music, or designing a chair, are all relatively mental efforts, and yet they can result in something beautiful. However, when it comes to giving children a well rounded creative education, surely finding ways to help them feel the connection between their minds and their bodies is invaluable? Dancing, embodying a character, or playing a sport are all things that can help develop this understanding, so why are we seeing these activities disappear more and more from children’s lives?
The Mind-Body Connection
The concept that there is a connection between our mind, body, and spirit, is fairly common. The majority of us are likely aware that we should aim to keep these in balance in order to achieve a healthy and well-rounded life. And yet, how many of us truly understand not only what this means, but how to go about doing it? From observing the condition or disposition of the people we meet in our daily lives, I think we can conclude that few are having much success in balancing these three key areas, and it isn’t necessarily their fault.
In my opinion, the arts are an area of subjects that combine our mind, body, and spirit within their practice, helping us to become well-rounded and well-developed people, if we allow it. Most academic subjects focus primarily on developing our minds, without much thought of the other two aspects of our being. Some might say that they develop our knowledge more than they actually expand our mental power or improve the health of our minds, but that likely depends on what you study.
Being creative with our minds or our hands is a very fulfilling activity. To see something in our imagination and then to bring it to fruition; to realise it within the three-dimensional world is wonderfully satisfying. In many ways it is what makes the world go round, and the act of doing it often requires all of us. We must be fully immersed in our artform, which if done incorrectly can lead to massive imbalances, over-working, and illness. If we focus too much on our mental pursuits, our physical health can drain away, and yet, if we focus too much on our physical activities, our minds can suffer. So our education in and around these art forms should help us recognise the importance of both sides for the betterment of our art.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
In part 1 of this series, I spoke about the hierarchy of the school subjects in relation to the fact that the arts always seem to be ranked much lower than the core subjects, such as maths, science, or literacy. Well, there is also another hierarchy within the arts themselves. For example, art and music are often seen as ‘higher status’ than dance and drama. It can also be assumed that sewing or woodwork would rank even lower which likely stems from the old-fashioned notion that these trades and skills were reserved for the ‘lower classes’ historically, which I won’t dive into in this particular article.
Art and music are supposedly a little more ‘cerebral’ than dance and drama. A child is required to be fairly focused and contained when playing an instrument or drawing a picture, which is often the opposite of what is required when dancing or acting. The latter require a touch more confidence, freedom of expression, and a lot of space to move and explore, which in my opinion is exactly what children need; what we all need.
“Truthfully, what happens is, as children grow up, we start to educate them progressively from the waist up. And then we focus on their heads, and slightly to one side.””
In our youth, if we are not encouraged to move and develop our physicality alongside developing our mental capacities, we can find that we end up valuing it less and less as we go through life. It becomes a chore and an effort to want to move, whether it is dancing, sport, or simple exercise. We become lazier and lazier. And then we wonder why in old age we become more and more unwell. It is because we connect less and less to our bodies. If, as children, we were taught to explore and develop our physicality everyday, it would become an unbreakable habit. Often, those who grow up dancing or doing sport keep up some form of exercise well into adulthood, because it had always been normal to them. It has been ingrained into their daily lifestyle, and they are able to recognise that they feel much worse when they don’t do it.
It is through physical activity that we connect our minds to our bodies. We learn what feels good, we improve a physical abilities, we stretch, and we strengthen. Although sports are the cornerstone of physical activity, there is a reason why I believe something artistic, such as dance, is equally important. Dance doesn’t have to be competitive, nor focused on purely physical gains. Instead it is more of an art than a sport and teaches a level of self-expression that is absent in sport. It connects someone to their body in a way that encompasses a certain precision, beauty, and personality. It isn’t about playing and winning a game, the focus is entirely on the movement itself, which is more likely to help an individual feel fully at home in their body. Not only that, but there is a social aspect to dance, it can be collaborative and relationship building. Dancing with a partner has an intimacy to it that a lot of other artforms lack. It is a different experience and a different training, that requires us to work with and respond to people in specific ways.
Putting so much value on and time into educating our brains, and yet very little in educating our bodies- unless we pursue physical careers that is- seems incredibly unwise. Some of the most intellectual and highly trained people I have met are the most unwell. Perhaps being brilliant in one area causes people to shrink back from anything that might take them away from their talent. Yet, even if that is the case, it still seems narrowminded. I am sure that understanding our bodies, how they work, and what they need is invaluable if we want a long life in which we can use our brains to their maximum capacity. We can’t possibly only want to live in our heads, full of aches and pains that we don’t understand, despite our so-called intellectual brilliance. It is completely bizarre.
And so, I believe this is another reason why the arts and physical education (that always seem to rank so low in the school system) are so much more important than they are deemed. Through creativity we come to understand our physicality more and more. As I have said, perhaps dance and drama are more focused on this area, but playing an instrument, drawing a picture, making a dress, or crafting a piece of furniture, all require some connection between our minds and our bodies, in order to produce a marvellous result. If we want children to develop into well-rounded people who are great thinkers, wonderfully creative, and feel at home in their bodies, then they need opportunities to engage with these subjects, rather than being restricted to their desks and their textbooks.
“A child’s mind is not a container to be filled but rather a fire to be kindled.”
The next article will be delve into the connection the arts’ have to spirituality, so stay tuned!
