I’m Joana Johnson.
From the first day of Spring 2010 to first day of Spring 2011 I have turned my growing family into a laboratory, a la Jean Piaget style. I am studying us, beginning with myself and including my five children, even the newest addition. My purpose is to direct our family towards living the Creative Life using the wisdom of the greatest Creators throughout History, current Neuroscientific research, Creativity Theory and the insight of living Creators. I’ve chosen to focus on the Creative Life because Creativity, with a capital “C”, swims in all things that make life worth living, including meaning, purpose, human bonding, contribution to society and the full use of human capacity and potential.
I will use Creativity as explained by Mihalyi Csikszentmihaly as the working definition for this project. Csikszentmihalyi says,
Creativity is any act, idea, or product that changes an existing domain, or that transforms an existing domain into a new one.
And,
The definition of a creative person is: someone whose thoughts or actions change a domain, or establish a new domain…a domain cannot be changed without explicit or implicit consent of a field responsible for it.
A Creative Life cannot be fashioned in one year. Becoming Creative is not only complicated and multi-factoral but time-consuming. At least 10,000 hours must be logged in a single domain for the Creator to even have a platform to stand on.
Living the Creative Life does not guarantee success as a Creator, but I concur with Thomas Jefferson in that
Dispositions of the mind, like limbs of the body, acquire strength by exercise.
So, we’ll experiment, work and learn as Creators do. We’ll test drive this version of full-blast living. And I’ll be writing about the process.
Just as there is never really a perfect time to have a child, you just do it and brace yourself for the roller-coaster ride called parenthood, there is no best time to start a project like this. I began when I was 29 weeks pregnant and on forced bed rest due to serious maternal/fetal blood incompatibility complications. My children, ages 10, 7, 5 and 23 months, were unsettled and trying to adjust to having a mom that could not get up to make them lunch or help them get dressed in the morning. But, between hospital overnights and Skyped conversations, I spent my days and nights on a brand new lazy-boy chair in the grand central space we call The Music Room. Our old piano is here and our shelves are stuffed with great books. There are Kapla blocks to build with and a wooden castle with queens and kings to play with. This is the place where we began; a place in a time of change, a place where my body was creating a new life, a place where my mind longed to do the same.
NOTE (Summer 2011):
I’m busy working on a book length project.
So… for the next four months (May- August 2011) I”ll post on Fridays only. To read new posts at their freshest subscribe by e-mail (see right sidebar).
Visiting Creating Brains for the first time? There ‘s lots to read! Check out 5 of my favorite posts below– and thanks for visiting. Please leave me a comment. I love to hear from readers!
Childhood Dreams– Super-Important
Setting Your Own Path Sometimes Means Saying “No!”
What “Getting” Insight Looks/Feels Like
Eating a Flashlight and Sucking Up Dust
hi jo,
just wanted to say hello and get email notifications of your posts. i’ve been thinking about creativity all summer and i’ve decided for me creativity has to start from an emotionally safe place. if we can provide that type of enviornment with enrichment and excitement for our interests and theirs alike i hope to get out of the way and let them “create” with little to no interruptions. they are so fun to interact with at this age, 2 and 4. thanks so much for all the great ideas.
And I thought I was the sensible one. Thanks for setting me stairght.
Hi Jennifer,
So nice to “see you” here!
I’d love to discuss Creativity, with you, anytime!
Stunning blog and topic Joana, very very close to my heart. I have syndicated your blog to my own community and will be sure to point people to you and your thesis. Very very important debate for the 21st Century! Well done… john
Thanks for the kudos!
The subject of creativity is incredibly interesting to me also. Thanks, also, for commenting.
This forum needed skhnaig up and youve just done that. Great post!
couldn’t get your new blog…. re-post? loved it!! and want to tweet it.
Lessons from The Music Room No. 4: Creative-Types– Don’t Morph Into Another’s Worldview
(it popped up in my google reader)
THank you!!
Well, I need to re-write that post altogether– it went into cyber-trash as I re-edited last night! Thank you for letting me know you liked it. I’ll be working on a new post on the same topic. Please check again tomorrow
I’m always grateful fro input. Thanks for taking the time
Oh my goodness. You have no idea how a click here and there is more than mystery! I have this post in my back pocket, a post about being a creative, being shunned for it, and on a bad day, I read a post by a Dr. like yourself, but not.
She was comparing creatives to eccentricity, using bizarre evidence to link creatives to many harsh disorders, part of a stigma I feel has hurt me personally.
I told her in not mean, but very harsh terms exactly what I thought.
That is not like me.
I always encourage all points of view, but this one just hurt.
The responses were fascinating, many hated, one or two over supported me, wishing they could be heard, and so I had decided to get the right links to offer readers the opportunity to state their own beliefs.
I was very adamant how much I admire linear minded people, how important they are, but you ARE the Dr. that validates such a case, so do you think you would mind doing a guest post?
PUHLLLLEAASE!! I’ll send you the info and let you make your own case, but I think it would be fabulous.
I really like that you have a blog dedicated to the healing I so want to see done in this archaic belief system.
Your words would really matter.
Say Yes! SAY YES!
I am a true believer that creatives are people that have really lived…and not necessarily eccentric or odd first. They are not normal, that’s for sure. Normal is the check-out girl at Target or the H & R Block accountant (maybe). Creative people may be odd to “normal people” because they have chosen to spend major time leaving something behind (for the world) to prove they lived at all.
Thanks for your comment!
Feel free to e-mail me about guest-posting.