Creativity and well-being explored at Vancouver Peace Summit
“The power of creativity is unique to human beings. We’re born with the capacity to project ourselves into other places. To be creative, you have to do something. It’s applied imagination.”
–Sir Ken Robinson, Author, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
“We know certain factors, including novelty, keeps the brain growing.”
–Daniel Siegel, Executive Director, Mindsight Institute
“Creativity is where we focus our attention. It’s about mental flexibility,” began Chris Wink, one of the founders of the Blue Man Group and more recently the Blue School, as he started the session on Creativity and Well-being at the Vancouver Peace Summit. Then, he launched us off into a performance presentation featuring three “bald and blue” men who playfully illustrated the mindsets or archetypes the Blue Man cast goes into in their performances (listed below with their opposite):
- scientist (logical, analysis)-shaman (instinctive, focused on synthesis)
- group member (sensitivity to others and collaboration)-the trickster (playfulness, breaking free of groupthink)
- hero (moving toward a goal), and innocent (naïve, childlike, focused on being present)
Before each performance, Wink explained that the blue men get centered so they are not in any one mindset, but instead are able to access and move between any of them, something we could all benefit from practicing off the stage.
After taking us through each of the mindsets, he ended with the “innocent” asking each of us to reach back to a time when we expressed ourselves freely–when we ourselves were innocent. “We don’t enter this state often,” he said, “but we need to. We need to connect to our hearts.”
The theme had come full circle–once again–to the heart. Coming back again, and again.
Submitted by: Roselle Kovitz