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Exercising the creative mind

Exercising the Creative Mind

 One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche

The creative mind is truly unique.  There is no beginning or end to the possibilities that it can provide.  Images, stories, ideas, concepts, thoughts, are borne from this mind and it can exhaust itself to the point of collapse.  Stands to reason when there is so much of a thought process going on;  a bombardment of everything, constantly.  Nietzsche describes it as chaos.  I'm going to have to agree.  For the creative mind there may never be rest and while it is a precious thing to have, it can be also be destructive.  Withdrawal into this world, all alone can be a common escape, for it is the world that is ours, one that we can only see and one that we can only understand.  This though, is not conducive to long term productivity of the art form and in looking at successful creatives there is one stand alone act that they all employ to serve their craft successfully.  Exercise.
This can be hard to maintain because the body can become so tired when it is in constantly thinking, conjuring up plans and ideas.  When I did a short stint in primary teaching, after teaching in secondary for a while, I took it upon myself to be a little creative in the way that I approached my class.  I used to take my class out every morning before formal teaching for a run or a walk around the oval, twice.  This made the world of difference to the students learning capabilities.  I found the students were calmer, receptive and eager to participate in the curriculum that I had devised.  Therefore their minds became open to new ideas, not only that, but their thinking took on a more systematic structure.  Their ideas could flow.  Anyone in business understands that 'Flow' is what drives the work environment, for without 'flow' there is no effectiveness.  Applicable in the classroom and most certainly applicable to creatives whose minds in many ways never stop.  

Exercise for the creative has to be daily in some form or another.  It allows the mind to stop for a while, re boot, systemise those wonderful thoughts that swirl unabashedly forever, begging to be turned into entities in the physical world as creations for all to be enjoyed.  

It doesn't have to be tedious.  It has to be enjoyable.  I dance, always have, ever since I was a little girl, and I do this at least four times a week in the studio, the rest of the days may not be as strenuous or sweat inducing, but that is ok.  My productivity, flow, creativity has been able to become a better reality, in that my creations are orderly, systemised.  It is such a necessary part for any artist or creative, exercise the physical body in some way and the mind will find a way to make the chaos make sense.  Let the dancing star come out from all the chaos, as Nietzsche so aptly reminds us to do! 








Stella Dimadis
July 2014

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