Creative minds see in creative ways

The “extra wiring” in the brain of a creative person (and, yes, science can now “see” these extra connections in brain cells) often allows them to feel highs of joy and lows of sorrow that others may never experience, and perhaps could not even handle if they did.

The added “emotional depth” many creative people feel may cause them to deeply mourn the loss of animals, a magnificent tree, or even the passing of a sunset. The progress that transforms empty fields into apartments with manicured, chemical laden lawn resembling AstroTurf surrounded by concrete drives and walks will seem tragic to many creative minds and perhaps bring a tear to the eye.

Many creative people are able to operate in brief spurts of “hypomania” — a controlled mania that isn’t quite madness but not quite normal, either. A few psychologists have explored this “high gear” creative folks use to their advantage. One excellent book dealing with this is The Hypomanic Edge: The Link Between (A Little) Craziness and (A Lot of) Success in America by John D. Gartner. You can read a bit of it online in the free preview at Amazon. If you are creative (or know someone who is), this might be a worthwhile book to read.

A creative mind with its additional “wiring” between brain cells often makes connections and creates “meanings” where there may be none. That inventiveness and willingness to suspend immediate judgment is key to creativity and also often leads to playful rearrangements of the ideas and objects surrounding a creative person.

Little wonder many outside the creative world mistake (or dismiss) the seemingly eccentric responses of the creative spirit as weakness or mental illness.

Sadly these dismissive souls will never know what it is to be moved by tears by the beauty of a rose or brought to joy by sunlight filtering through the leaves of spring or autumn. Creative people soon come to realize that those outside their community don’t see colors as intensely, or feel emotions as deeply. That doesn’t make one group better than the other. It does make them different in their views and outlooks and responses.

The creative trod in glades invisible to those outside their realm.