FHS 1500-042

I'm in college. Have I mentioned that??? At times, I find myself wondering what I've done to myself. It has been a VERY intense experience and has opened up my creative gates wide! Intriguing...

In my FHS 1500 class - Human Development Life-Span - we just finised reading in our textbook, A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (McGraw-Hill, 2008) about Intelligence. In this section, they discussed the research of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (yeah, I DARE you to say that name!) in 1996 regarding intelligence and creativity. He discovered that highly creative people regularly engage in challenges that absorb them. (Santrock, 2008, p. 309-310) What I really love is his conclusion that the first step toward a more creative life is to cultivate your own curiosity and interest and offered the following tips:

1. Try to be surprised by something every day.
2. Try to surprise at least one person every day.
3. Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others.
4. When something sparks your interest, follow it. (For all you ALCers, this would be following your impulse.)
5. Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to. (For all you ALCers, this would be a good time to ask, "What wants to happen next?")
6. Take charge of your schedule by deciding when YOUR creative time is. Are you more creative morning or night?
7. Spend time in settings that stimulate your creativity.

I LOVED this section of my reading and appreciate how much of my training is coming into play in three of my four classes! This one, especially, since we are talking about lifelong development of human beings.

Because I so loved the first three items on his list, I'm going to incorporate them into my routine and record them here. Now, given that I've inundated myself with college, I'm thinking my posting may not be a regular as I would hope it would be. However, perhaps we will experience a miracle!

So, for today, I surprised a friend with a text telling her I was thinking of her and was sending her love. She said it was a much needed message.

Today, I was surprised by the effortless way I went back into relating with my best friend after a long, long break apart. At her house, on her porch, it was as if no time had slipped away at all and we had been doing that all along. I was surprised by the wealth of emotions I felt in my interactions with her. I was also surprised by another friend whom I witnessed create a beautiful piece of art out of something I judged to be garbage.