How to be more creative

The Universe is giving us a BIG creativity boost this week! I feel lucky to have caught these two sources.

First, the New York Times Well section is doing a week-long Creativity Challenge:

...being creative comes with big health benefits. It can energize you, sharpen your ideas and problem-solving skills and act as a powerful antidote against burnout. Research links creativity to happiness and well-being, and a 2021 study found that older people who participated in creative activities showed less cognitive decline than those who did not.

Second, the wonderful Oatmeal just re-released his long comic on creativity... Eight Marvelous & Melancholy Things I've Learned About Creativity, to be precise.

Here is the Times's Day One: Doodling!

Practicing creativity, or simply interacting with it, can also make you more empathetic and open-minded, said Dr. Elizabeth Gaufberg, an associate professor of medicine and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School who co-directs an art fellowship for health professionals. “Engaging with art helps people tolerate ambiguity and listen to other perspectives,” she said. “It helps people stay curious.”

And doesn't that fit nicely with the Oatmeal's Creativity Chapter One:

in which he wisely expands from drawing to trying and re-trying different paths in life.

So we are gifted with the encouragement to doodle, and the support to erase and try again -- dive in!!