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The world is changing faster and faster. The adaptability inherent in us is a strong internal resource that helps us find ourselves. The psychologist tells about how to strengthen adaptability with the help of creative activity.
Today it seems that turbulence is a characteristic feature of the new time. In fact, there have always been changes. New civilizations, knowledge, technologies changed ideas and way of life…
In the era of digitalization and the openness of the Internet, we have access to an enormous amount of data and resources. The information surge, on the one hand, offers us many options, and on the other hand, it prevents us from focusing and outlining an individual line of behavior, choosing our own path and feeling stable in a constantly changing world.
Antifragile — XNUMXst century adaptability
It is not enough to live in the current information flow — it is important to acquire the quality that Ph.D. and statistician Nassim Nicholas Taleb called «antifragility». It can be contrasted with uncertainty and anxiety.
Unlike adaptability, antifragility does not follow the usual paths of accepting, ignoring, or fighting, reacting to events that have already happened. She is ready for them, sees and derives benefit and value from them.
This openness allows you to quickly find growth points and reduce the overall level of anxiety. If a person perceives changes as something continuous, constantly evolving, then for him turbulence is an environment in which he finds new solutions.
Sustainability goes hand in hand with creativity and novelty
What encourages more open thinking? How can you help yourself expand your creativity? Art, music and other sensorimotor activities like learning languages and drawing, which involve different parts of the brain, increase its cognitive reserve — resistance to age-related pathologies: dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and more. In simple terms, they slow down its aging.
Creativity and the novelty associated with it help to form new neural connections, regulate the emotional mood, and relieve nervous tension. This is a simulator that expands the palette of our capabilities, which is precisely the basis of adaptability and antifragility.
Creative activity promotes interhemispheric interaction — a special mechanism for combining the left («creative») and right («rational») hemispheres, stimulating brain activity. So fuel your creativity to discover your new possibilities.
Coaching technique for developing creativity and antifragility
It is called «6 Thinking Hats» and allows you to take a fresh look at the situation or problem that needs to be solved. Author — Edward de Bono, psychologist, writer, expert in the field of creative development.
Regular practice of the technique helps to set up activity and a more relaxed attitude to the new and unusual, shifts the focus towards usefulness.
The bottom line is to “pass” the situation through 6 perception filters, each of which symbolizes a hat of a certain color …
White
«Collects» available data. By “putting on” it, you list the known facts in as much detail as possible and establish what is missing and where to get it.
Red
“Includes” intuition and feelings. You listen to your inner voice and voice everything that comes to mind: associations, fantasies, guesses, etc. Consider the task from the point of view of the emotions that it causes.
Black
This is the voice of a pessimist. Looking for weaknesses, questioning everything, sorting out risks and dangers, taking into account any possible rough edges and dead ends along the way.
Yellow
The voice of optimism. Find positive aspects in every problem voiced by the pessimist. Highlight the advantages and strengths of each proposed solution.
Green
«Connects» a creative approach. Come up with the most non-standard applications of the proposed ideas and solutions.
Blue
Summing up from the position of an outside observer. Summarize all of the above and choose what is more consistent with the goal and available assets (resources).
In the process, a more complete vision of the situation arises, conjectures and assumptions are born and considered in detail. Brainstorming becomes more vivid, exciting and productive. Creativity unleashes intuition and reduces stress.
Intuitive painting for adaptive perception
The child, drawing, does not think about the technicality or combination of colors, does not appreciate the proportions and proximity to the prototype, the primary source. He creates intuitively: the way he feels.
This idea formed the basis of intuitive painting, which also works with feelings and inspiration, developing creativity and the ability to listen to your «I», hiding deep needs and meanings.
Even those who cannot draw show their talents with the help of intuitive painting, express themselves, feel more confident. And, opening up from within, they begin to perceive the world around them wider and deeper, to see new facets and opportunities in it. This is a way to erase patterns and expand the variability of thinking.
Each of us is receptive to creativity in our own way.
Each has its own modality (susceptibility). In someone, music responds more, in someone, fine arts, in someone, theater, and in someone, sculpture or architecture.
In the profession, a person is also able to create, if we talk about creativity as the creation of new approaches and methods for solving problems.
At the same time, our susceptibility changes with age and experience. It is important not to “hang” in one direction, but to try new things. Perhaps the classical music that you disliked in your youth will open up to you in your 30s, 40s, or 50s.
Being engaged in creative activity, we create new neural connections (mechanisms of reactions to what is happening), which increase our readiness to perceive changes and expand the palette of possibilities, developing multipotentiality — abilities in various areas.
To be sustainable in today’s world means to have quick adaptability, the ability to think outside the box and constantly evolve. This is what creativity and new activities contribute to. They create a cognitive reserve of our resilience, reveal potential and intuition.