Tiffany Owens – Clips & Samples
Passion Play: How to Unleash Your Creative Self
Publication: MSNBC.com | Take3 Magazine | June 2006
Date Published: 7/18/2006
Photographs: Yes
Content
**online feature no longer available on MSNBC.com -- original text appears below**
By Tiffany Owens
Have the urge to ditch your job—or your current life—to travel the world or become a full-time artist? If you’re among the thousands that are preparing to retire in the next few years, you’re not alone.
But take heart: A flurry of new research indicates that midlife isn’t really about the stereotypical sports cars, divorces or hasty decisions made in the midst of panic attacks about leaving one’s mark on the world. Alternatively, these studies show that such sudden impulses in this phase of life are really just our body’s way of telling us that we are in the prime of our creative abilities—and that we should be doing something about it.
One such researcher is Gene D. Cohen, M.D., Ph.D. and founding chief of the Center on Aging at the National Institute of Mental Health, who sets out to debunk the tired cliché of the “midlife crisis.” Instead, Cohen says it’s a time to follow this biological “inner push” to explore our passions and heightened creativity “with a freedom and wisdom not attainable during youth.”
“Old dogs can learn new tricks,” Cohen notes, drawing on the results of two revolutionary studies that illustrate that the midlife and golden years are anything but retiring. In his new book, The Mature Mind: The Positive Power of the Aging Brain, studies show that the aging brain is highly capable of forming new neuron-to-neuron connections in response to new experiences. Much like fine wine, our brains become richer and more complex as they age, balancing the right and left portions and forming a vast network of life experiences—some of the key ingredients for creative freedom.
Pursuing your passions at any stage
“In the past few years, I have made a thrilling discovery…that until one is over sixty, one can never really learn the secret of living,” quipped Ellen Glasgow, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1942 at the age of 67 for In This Our Life. This secret of living that Glasgow refers to is our individual creative spirit. When we think of creativity as a life force, we often think of such renowned artists, writers, inventors or scientists as Mother Teresa, George Bernard Shaw, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung or Thomas Edison who, it should be noted, made their most prolific contributions in their later years.
Human development expert and Harvard professor Howard Gardner calls such amazing accomplishments by notable people the “big C” creativity—public contributions that change entire fields of thought or influence people on a national or global level—much like Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity or Andy Warhol’s pop art paintings. Conversely, “little C” creativity applies to the small challenges or everyday efforts by individuals, such as cooking more creatively or planting a beautiful backyard garden. This personal creativity portrays a fresh perspective and inventiveness, which may or may not have a public impact, but still gives great satisfaction in one’s own life.
So where do you start? Your creative journey might begin with a new cookbook, making time for daily writing sessions or by taking an art or language course at a nearby college. Some schools, like Idyllwild Arts Retreat near Palm Springs, Ca. cater exclusively to creative adult education, offering week-long summer courses in mixed media painting, jewelry-making and Navajo rug weaving.
“Engaging in creative pursuits can benefit us at every stage of life,” notes Natasha Kogan, author of The Daring Female’s Guide to Ecstatic Living, “but particularly, as we get a bit older, as lives get more complicated with kids, houses, mortgages, marriages, jobs, and other life layers that are inevitable. To prevent ourselves from being taken over by the routine and responsibilities of our lives, we have to keep our creative spark and be invigorated by it. To be creative
