Cleese on Creativity

According to Cleese the open mode is a “relaxed, expansive, less purposeful” and childlike mode that you are capable of bringing yourself when looking to find your inner creativity. The reason someone might claim this place more inclined for creative thinking is because there is less pressure to get things accomplished. So the million dollar question is; how would one find this spacious "open" place?

In the video Cleese goes into depth about a five step process to help you get into the “open mode.” These steps are as follows: space, time, time, confidence, and humor. You must be able to put yourself away from reality in an oasis like space where you can not be disturbed. Sitting in this place for a specific, allotted amount of time will help you loose the feeling of being rushed. It is often found that when you first try to free your mind, all it will do is race on about other, more important, things that you feel need accomplished. Once those thoughts eventually float away, you can reach into a suspension of thoughts thriving with creativity. The second step of time is not a typo. This time, time is meant for you to stray away from settling with your first good idea and continue thinking until you come to develop the newer, and greater idea you never knew you had in you. With more time under your belt you are able to establish a sense of confidence. Being confident is important so you are fearless of how others may react or what others may say about your new, outside of the box idea. And lastly, you must bring humor. Having humor in a situation doesn’t make you a less scholoarly, serious person. It instead makes you a far more interesting and creative individual.
The steps above make it seem like this "open mode" place you can go if you try hard enough is just too good to be true. And as great as it seems, sometimes finding this mode is harder than you would think. A while back, during high school, I knew that I had an English assignment due within the next couple of days. In fact, it had been weighing on my subconscious to figure out what it was I wanted to do. So one night when I had planned on dedicating my time to this paper, I just couldn't do it. I was getting so frustrated I decided to move onto my least favorite subject, math. Then without thought I began to drift from the mathematical problems on my paper to an abundance of ideas for my project. It is amazing how just removing stress from the equation helped me expand my realm of possibilities.
Just because I found difficulty in being creative once doesn’t mean all my experiences with creativity have been this way. I have come to find in my long eighteen years of life, that if I set my mind on being original and creative, I am able to do so. Although it doesn’t always happen in the most ideal of ways and with the best of circumstances, I somehow find a way to complete whatever project it may be in ample time, with the perfect dash of creative spice. If there is one thing I can tell you, it is that it takes plenty of time and practice to find and explore creativity at will, but it is indeed possible and always worth it.

What is Creativity?

Creativity represents the amount of ideas, imagination, and inspiration instilled in a person. It is a limitless and intangible concept that is individualized and unique to each person. Not only will creativity set someone apart from the next but it allows all people, no matter who they are, to express themselves. Sometimes being creative means finding ways to breakout beyond the limit or loss of words to show others how they feel or what they think.

But as crazy as it may seem, being creative does not come easy to everyone. It takes practice to be able to dig deep inside yourself and discover who you are and what separates you from the pack. The best way I can describe this is like a bag of sour patch kids. There are many ideas floating around in your head but where do you begin? You must pick one. At the start you might find that it is sour and hard to endure. But if you can find it within yourself to keep going your reward is much greater than your sour pucker of frustration. Finishing the bag, your creative idea, will always be worth it, allowing you to stand out beyond comparison with a full stomach of satisfaction. You never know, your creative inspiration can stem from anything and lead you anywhere.

Hello my name is...

Elizabeth. That's my first name but now that I'm a freshman in college and have to introduce myself at least six times a day; my nine letter, four syllable name is just too much of a hassle. So over these last couple of weeks I've gotten used to saying "you can call me Liz." And so Liz it is.

This past summer I spent lots of time working, painting, and hanging out with my friends. I work as a cheer instructor for a company called UCA (Universal Cheerleading Association). This summer was my Rookie year on staff and I loved everything about it. The job requires us to travel all over Ohio and teach cheers, stunts, jumps, and tumbling to high school teams. Not only do the girls leave with new tricks up their sleeves but they also bring with them new friendships and amazing team bonding memories.

I came to Mount Union from another college town about forty minutes from here, Kent, home of the Golden Flashes. Why Mount Union and not Kent State University? Well, last spring I tried out for the Raider cheer team. I made it and that was about it. From that day on I knew Mount was the one. Now you are probably wondering "why would you base your entire college career on cheerleading?"... I know you are asking this because I ask myself the same exact question everyday. But it turns out I have no clue what it is I want to be when I grow up. Maybe teaching, business, journalism, or something art related. Who knows? I'm just trying to figure out this thing called life...