The Ethics of Creativity: Delights of the Ordinary No. 4

In my own story I have sheepishly admitted that I enjoyed the pandemic lockdown stretches because it gave a jerking halt to my extra busy life, mostly socially. I had so much time hearing the birds in the distance while tending to my tiny overarched, 11th-floor balcony garden and loving it so much that I remember telling one of my friends, that how government should make such a rule that each year the nation should stop for an entire month! For a creative, boredom is a moral law.

Nonetheless, I truly confess that my government policy-making skills are utterly poor and can never benefit a nation! I understand lockdown is disastrous at so many levels to make it selfishly all about ‘me, my and mine’ pain is a sinister crime, yet as a creative, I deeply respect ‘the ceasing’ because it made me free at so many levels.

Whenever Covid flared and peaked my destress and anxiety also ran parallel, but in other months I nonchalantly made much progress as a writer!

And so, for my benefit and for all the other invisible introverts + creatives (a great combination), I started to vocalize my thoughts to my loved ones (at the least), which was to inform them that:

1. I (an introvert) need more of my company before I can enjoy yours!
2. And I (a creative) need to be bored enough before I start to create!
3. For a creative, it is ethical to be bored.

So, when I crinkled my eyes in full sentiment and spoke about how introversion is a real truth of real people, they looked at me with some bewilderment. In my world accepting the ‘sluggish boring creative life’ is still a struggle because the big-Indian families do not operate on such rules. Families in my culture are sufficiently ionized and charged that they cannot visualize boredom as productive! Hence, educating them about my sluggish life and boring space is a task of a lifetime. Nowadays, I have turned towards writing these newsletters because I find some rebel in me to amplify my voice so I can make boredom charming because I find it one!

The 5 Lessons

The Lesson Learnt : Post-pandemic I weaved my own lessons on boredom and why I share them is simply because in a way I am trying to send my voice around in the hope that there may be someone who would resonate with me. So here are my 5 learnings:

1. Life is severely unpredictable to be fooled around. So be a creative!
2. Creativity is not the mere cranial mindful thought process we are engaged in. It is who we are that interprets into what we do!
3. Creatives need to hear from their heart and for that, we need to move away from the quagmire of on-duty-busy life.
4. I honour that sitting in boredom is a beautiful thing. That is when I give my mind enough space to refashion its existence in creativity.
5. I now try to get bored up to a place from where I can start launching my creative sets.

It is in the unhurried splendour of warm afternoons and in the vigour of the cool evenings we find some legitimate joy of creation and boring dull exploration can lead us to some eureka moment. Its real purpose of serving others and allowing it to showcase what it can weave through the slow time lapses and leaps.

How to lead your boredom into creativity?

5 Learnings: The lockdown phase made me learn these lessons about myself I am a true introvert-creative and need solace that leads to boredom to get back my creative instincts. But how can you carve the boring days to lead into creativity? These are my rules for that hour or day or days (whatever is your comfort):

1. To do nothing: Can you sit in some solace listening to the sound of a squeaking squirrel or the humming of the rolling tyres of a car? Involving your senses and doing nothing!
2. Escape the routine: Have you written letters to yourself or to your mom or husband?
3. To sit and stare out of the window: To see a leaf falling or massive traffic rolling!
4. To hear the details : May be a song with unusual background beats or the noise of the wind!
5. Creativity is born out of the least resources : Lastly not succumb to the pressure of having apt or expensive resources for being creative. The pandemic showed us we don’t need much to live a happy life, our wants trick our minds!

Let me share with you my creative process -

Step 1: Start from simple things to more complex ones. Take a cue from how you do things that interest you and build your intensity.

Step 2: – Taking inspiration from my surroundings. Day-to-day observations!

Step 3 – Find my imperfect resources. A broken pencil and some empty pages of half-filled notebooks, a back page of a calendar! Create from the clutter.

Step 4 – Evolve over time and not give a fcuk about it! Being overly conscious about doing things simply takes away the fun from it. Being childlike is key to evolving.

To round off my letter, here are some facts published on The Guardian lifestyle webpage which are worth noticing!

• We as a generation check our smartphones almost every 12 minutes as we wake up. 71% of people would never turn their phone off and 40% of people check them within five minutes of waking up.
• The more we are distracted by emails and phone calls our IQ sees a 10-point fall, twice the number that smoking marijuana can do to us!

See you next week, until then find ways to appreciate boredom and start creating.

Hugs,

Anugrah (@paintmyword)