Some Thoughts on the Importance of Creativity

“Creativity; the use of imagination or original ideas to create something”

On the Benefits of Creativity

Many people don’t believe they are creative, but my own view is that everyone has creativity baked into their genes as human beings. But many people, especially in times of stress and uncertainty, turn off their creativity and shut down. My feeling is that this is a critical mistake people make with themselves, and in fact they should do the opposite. Exercising your creativity is enormously beneficial in many ways. People don’t often consider that creativity has a wide array of benefits. The health benefits include: Mood Elevation, Alleviates Anxiety, Boosts Brian Function, Prevents Disease, and Increases Immune Health. (https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320947.php#1)

Additional benefits of creativity include, instilling a sense of personal freedom, self-awareness and expression, faith and confidence in our instincts, stress relief, and problem solving. Creativity also enhances our ability to communicate and our sociability. There are so many benefits to Creativity, it’s difficult to understand why some people refuse to allow themselves that pleasure.

What causes people to decide they are not creative?

This is something that has always puzzled me. Creativity seems like a very natural thing. You see kids exercising a great deal of creativity in the games they play, and how they think. Whether they are playing games with toys, or drawing, or just running around hiding behind furniture, there’s a lot going on in their little brains. A lot of imagination. Here comes the dragon! I’ve just crash landed my spaceship on a desert world! The Orcs have just come around the bend! It’s all imagination, and it’s great stuff. They are having fun in their minds.

But somewhere along the line, some people decide that they aren’t creative, and they stop creating things in their minds. No more dragons. No more space ships. No more Orcs. And by the time you ask them, “So, do you do art?” the stock answer is, “Oh no way. I can’t do art.”

But really, what happened to them? I will tell you. They lost confidence in themselves. In their own creative imagination. Somewhere along the line, perhaps someone said, “Oh that drawing is awful”, and crushed by the criticism, they stopped trying to create. “Oh I can’t do art”. They’ve turned off their creative engine. It’s not a good thing.

What dampens creativity?

The modern world is full of stress. We are all in a rush. We are constantly trying to get everything done within ever tighter time slots. The technologies that promised us liberation, instead produced prying eyes, time consuming flaws, and all kinds of expectations from others that we can do miracles. But the fact is, we’re still just ordinary human beings. This situation creates stress. And stress makes people feel rushed, and to some degree incapable. And this feeling tires people out and makes them feel uninspired. Consequently, creativity takes a hit.

How does my Elthos RPG Play into the Creativity Equation?

I created Elthos RPG and the Mythos Machine to help people explore their own creative minds. In my opinion, World Building is one of the most creative activities you can do. Depending on how deep you want to go with it, World Building can incorporate a wide array of knowledge disciplines, such as history, biology, sociology, archeology, physics, game theory, and many more. And Role Playing Games generally present a wonderful social activity that brings friends together to create and play Characters in imaginary Worlds that the GMs create. I want to help people find their creative spark, and grow that flame within. That’s my ultimate goal for the Elthos RPG and Mythos Machine.  I feel that to the degree it can help people to find inspiration to create, it has achieved its primary objective.  I want to help bring people together in creative spaces and enjoy each other's fantastic imaginations.