Vitamins for your Soul

by Panchamee Hewavissenti

The creative person in you

Punch your thoughts in to [email protected]

"I am not at all good at drawing. I can't even sketch a flower. I used to regret about my inability to sketch from my school days. I hardly drew a flower or a tree during the drawing period. I thought that I can never draw effectively.

Drawing is the subject I got poor marks of all subjects. I never bothered to draw after I finished my schooling. I think a five year old child could draw a flower better than me".

This is what a Chief Executive Officer of one of the reputed companies declared when I recently met him at the Lionel Wendt at an Art exhibition.

He somewhat believes that he is a very poor artist hence he's not bothered to give it a try. When I met him again at his office I asked him whether he likes to draw at leisure hours.

What do you think he said? Something like this? " I hate drawing. Please talk about any thing other than drawing?"...... Nope... He said "Though I'm not a good artist, I love drawing. But what to do, God hasn't given me the ability to draw".

I came to know that though he's a poor artist, he has the desire to draw. I suggested him something that he could increase his creative ability.

It occurs not only to him. You also can increase your creativity. You may think that you're very weak in drawing. I would like to tell you, never let your ability to draw die in your conscience.

OK. If you are interested in drawing, first start drawing a small house without looking at anything. Then add the windows, doors and a man beside that house. Keep it away and start drawing a cartoon. But remember it shouldn't be a photograph.

Try draw it as it is. If you couldn't draw it properly at first, then cast if off and draw another picture.

You may find it difficult to draw beautiful pictures in your first attempt. When you keep on drawing, you will see how effectively you can draw. I'm saying this because my friend who grumbled that he can't draw even a flower, showed me pictures he drew during his leisure time. Those were really nice. He thanked me for helping him to identify his talents and improve them which were hidden in him.

Here my intention is not to make you an artist, but to counter your point of view that you can't draw. The important point I try to emphasise is that when you enhance your ability of imagination, your creativity gets elevated.

Methods of improving your creativity or ability to think innovatively are never taught in school. But you know the knowledge of these things are also vital in contemporary society to win the rat race and to be accepted as a perfect individual. In some developed countries they believe that creativity is very important in education and they have special programmes for students to enhance their creativity.

Creative writing

When it comes to creative writing, the problem many of you face is how to begin. Why are you confused when you have to start an essay or any creative writing? That's because of the confusion takes place when the creative process is in disarray with the practicalities of writing clearly and grammatically within an innovation scope. Creative process involves thinking and generating ideas.

Brainstorming

There's a mechanism called brainstorming which can help you to arrange your flow of thoughts clearly. When you go to express your ideas, you always worry how to produce them in a sequence. Brainstorming encourages creativity and formation of ideas.

And another major point is that you're encouraged to record all the ideas flowing from your mind on a particular subject. You better not bother to evaluate them. You can do it later when you have gathered a whole lot of ideas with you to pen down.

It's important to map your ideas as a pattern at this stage. Write down your ideas in a large sheet of paper with coloured pens. You can write down the topic at the centre of the paper. Under that theme write down all your ideas, exhaust your ideas on the sheet.

Coloured pens will help you to identify different strands to the theme. If you add diagrams and drawings, it will help you to increase your creativity. When you've written your ideas down, then you can cross out ideas that seem to be irrelevant to the topic. You can use your coloured pens to link ideas, so that you're ready to start according to a structure.

Next, you've to consider the structure. In a proper structure, related ideas should be grouped. Bear in mind whom you address to and the purpose of writing. You should produce the subject rationally.

When we were at school we were taught to write essays with the introductory, the body and the conclusion. That's when we were small. As adults we can use an alternative method. In that you will start with your conclusion and then provide information to back up the idea. That's how the journalists are taught to write. Take a newspaper and have a look at it. You'll be able to find lot of examples.

For example, a headline will read, "Missing Sri Lankan woman in UK". The next line reads, "Beds Police are concerned for the safety of a 21-year-old woman who went missing".

The rest of the article goes on to describe the girl, where she lives, what she does and so on. "Mithula Nallaratnam, who is from Sri Lanka, was last seen in Easinwold Gardens at 1 pm on December 12, where she was staying with family. The young woman has only been in the UK for two weeks and has no friends in the area. Mithula does not speak English and has no money with her. She is described as five feet tall, wearing blue jean and a jacket".

Journalists are taught to start articles with the hidden words such as "I want to tell you that....". If you can start your story that way, you can put your message across in a most effective manner.

There're many advantages in this way. If you say at the beginning what you intend to say, you avoid misunderstandings. Providing the conclusion at the start itself allows the reader to decide whether or not they need to find out how you reached that conclusion.

Although the conclusion comes at the start of the finished article, it's in fact almost the last thing you write.

Discover your hidden talents

Though you don't realise you could be very creative. You might have simply neglected your ability once you have finished schooling. Remember this is the proper time to enhance your abilities. When you find free time when you're at home you can use that time wisely.

As I said earlier, you can take a piece of paper and start drawing something. When you draw pictures, your creativity will come alive. When you're constantly involved in creative work, you will assess the extent you improved your creativity. Your creative ability is hidden within you. You have to identify what your talents are and bring them out by constantly utilising those talents.

"Let your creative soul radiate streams of rays for new forms".

Rig Veda