KM pointed me to this fantasic post by Dustin Walper on embracing your insanity and giving in to instant urges. Dustin says, “There’s something important to be said here: Everyone is secretly insane. The only problem is, we’ve been taught to repress those insane bits in favour of a more “normal” or “balanced” approach to life. We’ve been taught that urges will get you in trouble! I know they got me in hot water in grade school, high school… heck, for as long as I can remember!”
He further says, “I know you all have weird little urges. I certainly do. A little while ago, I was sitting at my laptop with a bottle of water in hand when I suddenly had the urge to splash myself in the face with it. I’m not sure why, but I gave in to it… and it was refreshing. I gave myself a jolt and suddenly I felt happier and more productive. Are you starting to see how this might be beneficial?”
I added a comment to Dustin’s post. To quote from there, embracing your insanity’, eccentricity, giving in to urges are areas that have interested me for the last few years. A logical addition to Dustin’s post are ‘creative rituals’.
This started from a post I read on Creativegarh that asks, “are creative people absurd or simply superstitious?”
What made me ask that were things that I saw around myself. My creative director friend, who always wears his underwear inside out on the day of a big presentation. Another friend, be it winter, summer, hail, hurricane or earthquake – prefers to be the first one in office everyday.
At one time, I would have classified all the above-mentioned people as weird. But over the months, I realise that all these people are doing is performing their creative ritual.
Crafting and enacting such ‘weird’ ceremonies and and rituals, and giving in to urges that over time become a part of the routine is important for every creative person. The ritual is a very personal thing. Sure, some rituals can be downright strange but they do help is done with the right frame of mind. Most of times, a creative ritual is not directly related to creative thinking but it is a very strong means of focussing the mind on producing ideas.
And all rituals don’t have to be strange. They can vary from always taking a bath before getting down to making the best art to always watering the plants before writing a presentation.
Or simply, splashing water on your face before you start working.
A very interesting topic indeed!
~ Arun Verma
Posted by Arun Verma 
Posted by Arun Verma 
Posted by Arun Verma 
