The Heart of Creativity: Entering The World of Play

This is a concept that is really hitting home for me right now as my little guy is coming up to two years of age. He’s such a joyful, playful, hilarious, curious soul and it makes me light up to see it. More than that it reminds me of the best parenting advice I’ve ever heard and it links right into sustaining creativity and building a creative lifestyle for not only ourselves, but for our families: meet children where they are, step into their world and play with them on their terms, not on yours. 

Too often we forget that we have been trained out of play. Adults believe there is a right way to play kitchen, house, school, even fictitious games of imagination like knights and dragons come with these rules of reality we impose because we’ve learned ‘better’. Children, much like our exploration of creativity, require freedom to be curious and play through experimentation. The goal isn’t getting it right, it’s having fun, it’s about learning. Boardgames have rules, imagination doesn’t. Both are healthy ways to play, both teach lessons, and help us explore and activate new parts of ourselves. As we grow we learn these skills and filter play through a reality filter. This filter actually puts constraints and parameters around our creative capacity. It creates a boundary of acceptable, believable, right ways to create. What a travesty. To limit our potential, to cage in our capacity because reality and propriety and society have taught us to play small. 

Children do not have this burden of reality. When we engage with them, for those of you who have children, are siblings, or are around kids in some capacity, you know that you have to step into their world. You know the feeling of stepping into the play of a child and thinking, ‘how in the world does this make sense?’ And it doesn’t. Not in a traditional well thought out way. And yet, sometimes it is well thought out, it’s just circuitous or unconventional or upside down, but the logic is there, the tenable thread that holds the concept together is there. 

Not only does stepping into their world help you bond and relate to the children in your life, it reignites your own creative drive with natural playfulness and joy. It’s a reminder to imagine, an invitation to dream again for the fun of it. Our creativity is foundational to our experience in the world. Embrace the world of children and find the treasure of joy that lives hidden in your own inner world. That joy often gets buried by pressure, shame, guilt, and perfectionism. Play removes expectations. Play is where creativity is free. 

As an activity creativity needs to be full of play. As a foundational aspect of your lifestyle it needs to be accessible to everyone in your life - especially your kids. If this is a core value, a foundation of your family’s lifestyle, you need to make a shift to include the children in it and value their own creative worlds. If creativity is a lifestyle of expression and curiosity and vulnerability, kids need to see this in action. Model the value, model the behaviour as with any other behaviour you want them to exhibit. However, creativity is something inherent in play. By stepping into their creative realm and engaging with them in it you add value to their inner world and encourage them through your participation to keep returning time and again to expressing themselves through creative play. This goes both ways though. Including them in your creative world is also essential to developing their creative life. As they grow and mature those same stories that may have kept you small in your creativity at one time will become a framework in their reality. If they are able to see you, the adult, the parent, the responsible, reasonable, rational parent able to play in creativity then they learn that they too can hold onto that value as they grow. 

Creativity is taught. First by engaging in play, then by cultivating curiosity, and finally by modelling creativity as an integrated part of your daily life. If we want to make creativity a pillar of stability in your family lifestyle it’s up to you to not only invite your children into it but to meet them where they are and in ways that speak to them, not to you. The first lesson in valuing a creative life is teaching them their imagination, their ideas, their world is valuable. And when creativity as an adult feels heavy or slow remember to bring back the play. 

How can we enter the world of play? 

The floor is lava

Dance party 

Finger paint 

Play dough

Reconnect with your inner child and let loose! There’s a reason all of these play activities involve movement; something we’ll be exploring together in the coming weeks.