“I am a creative person, I do not like sports”. “I work with my brain, so an excess of movement will empty the resources I need for thinking”. “I am a musician/scientist/designer, it doesn’t go with my lifestyle”. How many times have I heard similar words from people who are devoted to cerebral work or involved in a creative profession. There is a widespread belief that people who work with their brain do not need to move, or that being involved in physical activity will even make it worse for their thinking process. In reality, it is not just far from the truth, it is quite the opposite.
I previously wrote about how movement affects our cognition and questioned why movement intelligence is not considered as such in the corresponding articles (follow embedded links). Now I want to expand a bit more on how movement is linked to our creativity and speculate on what creativity is.
The definition of the word “creativity” varies across different dictionaries:
Cambridge: “the ability to produce original and unusual ideas, or to make something new or imaginative”
Merriam-Webster: “the ability to create”
Dictionary.com: “the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination”
Oxford: “the use of skill and imagination to produce something new or to produce art”
In one or another form, it implies bringing something into existence (a common definition of the verb “to create”). Creative work should consider five dimensions: appropriateness, detail, flexibility, fluency, and originality. It is often perceived as something connected solely to art, but there is space for creativity in any field of human occupation: nobody can argue against Albert Einstein or Marie Curie being creative people.
For me personally, the question of what does it actually even mean to be creative is always an active inquiry. How much of an actual visible product is required for someone to be perceived as such, or is it rather a process that is constantly unfolding? Recently, I have heard a description of creativity that was new to me (A. Huberman), that is: “Creativity is arranging pre-existing parameters differently in relation to time and space”. This slightly twisted take on the subject opens yet another direction of speculating on the role of creativity in our lives and also suggests the possibility of finding new ways of approaching the active development of it as a malleable skill.
Of course, it is absolutely necessary to be constantly using the actual skill in order to enhance it, but are there other ways to collaterally affect it positively by other means? From personal experience, I know for a fact that movement practice makes you more creative, but does science have something to say about it? I found it does. There was a significant positive effect of moderate to high-intensity exercise found in the meta-analysis of studies on the subject, conducted this year (2020) by C.Rominger, A.Fink, B. Weber et.al. This same analysis also showed the undeniable negative effect of a sedentary lifestyle on creative endeavors. The 2014 study by M.Oppezzo and D.L. Schwartz has demonstrated a significant affirmative effect of walking on creative thinking. The systematic review by E. Frith, S.Miller, and P.D.Loprizini highlighted “the potential value of unstructured, interactive, or spontaneous motions, including gestures, dance, shifting body postures, physical object‐manipulation, drawing, etc. to favorably impact creative performance, with no detrimental effect”. The 2019 study by the same group of researchers displayed the undebatable influence of movement on developing creativity in small children. Furthermore, there was evidence provided on the correlation between the dopamine system and creativity (Akbari Chermahini and Hommel, 2010).
Most of the studies cited above, however, were using standard fitness exercises or aerobic activities such as walking and running. As a movement person, I am interested in finding a correlation between my own practice and of things that I am teaching with the enhancement of cognitive and creative performance. It is clear by now that the cognitive processes and the body are not separate but linked on the most basic level. “The connection between thought and the body is bidirectional with thought influencing and directing the states and actions of the body and states and actions of the body influencing and directing thought” (Eerland et al., 2011; Lakoff and Johnson, 1980, 1999). The conclusion that the more complex your physical practice is, the more complex effect it will have on your cognition, suggests itself. In our practice, tasks vary from gross motor-control action to refined micro-movements of eyes and fingers; from high-intensity aerobic training to work on quality of attention in stillness; exercises with emphasis on internally focused attention are mixed with those were externally focused attention is required, and this is not nearly the full list. To provide empirical evidence of the effect of the structure of our movement practice on creative capacity, I looked for some more specific research. A couple of studies have shown a significant impact of lateral eye movements on creativity (Shobe et. al, 2009; Fleck and Braun, 2015). Another research provided evidence on the positive influence of the variability of motor action on creativity (D.Orth, et. al, 2017). A different one displayed that physical experience of fluidity leads to more fluid, creative thought (M.L. Slepian, N. Ambady, 2012). In addition, few studies have demonstrated that quality of attention (a skill that can be successfully addressed through movement practice) plays a central role in the creative process (Kounios and Beeman, 2009, 2014). These are just a few examples, but all these findings were consistently showing how physical actions reviewed in the studies are affecting positively creative capacity in people. You can find all of it and way beyond in the movement practice. Hopefully, in the future, we will have more research directed at this fascinating inquiry to support these claims.
For some reason, in our use of language, we separate movement and cognition. It creates a conceptual mismatch and confusion. This way of separating the two established widespread belief that for creative thinking and problem-solving, we need to save the precious energy of the brain and be less involved in physical activity. Both empirically and experientially, I can prove that this belief is not true. I have seen people from seemingly unrelated professions making huge leaps in what they do after they got involved in movement practice. Both enhancements of cognitive abilities by the actual physical movement and appliance of the concepts that they learned through the practice have helped many of those who I personally know approach their professions from a new creative angle. It includes careers like a dentist, professional musician, photographer, and video maker, amongst others. I believe we should start treating different kinds of intelligence as interchangeable, rather than mutually excluding. It will open a whole window of possibilities for us to be creative and will launch our knowledge of the world and of ourselves to a different level.