The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Welcome to Syncreate, where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. Our goal is to demystify the creative process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative.
Creativity. It’s a word we throw around all the time, but what does it really mean? On the Syncreate Podcast, we share stories of the creative journey. We talk to changemakers, visionaries and everyday creatives working in a wide array of fields and disciplines. Our goal is to explore creativity in all its facets, and to gain a better understanding of the creative process – from imagination to innovation and everything in between.
The Syncreate Podcast is hosted by Melinda Rothouse, PhD. She helps individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life through coaching, consulting, workshops, retreats, and now, this podcast. She's written two books on creativity, including Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities (winner of a Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity and Innovation), with Charlotte Gullick. She's also a musician (singer-songwriter and bass player) and photographer based in Austin, Texas.
The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Episode 51: Creative Spark Series - Curiosity & Exploration with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we discuss the role of curiosity, exploration, openness to experience, and the spirit of adventure in the creative process. Following our curiosity opens up new ideas, connections, and inspirations, which then enhance our creative work. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, includes insights and prompts from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.
For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we challenge you to go out and do something different, outside of your normal routine, maybe even something you’ve never done before. See what new thoughts, ideas, and inspirations it evokes.
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 22: Creative Play, Episode 35: Navigating the Creative Wilderness, and Episode 49: Creativity in Challenging Times.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, syncreate.org, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review!
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Melinda: Welcome to Syncreate, a show where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. We believe everyone has the capacity to create. Our goal is to demystify the process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative. We talk with visionaries and changemakers and everyday creatives working in a wide range of fields and mediums, from the arts to science, technology and business.
We aim to illuminate the creative process, from imagination to innovation and everything in between. I'm Melinda Rothouse, and I help individuals and organizations bring their dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: I'm Charlotte Gullick, and I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the coauthors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate. At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you're not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We offer resources, creative process tools and coaching to help you bring your work to the world.
Melinda: Okay. Hey everyone! We're back with another installment of our Creative Spark series of mini episodes and our topic today is curiosity and exploration, which of course are hallmarks of creativity and the creative process. So we know from the research into creativity that openness to experience, which is one of the big five personality traits, is highly correlated to creativity, which makes sense because, you know, this idea of trying new things, going new places, you know, having that sort of adventurous spirit is certainly connected to creativity.
But what we are sort of advocating is that we can cultivate this sense of openness to experience. It doesn't just have to be sort of a static personality trait. We can deliberately broaden our sense of openness by doing different things. You know, maybe it's taking a walk in a different direction than you normally do, diverging from your normal route to work.
You know, listening to, you know, new music, watching films, reading new books and, and going out of your, you know, regular genre. Like, if you're just like a mystery reader, you know, try reading some other types of fiction or nonfiction, right? Or if you tend to gravitate toward certain music, certain types of films, try something new and see how it might contribute to your creative work and you're a creative ideation.
Charlotte: I'm thinking about, the house that I grew up in had like ten books, a bunch of religious materials, and the Reader's Digest. And I remember reading the Reader's Digest, like “How to be more creative.” And one of the things was like, “take a different route home when you're driving.”
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: But I was like, what? What a cool idea. I also lived so rurally so you couldn't. But, I think that the letting ourselves have, but also like, letting ourselves have generosity and grace in that, like, oh, I'm going to try a different way home rather than like, I'm forcing myself into this new creative thing. It's like where, with a curiosity and an openness of which you would watch a new born fawn walk across the meadow.
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: Stumble into this new thing and try it out with some, like, awareness that doing this has overall benefits. But in the moment itself. Oh, I'm going to try to sing when I've never sung before. Or I'm going to dance when I don't dance in public. Like, we give ourselves more freedom to be within ourselves, which is really important in the creative process. And I think I'm saying, like you said, like the openness, oh, in a different way.
Melinda: Yeah. And this is so important because again, we get such tunnel vision in our lives, like we just focus on what's right in front of us. The busier things are, the more chaotic things are, the more we just kind of focus in.
We're sort of taught to do that, to find one thing and focus or specialize in that. And so it can take some effort to broaden back out. And, you know, this is also connected to mindfulness, right? Because I teach mindfulness and contemplative arts and creativity. And you know, we tend to, especially if we just have our, like our one route to work, or a daily routine that's always pretty much the same.
We kind of tune everything else out. And so this is about bringing back in the full spectrum of the world, like really seeing what's around us with fresh eyes. And you know, this doesn't have to be something super extraordinary. It can be about like looking around the room and really seeing what's there. Right? Or when you go out on your walk, like actively - a friend of mine told me this phrase - this practice of exquisite noticing. Right.
And so, like, maybe you are taking the same route that you always take, but really pay attention to what's there. And there may be things there that you've completely tuned out. You've never even seen them before. And then you start to actually pay attention. The world starts to come alive.
Charlotte: Absolutely. And I think, one of the small things that we can do is just start to use the word curious.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: I'm curious about what's going on in this situation. Or I'm curious what it would be like if I had to crawl down this street rather than drive down this. Like, for me, that's been really profound because it feels different in my body when I say I'm curious, then I want to know or I need to understand, is that there's a gentleness with it that, I don't know, it feels like I'm building my creative relationship with myself.
Melinda: Yes. And it's so interesting, like there's these little, you know, tips and hacks. Like, I was just recording an episode with Chris McKenna, who's a writer and director and has a creative agency in Los Angeles.
And he shared with me, I couldn't believe this. But he said, one like creative tip is just put a picture of a light bulb in your space and that that actually enhances creativity simply because you're thinking about it more. You know that that light bulb symbolizing illumination, new ideas, whatever it might be. So it can be really small things that add up.
Charlotte: In huge ways.
Melinda: Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I want to say, and I mentioned mindfulness, it's also valuable to go inward for inspiration. So we can look out to the world, you know, our brain is a divergent thinking machine. It's constantly making associations between different things. But sometimes it's helpful to get quiet, maybe through mindfulness or meditation practice or some journaling and just go inward.
Because, again, the clutter of the world and the chaos of the world takes up so much of our mental space that if we kind of slow down and get quiet, sort of like tune in to our intuition, there can be many amazing avenues of inspiration there as well. And that includes things like paying attention to our dreams, you know, or just different messages that come up from the unconscious.
Charlotte: Thinking so many things, so.
Melinda: See, you're doing it! You're doing the thing. Yeah. So our Pro Tip today is to go out and do something different. You know, this could be something really mundane. You could go to a museum, you know, in the Artist’s Way book, they talk about, you know, taking yourself on a creative date, whatever that looks like, going to see a film or going to a museum.
But it could be, you know, just going outside, getting a breath of fresh air, seeing what draws your attention, taking a photograph of it. You know, there's so many different ways that we can do this, but and then come back and create something based on that experience, you know. Whether it's a poem, a piece of music, a dance piece, whatever it might be.
Charlotte: We can all do it right now. Like, if you fold your hands together, there is always one that's on the top, the dominant. So do it the other way.
Melinda: Oh, yeah. And it feels so weird. It's like, what?
Charlotte: So, like for me, like, that would be a great way to describe a character, is that, you know, they were so out of their element that it felt like they had crossed their hands. And, you know, I don't know how to say it well, but like, even just that physical small thing or which legs we cross.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: Like, how can we, notice what are our usual ways and how can we get more clarity around changing things up?
Melinda: Yes. Or even doing things with our non-dominant hand. Right? Which is great for building new pathways in the brain.
Charlotte: Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate. And we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And we're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin, with Charlotte joining in from the Hudson Valley. The podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14 Street Studios. Thanks so much for being with us, and see you next time.
