Creative Living for mature women who deserve it all

It's been said that many mature women and other adults have lost touch with that aspect of self that is creative. According to research conducted by Sally M. Reis, Distinguished Professor in Educational Psychology at The University of Connecticut, “the majority of research conducted on creativity and productivity in adult life has concentrated on men.”

By creative I mean the ability and desire to consciously create. Due to this loss mature women too often underachieve and live life while on autopilot. We go through the motions and get stuck. We chalk it up to the way ordinary life is meant to be and we experience less joy than we should.

So the goal of creative recovery is to reconnect self to creativity. We're talking about multiple types of creation; making things, making experiences, making meaning. The closer self and creativity are the more consciously you create results. You decide what you want and need and you set out to create it. You have immediately moved forward – it's an instant lifestyle lift.

The knowing self area of MPW will provide you with guidance in this personal growth project. The entire MultiPurpose-Woman site is working to help uncover spirituality information. This info will help mature women design a reflective learning life-course in being happier. 

Simple Advice for Moving Towards Enhanced Creative Living

If you are stuck and are sure you want to get unstuck do the following:

• Seek counsel
• Transfer to another place
• Uncork a bottle of wine (or similar indulgence)
• Countdown to a new day
• Kickback and relax

Note: this advice has been intentionally left open-ended so you can reuse it in different situation, add your own flavor, and otherwise interpret it to do what you know you need to do. For example, "transfer to another place" could mean move from the bedroom to the living to think and it could mean move from London to Louisville to live.

When you try out an option journal about it and share some of the experience at MPW. Creative living is a worthy goal and will lead to many happy and useful experiences. Isn't feeling alive worth some extra effort?

Using your creative mind will help keep your brain flexible and sharp. Think about how important it is to be mentally fit and ready, willing, able to see situations and people from various perspectives.

For deeper reading on the subject read Toward a Theory of Creativity in Diverse Creative Women, this abstract of resesearch findings by professor Sally M. Reis at the University of Connecticut, gives an eye-opening introduction of what creative stifling is costing mature women and girls.

She notes in the abstract, “A tendency exists for many females, regardless of their age, to try to minimize their differences. Both young girls and older women have been found to have a greater need to be accepted and to have others like them. Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity , the title of a recent book on creativity ... illustrates a fundamental difference in creative endeavors for women. ”

This dening of creativity has got to stop and WE are the only ones who can do it. Feminist artists all over the world are leading the way. Everyday American women can/should very consciously work to breakdown this most fundamental barrier. Creativity is a birthright and we must re-claim and use it. Let's start right now by accepting ourselves and our daughters/nieces/neighbors as we are and working to make creative living the norm of ordinary life.