Category: Play

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Day 1 – Stretch

The challenge started out with 120 people, by day three we had 133 people. Participants sent me photos and comments about their experience each day. Following is the prompt sent and some of the comments and photos people sent me.

DAY 1

DAY 1 – STRETCH…a simple way to start.

“Creativity is intelligence having fun.” Anonymous

  1. Put a timer for 5 minutes.
  2. Stretch. your arms
  3. Stretch your legs
  4. Stretch your back
  5. Jump up and down 5 times
  6. Yawn 5 times
  7. Move all around
  8. Sit cross legged and focus on your breathing. Repeat. I am breathing in, I am breathing out.
  9. Don’t stop moving, breathing or stretching until timer is up.

Do what is comfortable for your body….your version of these movements.

Extra Points: Do it with a partner and share a photo of you stretching. Or share insights, thoughts, reflections to unpackyourcreativity@gmail.com

Remember if 30 people share every day I will donate 250E to https://www.chamos.org.uk/
And you will also be helping me in my research! Thank you!

Comments from participants

Mother and son: I had a lot of fun starting the day with my son Simón in this energetic stretching creative driven activity. Definitely had more energy walking into the metro today 🙂

Mother and son doing the challenge

L2: Estiramientos y respiracion durante 5 minutos.
Es un ejercio con el que estoy muy familiarizada porque practico yoga 3 veces en semana por mi cuenta, por lo que me siento muy cómoda realizando esta actividad. 
Al hacerlo fuera de mi práctica habitual, mi sensación es de que los 5 minutos se han pasado muy rápido y por otra parte me doy cuenta de que en tan poco tiempo tu cuerpo es capaz de relajarse y oxigenarse para afrontar el siguiente reto que tengas por delante.
Creo que voy a intentar hacer estos 5 minutos en momentos concretos del día fuera de mi práctica habitual.

A: I did my Creativity exercise this morning during my daily walked to work.
Sunny day, cool breeze, walking along the Castellana side path.
I stopped at a bench and did my exercise.
I loved the stretching and jumping.
Mindful meditation put me in a good mood for the whole morning, and it was short (2 minutes) so easier than usual meditation exercises.
It’s so important to feel good…
Awesome!

L and D: Dario and I really enjoyed today’s challenge, the five minutes flew by. 

C And C:

Group of friends that all did the challenge and shared this photo.

K: I had a crappy day and I postponed my stretching to the end of the day. I’m glad that I did it. While doing it I was thinking about what this had to do with creativity, and I thought to myself that this time alone helped me relax and that I should do this every night and take time to listen to my body. The five minutes went really fast. Thank you for this challenge.

M:

Anonymous: 20/06/23 – Stretching – Almost forgot to do it, but did it right before I slept. Was worried I’m going to wake up late for work and when I did the stretching it helped keeping my mind off that and so, less anxious.

Carolina (me): I had a tough time doing the challenge during the day, but right before midnight I did it with my son. I felt great after it. Ready for a good night’s sleep. I also loved doing it with company.

M: I was procrastinating around writing a story that I’ve had in my head since yesterday and decided to start the challenge. After 5 minutes stretching and breathing I felt more calmness and clarity. Then I sat down to write a first draft!

G:

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21 Day Creativity Challenge

This is a group challenge. People were invited through whattsapp to participate in a 5 minute a day Creativity Challenge. Everyone is sent one activity to do every day for 21 days. Targeted at “non-artists” or people that consider themselves “non-creatives”. 133 participants joined the challenge with area codes from: Spain, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, UK, USA, Vietnam, Puerto Rico, Belarus, Thailand. It started on June 20th 2023. I sent two prompts two days before.

Invitation to Join:

You’re invited to join a Creativity Challenge, 5 minutes a day for 21 days. For Non-artists.

Starts on June 20.

Join here:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/BXKM02HngqFGuPnYGcDKfg

Hi I am Carolina, an MA Researcher in Applied Imagination. I am working on a research project about the decline in Creativity from childhood to adulthood.

Creativity:

  • Has been proven to make you happier.
  • Is the No1 skill required in current workplace (World Economic Forum )
  • Studies show that our creativity is in decline.

2 Days before Start

[0:54 am, 18/06/2023] Carolina: Welcome to the 21 day Creativity Challenge. Thank you for joining!

2 days to START!

Start date June 20th

This is how it will work…every night (UK time) I will be sending you an activity for the next day.

This should take 5 minutes of your day.

I recommend you be STRICT with those five minutes. Put a timer if it helps.

These activities are aimed to help you develop your creative side.

At the end of the challenge I will ask you to fill out a short survey so I can use it for my research and you can share if taking part impacted your life in any way.
[0:32 am, 19/06/2023] Carolina: Tomorrow is the day!
1 day to Start!

Some tips:

Every night (my night), I will send you a 5 minute task for you to do.
Choose a time of day to do your Creative task. On your way to work, on your morning run, with your coffee.
Use a timer.
Reflect on the task. Where you comfortable doing it? Was it hard, was it easy?

Extra Points: If you choose to share your insights each day with me you will be automatically entered into a lottery for a 25 Euro Amazon gift card. If at least 30 people finish the 21 days and share their insights with me daily I will donate 250 Euros to https://www.chamos.org.uk charity.

Thoughts, reflections, questions, photos can be sent to Carolina: unpackyoucreativity@gmail.com

I will also post the daily challenge in IG @unpack_your_creativity

One Before Start:

Tomorrow is the day!
1 day to Start!

Some tips:

  1. Every night (my night), I will send you a 5 minute task for you to do.
  2. Choose a time of day to do your Creative task. On your way to work, on your morning run, with your coffee.
  3. Use a timer.
  4. Reflect on the task. Where you comfortable doing it? Was it hard, was it easy?

Extra Points: If you choose to share your insights each day with me you will be automatically entered into a lottery for a 25 Euro Amazon gift card. If at least 30 people finish the 21 days and share their insights with me daily I will donate 250 Euros to https://www.chamos.org.uk charity.

Thoughts, reflections, questions, photos can be sent to Carolina: unpackyoucreativity@gmail.com

I will also post the daily challenge in IG @unpack_your_creativity

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Tales of Creativity and Play

Ted Talk by Tim Brown

“At the 2008 Serious Play conference, designer Tim Brown talks about the powerful relationship between creative thinking and play — with many examples you can try at home (and one that maybe you shouldn’t).” (Robinson, 2006)

Robinson, S. K. (2006, June 27). Do schools kill creativity? Www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_do_schools_kill_creativity/c‌

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The Creativity Challenge: Design, Experiment, Test, Innovate, Build, Create, Inspire, and Unleash your Genius. By Tanner Christensen

“Creativity can solve almost any problem. The creative act, the defeat of habit by originality, overcomes everything.” George Lois, American Art director, designer and author.

The author proposes a series of games to put in practice your creativity.

Types of Games

Games are divided into categories:

  1. Convergent. Requires you to combine elements of more than one idea or thing. It’s like putting a puzzle together. You have many pieces and you need to figure out how they can work together.
  2. Divergent. Taking things apart so you can look at their individual parts. The challenge of breaking dow something into smaller parts to tackle each phase of the process.
  3. Lateral. Logical thinking process that must follow steps in order. When you solve math you are using lateral thinking.
  4. Aesthetic. To focus on how an object or idea looks. It is when you look closely at how each part of something appears, or by imagining what would happen if things looked different.
  5. Emergent. Daydream. Idleness. This way of thinking is when you are idle, walking, sleeping,, daydreaming. Usually these lead to AHA moments.

Specific Games- some samples

Convergent. People Watch. Challenge- Go to a public place, like a shopping center, a library and quickly write a short story for some different people you see walking about. Combine different traits and actions of your “characters” into one compelling story. Research done by NYU have determined that you’re more inclined to think creatively when you imagine yourself removed from a problem or situation. The act of people watching is one way to do it.

Divergent. List 100 Alternative uses. Challenge. Come up with a list of at least 100 alternative uses for a book. A doorstop, a hat, an umbrella. This allows you to think of the object in an entirely new light, simply because you’ll have to strain your brain to come up with a number of original ideas.

Lateral. Think Big to Small. Challenge. Pick something in your life that is simple on its face. Make a list of everything that makes that thing what it is. List all the smaller parts, then the smaller parts that make up those smaller parts. See how microscopic you can get with the details. There are an infinite number of things that influence and impact any larger thing right down to atoms and smaller molecules.

Aesthetic. Draw your face upside down. Challenge. Find a mirror and something to draw with then spend 10 minutes drawing a detailed portrait of your face upside down. Note the areas of struggle to draw most and why the change in perspective makes them so difficult to draw. Viewing familiar things from a new perspective (like being upside down) is an effective way to help you notice all the details you usually take for granted.

Emergent. Stretch out. Challenge. Take 5 minutes to really stretch out. You can do this by standing up or sitting down – simply move your body to loosen your muscles and connecting fibers. Then spend another 10 minutes sitting and relaxing while the benefits of al that stretching start to take shape.

The author says that by completing each activity you will have a better foundation for seeing the world with a more creative light.

Christensen, T. (2015). The Creativity Challenge. Simon and Schuster.

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