Running Head: ENHANCING CREATIVITY 1

The Road to Enhancing Creativity

Andrew Vethanayagam

Dr. Nathaniel Barr

CULT17545GD

Sheridan College

August 2nd, 2019

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The Road to Enhancing Creativity

The world we live in is seen to many as being very small but, the majority of the world is

still a mystery. People strive for the mystery to seek the unknown and discover new amazing

things about our mysterious planet. The same can be said about the potential of human beings

when it comes to creativity. Just like how the world is vast and mysterious so is the human

brain. A human being is known to only able to use five percent of their brain capability. Just

imagine how far society has come with the use of people using only five percent of their

brain to come up with creative ideas to bring about the civilization that we live in today.

Imagine what could be done with the ability to enhance our mind to develop more creative

ideas, to help solve the problem we face today and tomorrow. To enhance oneself creative

mindset would be to look at the different roads that an individual could take to achieve their

goals. Three areas in which creativity could be enhanced are through the consumption of

different food and drugs to ignite the brain functions. Development of convergent and

divergent thinking methods to help develop your brain’s muscles and keep your mind

pumping. The final method would be to have visual learning methods to learn through

examples and experience.

One of the main sources of energy that we provide to our body is food. The Consumption

of food is what keeps our bodies healthy and functioning at an optimal level. However the type

of food we consume also affects our brain. Studies suggest that people who are creative in nature

use food to help them during moments such as writer's block or a lack of motivation. (Colzato,

de Haan, & Hommel, 2015) Depending on what we eat our brains cognitive functions such as

memory and creativity can be significantly improved, sugar for example will give your brain a

sugar high that will allow your brain to function at high levels for short bursts of time but then as
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the day continues your brain functions start to slow down and become harder to properly

function, your body becomes more sluggish and less motivated due to the lack of nutrient in your

system. During this time our creativity reaches a low where no new novel ideas come alive, this

could be seen as a creativity killer. To enhance creativity the biggest step a person could take

would be to change their eating habits, live a healthier eating style so that the brain has the

strength to pump out creative ideas on the run and continue to expand on them. Rather than

collapsing every few hours or days due to unhealthy fuel entering and leaving the body. The

same could be said towards drugs.

When the term drug is used most people will think of it in a negative manner however

there are certain drugs that are deemed to be beneficial to help boost cognitive function, but there

is no evidence that shows that the positive affects outway the negative affects (d’Angelo,

Savulich, & Sahakian, 2017). Just like food what we put in our body can make or break us. The

use of drugs has been on the rise in the last few years especially amongst students and in high-

density stress related jobs. In one study conducted in the US, it was found that approximately

70% of students during final exam period were using drugs such as adrenal to enhance cognitive

functions and consistent focus for days when people have a lack of sleep. (d’Angelo et al., 2017)

When people are in high-stress levels there focus shifts and becomes a very narrow mind and

lack the ability to properly perform in certain situations, the opposite of most creative thinkers.

The most common reason for healthy living people to use drugs to enhance their cognitive

functions was simply that they wanted a competitive edge over those around them (d’Angelo et

al., 2017). By using drugs or supplements students or employees are able to properly focus and

apply the tool to enhance their creativity and cognitive mindsets. By enhancing a person

cognitive mindset they are able to enhance their divergent and possible their convergent thinking
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skills. However, just because we provide our body with items that are going to boost our

cognitive function temporarily does not mean we should do so. It is better to have our mind flow

with creativity constantly rather than in short burst where we feel exhausted and sluggish most of

the day. A healthy nourished mind is able to continuously stay focus and conduct creative

practices such as divergent and convergent thinking skills.

When it comes to creativity there multiple ways that we can approach in finding methods

to enhance an individuals creativity. One of the biggest known method the enhance creativity is

the use of divergent and convergent thinking. By using divergent and convergent thinking at

home, school or even workplace environments, we are igniting the cognitive function of our

brain to come up with creative ideas for the problem we face. One study that was discovered

looked at how different types of meditation impacted people’s mind and ability to conduct

divergent and convergent thinking. It was noted that when an individual was to meditate using an

open- monitoring system, which “focuses on the individual's awareness to feelings thoughts and

sensation currently present in one’s body” (Burgin, 2018) showed improvement on the cognitive

function that induced divergent thinking. Whereas and the individual who had meditated using

focus attention, which “ is a widerspread style of Buddhist practice involving the ability to have

selective attention to certain details such as breathing” (“Focused Attention (FA) Meditation

Tutorial,” 2018), had shown improved in convergent thinking. (Colzato, Szapora, Lippelt, &

Hommel, 2017). By adapting meditation into our day to day lives we are not only being able to

find time for ourself to enter a period of relaxation but were also able to enhance our creativity in

both divergent and convergent thinking. This is possible because our brain is in the status of

peace and our thoughts have settled down instead of the normal running around with half
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incomplete ideas. Now the brain is able to ignite the appropriate section needed to complete

ideas in a creative manner.

One major thing to note is that with divergent and convergent thinking there is a big

difference between the two, where divergent thinking looks to multiple solutions, convergent

thinking looks at one solution. In a study done by Simone M. Ritter, it was found that students

showed an extreme improvement in creativity, using a before and after test using a cognitive

approach. (Ritter & Mostert, 2017) This allowed researchers to see if there was an impact on

how students learned versus what they applied. The results showed that when a student was

taught using a cognitive mind approach there was significant improvement to their divergent

thinking skills and a minimal improvement to their convergent thinking skills. It was also noted

that this was in comparison to standard teaching where the student is taught a singular method

and are told to solve the problem. By using this study, it is obvious to see that a great way to

enhance our creativity is to go back to the drawing board for most people and establish a

creativity program in school. By doing so we help the future student enhance their creativity

which then in return could help benefit the world we live. Sheridan College could be seen as a

leading example for its creativity program. With six-course students are able to learn and develop

creative skills that will allow them to bring new skills to the workforce and show the world that

they are capable of so much more than normally is expected because of their creativity. The

student of Sheridan college would become a leader that will potentially envision and inspire

others to learn more about creativity as well.

The final way in which creativity can be enhanced with people is simply visual learning.

Visual learning can be explained in multiple ways whether that would be watching other people

lead by example, visual learning in classrooms and through photography. One of the best ways to
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enhance learning, in general, is to look at Edgar Dale’s Learning pyramid. In tradition classroom,

we learn through lecture, reading, and something audiovisuals, however, when it comes to the

human brain we only retain about 15 to 20 percent of that information. (Janoska, 2017) However,

if we were to watch a demonstration of watch visual demonstration the ability to retain

knowledge jumps up to 50 percent. By learning visually in the classroom using means of

photography, demonstrations, in-class hand on practice we learn more. Now if the school were to

adapt creativity with this then the ability to improve our divergent thinking mind will also

improve. (van de Kamp, Admiraal, van Drie, & Rijlaarsdam, 2015) With the evolution of

technology rapidly improving society needs to look out how humanity will also keep up and

continue to come up with amazing ideas to sustain and improve the world we live in but that can

only happen If people are continuously being creative and expanding on each and every person

ideas. With things changing so quickly so does humanity need for enhancing their creativity. In

photography, it is often said that a picture holds more than just one meaning. By having the

student learn and create their own novel ideas from the picture presented to them we open up a

pathway that was once closed off to most people as children. As children, we are taught to grow

act within the lines, but now we come to a point in our lives where the answer may be outside of

the lines where we need out creativity to be sparked by visual learning and examples lead by

others.

Like visual learning in a classroom and through photography one of the greatest ways to

enhance our creativity is to see through example. A leader by definition is someone who takes

charge and leads the way for others. Followers look for a leader that has a similar goal to their

own. By having creative leaders, followers will be inspired to follow in similar paths wanting to

learn to be creative, learning and leading by example. Follow would eventually become leaders
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and inspire others to do more than they think they could. Sherida’s Creativity certificate also

looks into this field. The course creative leadership teaches students to lead by example, by

teaching students what makes a good leader, a destructive leader, power posing, gender equality

and more. By learning about how to enhance creativity in the work environment, a leader will be

able to answer to more peoples needs and have more followers to support them. Have a

community that feels safe, comfortable and happy in their own work environment would strive

for their own success and also strive to better help the company they work for. If you have a

good creative leader then you will have people who follow and want to learn in the same

environment as the leader did. Therefore developing the creativity of individuals.

Creativity is something within each and every single person. The ability to enhance

depends on the individual themselves and how the preferer to do so. Some people prefer to

enhance their creativity through consumption whether that be eating food and living a healthy

lifestyle to provide a boost of energy to improve cognitive functions in long term situation , or

the use of drugs such as Adderall to spike levels of concentration do help come up and complete

creative thinking processes for short term situations. While some look to consumptions another

group of people would choose to practice. Like they say practice makes perfect, people try to

practice divergent thinking and convergent thinking using creativity tools to help build upon their

creative problem-solving skills. Other practice life skill habit such as meditation to achieve a

desired level of creativity. While meditating they look to practice different methods such as

Open-minded and focused attention meditation to improve their divergent and convergent skills.

The final group of people is those who would achieve the ability to enhance their creativity

through visual examples and leadership. When people see the amazing possibilities being

achieved by others, followers will follow. The follower will learn from examples taught to them
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by their leader's demonstration of success and creativity. Followers may branch out and try to

revisit past roots to enhance their creativity such as returning to Sheridan college to take part in

the creativity program and learn about the different ways people are creative and how they plan

to enhance their own creativity. Creativity is a wonderful thing that makes every person see

things differently in pictures and the eyes of every individual, Just like how every single person

see the same image differently it's up to the individual to find their own unique root to enhance

their creativity.
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References

Burgin, T. (2018). The Best Meditation for Creativity: Open Monitoring • Yoga Basics.
Retrieved August 5, 2019, from https://www.yogabasics.com/connect/yoga-blog/best-
meditation-for-creativity/

Colzato, L. S., Szapora, A., Lippelt, D., & Hommel, B. (2017). Prior Meditation Practice
Modulates Performance and Strategy Use in Convergent- and Divergent-Thinking
Problems. Mindfulness, 8(1), 10–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9

Colzato, L. S., de Haan, A. M., & Hommel, B. (2015). Food for creativity: tyrosine promotes
deep thinking. Psychological Research, 79(5), 709–714. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-
014-0610-4

D’Angelo, L.-S. C., Savulich, G., & Sahakian, B. J. (2017). Lifestyle use of drugs by healthy
people for enhancing cognition, creativity, motivation, and pleasure. British Journal of
Pharmacology, 174(19), 3257–3267. https://doi.org/10.1111/bph.13813

Focused Attention (FA) Meditation Tutorial. (2018). Retrieved August 5, 2019, from
https://www.iqmindware.com/focused-attention-meditation

Janoska, L. (2017). What Really Is The Cone Of Experience? - eLearning Industry. Retrieved
August 5, 2019, from https://elearningindustry.com/cone-of-experience-what-really-is

Li, D. (2017). Imagery and photography : enhancers in the learning cycle. Masters Theses.
Retrieved from https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/masterstheses/118

Ritter, S. M., & Mostert, N. (2017). Enhancement of Creative Thinking Skills Using a Cognitive-
Based Creativity Training. Journal of Cognitive Enhancement, 1(3), 243–253.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s41465-016-0002-3

Van de Kamp, M.-T., Admiraal, W., Van Drie, J., & Rijlaarsdam, G. (2015). Enhancing
divergent thinking in visual arts education: Effects of explicit instruction of meta-cognition.
British Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(1), 47–58.
https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12061
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