UNDER THE FRAME OF "CREATIVITY UNLEASHED"
30 DAYS CREATIVE CHALLENGE The training course "Creativity Unleashed!"(20202-PL01-KA105-082813) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission.
Dear Reader, Have you ever wondered what would happen if you practised, exercised and worked on your creativity daily? Have you ever tried to learn new patterns of attention, look at different things and look at them differently, and learn to think new thoughts? We have performed such an experiment for you and collected its results in this publication on a group of 23 individuals coming from Poland, Greece, Hungary, France, Latvia, North Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. But why work on your creative potential? Why put effort into sustaining it? “Problems are solved only when we devote a great deal of attention to them and in a creative way.” Says Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, unquestionably one of the foremost authorities on creativity research. Creativity means new, quality solutions on both micro and macro levels of our personal lives and the future of humankind and hence living rich and fulfilling lives. "You can do 30 days of free writing. You can do 30 days of journaling. You can do 30 days of meditation (putting your brain to defuse mode). If you are more into a variety and run out of ideas, you can go through this list and look for inspiration. You can repeat 1 number daily. You can go in order all 30 days from the list. “Whatever works”, ENJOY!" (and the list of exemplary tasks was given to participants) Exemplary tasks were based on the elements of creativity training by K. Szmidt “Creativity training” and inspired by the tips given by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his famous book “Creativity. The psychology of discovery and invention” in the chapter “Enhancing personal creativity”: · · · ·
Try to be surprised by something every day Try to surprise at least one person every day Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others When something strikes the spark of interest, follow it
The task was simple, and execution exceeded our expectations! We invite you to have a look at what happened to our participants as a result of 30 days challenge and then…take such a challenge yourself! Have an inspirational reading! Paulina Drzał Fundacja Instytut Innowacji This publication collects results of and impressions after taking "30 days creative challenge" by the participants of the project "Creativity Unleashed" submitted under Erasmus + KA1. The training course "Creativity Unleashed!"(2020-2-PL01-KA105-082813) is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission. More information about the project and video summaries of the challenge can be found on the Facebook fanpage of the coordinating organisation: https://www.facebook.com/InstytutInnowacji
1. REMUS, ELENI, KARINA, MONIKA Firstly, I have to be honest that It wasn't very easy to do this creative challenge all month . During the project in Poland, we chose our creativity challenge team (Remus, Eleni, Karina and me) with whom we were in contact for this exercise. I think that this group has been very helpful in keeping my commitment. I realized being easily caught by the daily tasks and the everyday life, and in those moments I lost this creative concentration. But some times, I was able to stay in this creative perception a long time and it was like being more open to the word, to the live and to the others. Now, I know that it’s up to me to be able to stay in this creative state of mind. And sometime, I connect with it when I need to change my point of view, to be more inspired or to find my internal silence. During the first week, we decided with my creative challenge team to be in touch every day. We came back to our live filled with enthusiasm, inspiration and creative energy. First day, we sent each-over photos of our long retourn trip. And it was like being all the time in Poland and in this project. But also we sent each-over the inspired or funny photos that gave me lots of energy and inspiration. I tried to find the occasion to connected with the nature, the art, the things that gave me inspiration and help me to find this creative state of mind.
my photo and Remus' response photos from a long back trip
inspired photos
creative collage of my children
After, we decided to choose as our item of creative challenge : Green and find some creative tasks for it. 1. firstly Green objects 2. Story about “green” 3. Music with associates for us with “green” So, we have been sending our photos about this subject but also lots of photos and informations about our life and the things important in our life. It was very strong human and creative connexion , that gave me lots of energy, creativity, want to do and feeling to be in some kind of inspirated spiral. And I was looking for the green objects and I realised we can find so many diferent greens.
I was searching what is green for me, how can I find this green differently than through the sight. We tried also to find how to do the story about “green”.
One day, I had lots of daily life problems and our exchange group helped me to connect with the poetry and the calm. I connected with the green item, with the nature and I started to listen to the birds and I wrote : “Green is also the sound of tree or grass. But also, the birds in the evening, hidden on the trees. We can hear it but we see only green around us.” Therefor, I was so interested to see how this item can inspire others persons. For example Karina sent us this music and told : “I suppose they are my greens” https://youtu.be/JaoUMbHvsc0 And I accepted it and “saw the green in the sound”. Sometimes, I was cought by my daily life and I received some photos, some text or some thinking from my creative chellange felows and I connected directly with this creative state. During the 3th week of our creative challenge month our live and Covid context caused that we lost our daily connection and I was less concentrated on this creative challenge. But I took also part of the artistic residency so I try keeping this creative and inspiration connection. Afterward, we tried to revive each-other to finish this challenge and to do the visio call but we couldn’t find any date that fits everyone in our busy schedule. We have been exchanging with lots of fun about ours difficulties to stay in connection or to do the creative tasks.
Eleni : “We are lost in creativity or in real life.” Monika : “My creative challenge to day is to tidy up my house with two children who make a mess every 5 meters and 10 minutes.” Remus : “My creative lvl right now. 1h of sleep in the last 30h”
In the last week of our challenge month it was rainy and I felt the need to connect with the light. So I proposed that “maybe we can use the sun as our creative item”. I think that everybody needed come back this creative energy in this gray time, so we restarted our exchange. Finally, it wasn’t possible to keep the creativity task every day, so we tried to continue this challenge quietly taking into consideration ours busies schedules and ours everyday energy. I live in the south of France so I could share a little bit of sun with my colleges. So, I started to observe around me, to be more attentive and more there and now in order to catch, for me and others, these moments of life and full of light. Doing it for the others gave me the motivation and the energy.
As Remus told well, the others and the souvenirs can be also some kind of sun for us. He wrote "I have this for enjoying the sun”
We found also, hidden in the pockets, the souvenirs of our beautiful adventure in Poland, that it was as a sun heating my heart.
Eleni
Monika
Karina
For finishing, an other moment of the poetry : “Sun is also the light inside us and in our eyes. It's the smile in our face and the heat of our heart when we help each others . I’m sending you lots of sun to lighten and sparkle your live” To sum up, this challenge was very beautiful and inspired moment, that show me how is important to stay here and now, to enjoy the live and every moment of our day, how each moment and each person can be the source of creativity if we give them more attention and the time. I saw that this creative state of mind depends on our choice to be inside this word. It wasn’t easy to stay every day in this experience because of my busy schedule but I saw that it was possible and necessary. I learned also how the team can help staying in this creative research and this inspired state. compiled by Monika Śmiechowska
2. Nikos Creativity Challenge 24/10 - 23/11 Trying to make an overview of the last month I could say that passed very fast but If I count the things i have done though the challenge then felt like much more than a month. The way I ran the challenge was adapted to my everyday needs regarding work and personal development so I might not follow it by the book. That means that I wasn't recording my overall progress day by day but subconsciously I was “pressuring” myself to try something new everyday and be creative/productive regarding the challenges that the universe was unfolding for us. And I am saying this because it started as a meditation practice for 10 minutes in the morning through Youtube.I have tried that in the past but never made it for more than 3 days in a row. Only this time it lasted for 21 days constantly. My first goal was 7 days and when I reached it I set the aim of 21 days. During this time I had the time to be more mindfulness and at the same time more focused during the day. That helped me a lot in achieving a lot of my daily tasks and to feel productive at the end of the day. So last month I worked a lot on canva platform developing some digital designing skills, watched a couple of tedx talks on how to interview people and I ended up actually taking interviews from some professionals for a new project I am currently working on. In general was a month full of new information, developing skills in different areas and also doing a lot of things just for fun. If I had to conclude the overall experience of the challenge I could say that was very helpful and definitely life changing. The only thing I noticed is at some points I was very close to burn out due to the workload and at the same time the things I wanted to achieve throughout the day so sometimes it’s ok to not be too creative and enjoy simple things :) Nikos Apostolidis
3. MIRA I used it in my work. (I'm a coach and nutrition consultant.) Every day for 30 days I made some changes to one of my meals, used the ingredients more creatively, or served more creatively the food. I also shared these tips with my guests, who welcomed me. Even since the challenge, I’ve been trying to consciously make sure I have at least one creative meal a day when I realize I’m feeling much better. I also told them about Erasmus+, as they were interested in where I traveled. Not only did they get variety for their diet, after the program I enthusiastically used my creativity in their training plan as well. This program has given me a lot, I pay more attention to use my creativity for everything. Since then, I have also started working with children, where I have already used some of the games from Erasmus+ classes.
Mira
4. KAROLIINE My 30 creative days Luckily this year every day is new for me, full of surprises and includes a lot of creativity in them. Starting with that I work as a youth worker and working with kids and trying to get their attention you already have to be creative. And trying to survive alone in another country too needs a creative mindset. I'm glad that I can be creative in every way and in my everyday life do something new. (learning another language, working with interactive maps, doing and editing photoshoot pictures, cooking, playing etc.) And that is the thing that I will take together with me from this year and also from this 10days in Poland. I try not to forget to add a little bit of spice to my everyday life. I send fast tik tok video of what I have been doing.
Karoliine Tross Karoliine's video can be found here: https://fb.watch/aRhEVEw8wW/
5. MAR Creativity can be found in the slightest inspiration. Carrying out this part of the project has been a complete challenge for me because every day I was trying to carry out a new workshop or activity. As you can see in the video and after analyzing what creativity is for me, even the most everyday thing contains something of it. In these 30 days I have found creative solutions to problems, I have worked on creativity with seniors/youngters, I have exploited my own creativity and, above all, I have been surprised with what i have learned. For me, this challenge has given me the chance to discover that I am much more creative than I thought, and to explore new possibilities for creating projects and developing ideas. My most creative moments were: - Painting and writing workshops - To cook 10 spanish omelettes - To create tea parties with different topics - To become myself a character of Shreck - To visit different countries, etc. Maria del Mar Nosti Mar's video can be found here: https://fb.watch/aRhXayWkq4/
6. VIKTOR My 30 day creative challenge has a four layer structure: 1.The first (and the most challenging and creative) layer consist of 13 consequent days of storytelling before bedtime to my older 5-years-old daughter, with stories and heroes ( the Dog, the Cat, the Frog, the Dolphin and the Alien travelling in the Magic Forest and finding the Old Man / Unicorn) which were conceptual and connected, and the storytelling was interactive, meaning that Sofia took part in the guessing what will next happen. Every night before sleeping, she was very excited and overwhelmed what will the story be about, and this gave me a great joy and happiness. 2.The second layer consists of 30 consequent days of recycling, which is also ongoing, and I hope it will continue forever, because in our country (RN Macedonia), the story of recycling is new (sadly), but hopefully it will come out for the best. The thing is that in our apartment building, between the floors, there are two cardboard cans placed for selecting paper and plastic ( there isn’t one for glass like in Poland :), and we (our whole family) are involved in selecting our garbage for the first time in our lives, and we are all happy and excited for it. 3.The third layer consists of 30 consequent days of giving birthday congratulation wishes through my LinkedIn profile, which I’m doing I guess maybe 2 years , and it gives me a lot of pleasure. 4.The fourth layer consists of 30 consequent days of practicing French on Duolingo on-line application, which I’m doing for exactly one year, and it’s a long time wish come true. I’ve studied French language in primary school, and from then I’ve lost connection with it, only what I could listen from songs and movies. But now, this everyday learning process gives me enormous satisfaction. For 2022 resolution, I’ve included also Greek language lessons on the same app, which is also my great wish, to learn our neighbour language, which is so different from our own. Viktor Atanasov
Sofia and her House
Selecting paper and plastic cardboard cans
My Duolingo 2021 report
Another one from Duolingo – My 365 day streak
7. DIMITAR I decided my 30 day challenge to be „every day building different figures with building blocks, together with my son“. Then bringing those figures alive and play with them as long as his attention allows. I decided on this because sometimes for me it is a great challenge to keep his attention on something because that little boys’s mind works on his very creative and unique way. He has no rules and schedule, only pure creativity and literaly living in the moment. So I tried to add a little bit of constructive creation for a certain time. Some days it worked great, some days not so much, but for sure – this was such a great fun for all of us.
Dimitar Ristov
8. FLORIN
"In my "home group", we've chosen daily a random word and on that word we've let our imagination to be creative in different ways every day. After this 30 days experience I felt more flexible in my daily life. Also, I observed that I find it more easily to face the new things that came out every day." "We set up a challenge to make a creative task or a creative approach to a problem that we faced every day and we we're talking almost every evening about our day and how did we manage to insert our creative approach in our day to day life. It was a challenging and fun experience that made us realize how many times we do things the way we are used to just because we did it so many times and we are used to it, so the main achievement was that we made it possible to "think about thinking outside of the box" in a conscious way and pushing ourselves to do this every day.
Florin Marginean
9. SERBIA, GREECE, HUNGARY Regarding the 30-day creative challenge, we faced many issues. Our group wanted to try to do some dance classes and share them every day with the others, in order to learn some national dances or some well-known dances like tango, salsa, etc. Since we were in a group with Greece and Hungary, we decided that we should try another challenge. That was more on an individual level, so everyone was free to choose what to do. Some of the challenges were writing, drawing, going for a walk with a pet, etc. There are a few photos from the beginning of our challenge when we were still determined to try new dance moves. It was not easy to stick to the habit and there are so many cheat days we have done collectively. It was so funny to share photos and videos in the group and we felt that it was the real purpose of this exercise, to make creativity fun. Aleksandar Lazarevic
10. KATARINA
The results of creative challenge in a video form, available here: https://fb.watch/aRkXvuLjvR/
Katarina Markovic
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