The creative talent myth

I hear people say “I’m just not creative” all the time. They believe that they were born without a "creative gene", when of course there is no such gene.

I believe firmly that every human being has creativity in them and if they feel they don't have any, all it means is that have forgotten or un-learnt how to access it. It is not that they haven’t discovered their creativity yet but rather they haven’t re-discovered it.

Look at small children: they are freely, unselfconsciously and naturally creative. They don't question or assess what they make - they just make. So it must be that creativity is either nurtured in us from childhood, in which case we stay creative, or it was unfortunately trained out of us by our environment (possibly our education systems).

And I say 'unfortunately' because creating is so healthy for us. I have written about why creativity is so therapeutic, and there is also an interesting piece on BBC Future all about knitting and how it can improve emotional regulation: The surprising health benefits of knitting: how knitting can help you kick harmful habits .

I have started to become active in this area not only because I love being creative, but also because I believe that human creativity is increasingly important as AI, technology and digital media are taking up so much of our lives, to the detriment of many heritage crafts.

Our parents and grandparents were given these skills by previous generations, and we must not lose them. My overall aim is to help people to access their innate creativity, to find their creative spark again - regardless of the creative medium and regardless of the circumstances - to reap the benefits for their own health and for future generations.

To create is to live twice (Albert Camus)