Creativity & Aging: Seniors Benefit

"Some of the most powerful works of art have been produced by older Americans by hands that have engaged in years of hard work, eyes that have witnessed decades of change, and hearts that have felt a lifetime of emotions." -- Hillary Rodham Clinton

Gone are the days of retirement at age 65, nestled in an easy chair, rocking slowing into the decline of the remaining few years and quietly waiting for the inevitable end of life. Today, most of us who will reach 65 can expect to live an additional 30 years. The expected ending of life has shifted to become the beginning of the third stage of life.

How will we navigate the path of this third age? What tool in the toolbox of human experience and exploration will best serve us in maintaining a quality of life that will keep us mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically the healthiest and most vibrant? The compass of creativity.

Why is creativity the best tool when entering the third stage of life? Creativity, the expression of self actualization and means of connecting in conversation with the world through the imagination, originality and innovation brought forth by the individualistic self in artistic and inventive works, offers several benefits:

• Encourages the mind to continually see the world in new ways.
• Nurtures problem solving skills.
• Helps to process and work through emotional issues.
• Fosters community involvement leading to the lessening of depression and loneliness.
• Connects the inner spiritual self to the physical world in giving the spirit a tangible voice.
• Promotes physical activity.

With all the obvious benefit, creativity is an unfamiliar mysterious process for most of us, the enigmatic domain of the talented few. Traditionally, creativity has been dismissed as an endeavor not worthy of our effort, the idle play of childhood best left behind for more serious and substantial accomplishments of adulthood.

Abraham Maslow contemplated the absence of creativity in adulthood with this statement, "The key question isn't What fosters creativity? But it is why in God's name isn't everyone creative? Where was the human potential lost? How was it crippled? I think therefore a good question might be not why do people create? But why do people not create or innovate? We have got to abandon that sense of amazement in the face of creativity, as if it were a miracle if anybody created anything."

Indeed, we need to reclaim creativity as the potential tool and pursuit available to all of us, and recognize its high value in making the third age of life the best age lived. In the luxury of the third age of life, we are afforded the very opportunities most amenable to living a creative life. In the third age of life, there is time to take time in reflection -- a needed for inspiration; the freedom of time in lack of structured time and obligatory routine; the time to daydream; and the time to discover in which ways we feel most comfortable and authentic in creative expression.

In Higher Grumbles by T George Harris, Creativity in the Later Years, he writes of a conversation he had with The Creative Age -- Awakening the Human Potential in the Second Half of Life author Dr. Gene Cohen, "He knew the Successful Aging research led by the MacArthur Foundation, plus a body of work on midlife success correlates led by Gilbert Brim, one of the most original research psychologists of our age.

Such work shows that today's elders are not only the healthiest, highest-educated cohort of wrinklies ever seen but people who fit the motivational pattern of entrepreneurs and innovators: people who've made their mark and gained economic independence, enough to be motivated now by intrinsic interest and fun in what we do."

And to further support the value of creativity and aging wellness, the ageless and elegant Sophia Loren wisely added, "There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age."

In the Creativity and Aging columns, we will reintroduce ourselves to the tools of creativity by providing ideas, information and resources in exploring the different ways to be creative and in using creativity as a compass to the best years ahead.

Sources: The Washington DC Area Geriatric Education Center Consortium Learners' Explorer Creativity and Aging What we know about creativity and older adults – from the Center on Aging Studies Without Walls, University of Missouri-Kansas City; Creativity in the Later Years, Higher Grumbles by T George Harris