Inside each of us there is a creative bent, an artistic streak, and there are several external factors and conditions that can enhance the flow of our creative juices. Whether that be a quiet place with minimal distractions, a picturesque view out of a window, or the right music being pumped into your ears. Whatever it is, I’m sure you’ve cottoned on to what the best methods are to stimulate your own personal productivity.
I posit that a highly influential factor to engaging in creativity goes flying under the radar, and that is the climate of a location. Furthermore, I believe climate not only dictates creative stimulation, but also the type of activity you engage in. Of course I must say, this observation is solely based on my own experiences of weather-based creative outbursts. My curiosity surrounding this stems mainly from my exposure to just about every weather system under the sun in the past year.
On the opposite ends of the spectrum you’ve got extreme heat and extreme cold. Both of these induce similar creative scenarios because they constrain one to be housebound due to the adverse conditions outside. So this ‘rainy-day’ creativity is borne solely out of not being able to leave ones dwelling. If you will, art in the absence of choice.
It is this middle-ground in climate and weather patterns where I believe the differences in creativity are most intrinsically linked to outside conditions. At this point I must clarify that the weather is notorious for dictating people’s moods. Consequently, ones mood directly affects the type of creative activity they engage in. This correlation is well established, but not the link between creativity and the weather that I’m hoping to highlight here.
Where I think this ponderance gets interesting is consistency versus inconsistency in regard to weather patterns. Whether it be consistently warm weather and sunshine, or consistently cold and wet weather. Consistency equals predictability, and predictability is a rather difficult place to draw creativity from. On the other hand, it invites the introduction of routine. Routine can encourage productivity, but it can be harder to shake up well established mindsets and form new ideas. Whereas unpredictability can stifle ones creativity or enable it at the drop of a hat.
Picture this, the suns rays bursting through grey and patchy clouds. It has a completely different effect on ones psyche then when compared to a cloudless sky, bathed in blue. Again, the point isn’t to claim that any one climate is better for enabling creativity or predict what that creativity will manifest itself as. Instead the aim is to highlight that the difference in climate will dictate different creative processes. It opens up the question of what the act of changing ones climate can do to switch their way of thinking and perhaps even allow access to a different creative mindset.
How and where do you find yourself most creative? Some food for thought.
