A Note on Creativity
And why it’s so healthy
Dr. Phil Maffetone
A unique feature of the human brain is creativity. We evolved successfully, in great part, because our ancestors used creativity to survive while thousands of other species were dying out. Using creativity activates many brain areas, and helps our whole brain work better. One expression of this is music. All animals make and respond to music, mostly in its simple form. Humans, however, create more musical variations that require different brain regions to turn on. These include areas associated with melody, harmony, tempo, lyrics and many other musical components.
Anthropological evidence indicates music’s role in human evolution may have started around two million years ago. Music preceded speech and, more importantly, helped promote its development. As in all animals, music also played an important role in sexual selection. As the brain evolved, so did musical composition and variety. About 5,000 years ago, Chinese Medicine produced one of the first organized systems of music as therapy.
Virtually all our ancestors were musicians, participating, playing and living music as a daily part of life. But about 500 years ago, something in the brain changed for a small but significant group of people – they became non-musicians. For unexplained reasons, these folks just weren’t into music. In the past 40 years, the number of non-music people, including those with “amusia” (tone deafness) has grown rapidly, perhaps the reason we’re in a modern Dark Ages of creativity. It’s not just music, with both popular and classical versions severely waning, but overall creativity – movies, plays, sculpture, painting and other masterpieces now mostly found in historical archives.
The fall of creativity in so many brains is not an isolated problem; it strongly correlates with the recent worldwide overfat epidemic. This may be the first time in human history that such a dangerous brain-body imbalance exists. Had this problem appeared in the distant past, our species may have died out.
Correcting or preventing creative deficits can be accomplished just by listening to music – not in the background but up close and personal. This simple activity turns on many brain areas. Playing music and dancing can do even more, adding additional brain-body stimulation. Watching a music-based movie, or music videos provides similar benefits. Other creative activities, such as painting, sculpting or the things you enjoy or have always wanted to do, are also effective. Improving the brain’s creative energy is a powerful therapy that can significantly help overall brain-body health, even as much as nutrition and exercise. And there’s no better time to start than now – the sooner we use it the less we’ll lose as we age.
