A holistic approach to creativity and innovation paves the way for long-term growth while keeping in mind the positive impact it will have on every area of life.
Creativity can be applied to anything to make it more interesting and unique. For example, building a successful blog or a big company requires creative talent and sharp marketing skills. But when people cannot see instant results, they start doubting themselves and soon consider their idea a failure.
Marketing is customer-centric, but an idea can only succeed when you find a deep connection with yourself first. Most people use their imagination, think out-of-the-box, use social media, build connections, take risks, and have many other strategies to succeed, but a holistic approach is about looking at the bigger picture.
Before we consider ourselves influencers, we need to reevaluate how our struggle to succeed is also affecting our personal and professional lives. A holistic approach is also about consciously rejecting practices that harm the physical, mental, financial, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
This post looks at how applying a holistic approach to creativity impacts all areas of life, changes the perspective and purpose of life, and why it’s relevant to tune it from time to time.
Disclaimer: All views and suggestions in this post are from my personal experience. However, all content in this post and on this blog is well-researched from articles by leading industry experts. The website references are provided at the end of the article. There are no affiliate links attached to this post.
Time and the holistic approach
A holistic approach is the opposite of trends. Trends come and go. Time is of the essence in marketing. The sooner one works on an idea and sees results, the faster a brand gains followers and subscribers. Social media plays a major role in reaching a larger audience quickly.
A holistic approach breaks away from the trend of instant downloads and gratification. It challenges the popular idea of growth and success and instead focuses on thinking deeply before making any important decision.
Imagine that a leather company that prides itself on providing genuine products starts thinking about its impact on climate change. Or a teacher educating students about a solving math problems using interesting games that inspires them and encourages teamwork.
It takes time to come up with creative and unique ideas, but in the long run, it’s the most sustainable way to bring positivity into everyones life.
Let’s look at essential areas of life that can be improved by using a holistic approach to creativity.
Relationships
Clear communication and giving time to your family and friends are always relevant. We all know that, but it is difficult to apply. Most of the time is spent scrolling through social media posts, looking at what other people are doing. At family dinner, everyone is looking at their mobile screens instead of talking to each other.
A holistic approach to creativity involves bringing awareness to your present and the people around you. It also means finding creative ways to limit the use of social media. Outdoor family activities like swimming and camping are one way to improve closeness and bonding.
A holistic approach to creativity can also be applied to children’s education. An educational system that is more than just passing an exam with good grades. It’s about teaching children to be mindful of their environment and empathetic toward other people.
Professional Life
There are companies that are already applying the holistic approach to build a healthy connection between an employer and employees. New work plans, like hybrid work cultures, are available for some employees who can work from home or work a four-day work week. The mental health of employees is finally taken into consideration.
While there are still many management issues to solve, we can certainly take care of applying a holistic approach to create consistently.
One way that works for me is constant curiosity to learn more. I have irritated many dance teachers by asking too many questions. I wanted to know everything – why and why not. I wanted to learn from their experience as well. If we do not enjoy our work, we will become disheartened not just from the daily grind but also lose work-life balance.
This technique has also worked for blogging. Promoting your blog is fine, but expressing yourself through writing should always take precedence over everything else. The idea of a holistic approach to creativity is not to lose the purpose and excitement of why you started in the first place. It makes the journey consistent, and therefore people start valuing what you value most.
Emotional strength and goals
Sometimes it’s okay to change your goals and dreams if life directs you towards it. The reasons could be like giving more time to parenting or a motivation to buy a new house for your family.
A holistic approach to creativity is to reevaluate your purpose and choose a way of life where you don’t have to compromise on your physical and mental health. Success is called a journey because it’s a work-in-progress.
Decision-making becomes tough when you don’t have a choice but to keep going. It takes resilience to take a beating, dust negative thoughts away, get up to turn defeat into a win, and stay humble. And everyone works at their own pace towards success. Embracing the holistic approach encourages people to trust the timing of the universe.
Financial management
Financial problems affect the psyche and can make people deeply insecure about many things. The decisions that we make about the future can feel like a burden when we have limited money. It has a direct connection to what we need and what we think we need.
Planning monthly budget and maintaining it is tough, but it gives financial freedom. You may or may not embrace minimalism, but applying holistic creativity to finances means balancing expenditures and savings. For example, whatever you spend to improve your mental and physical fitness is a much cheaper investment than spending money at a drinks bar and later depend on costly medicines to survive.
Conclusion
For every problem, there’s a solution. Creativity is thinking about different ways to solve a problem. And a holistic approach to creativity is much needed to reevaluate our perspective and purpose in life.
Liane Gabora, Ph.D, professor of psycology at the University of British Columbia says about holistic creativity,
“The challenge for our generation may be not to come up with creative ideas, nor to find creative solutions to problems, but to find creative ideas and solutions that do not generate other problems,that take the broader context-including its interrelated social, cultural, and ecological components-into account.
References
Holistic Creativity, by Liane Gabora Ph.D. Posted August 16, 2010.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mindbloggling/201008/holistic-creativity
Creativity
strongfitnessmoves 
I love the idea here because it is creating to extend versus creating to separate, and to cause problems. Humans love making more problems by focusing on problems to solve problems. Problems keep arising as the universe spins its wheels over eons. But with your advice, creating is more about extending to help everyone. Or, to think WHOLE-listically about one presence while creating. Fabulous concept.
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Travellers know that even though there are so many different cultures and religions all over the world, yet the basic needs of everyone remains the same. We all want peace and love for our families. It is our responsibility to create for the greater good.
Thanks for supporting my blog, Ryan.
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What an insightful and interesting post! It’s been a whole since I read one that captured my attention the whole way through.
I’ve never given much thought to a holistic approach when it comes to creativity but it makes sense.
I especially like the passage about emotional strength and goals. This year I made a promise to myself that I won’t be sacrificing my own happiness or health for goals or to fit other people’s ideas of success.
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I am so glad to recieve a positive feedback from you, Jordanne. I learn a lot about running a successful blog by following your tweets and reading your blog posts.
It’s true that we should try to keep the health promises we make to ourselves.😊
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I love the thought that we are use creativity to solve a problem . As someone who is very creative, thinking outside the box is something I enjoy!
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You are courageous Sam to enjoy thinking outside the box. That’s one distinct way to identify an artist. If there’s no creativity then our world will be so dull and robotic.
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How interesting. This post had my whole attention. I particularly enjoyed reading this passage 👇
“A holistic approach to creativity involves bringing awareness to your present and the people around you. It also means finding creative ways to limit the use of social media. Outdoor family activities like swimming and camping are one way to improve closeness and bonding”
I instantly connected with this concept and yet it’s the first time I hear about it. Thank you for sharing your references, I will definitely have a look into the 2010 one.
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Thank you so much for your support. I am glad you enjoyed reading this post. Even I didn’t knew about this concept before researching about it. I was simply reflecting upon the fact that the process of creating anything should not be limited to time and marketing your art. It has to have a higher purpose, a larger perspective.
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This is certainly an interesting post. I can now see the link between holistic approach and creativity. This part of your blog resonates with me “A holistic approach to creativity is to reevaluate your purpose and choose a way of life where you don’t have to compromise on your physical and mental health.” I totally agree with you.
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Thank you so much Kevin for your continuous support. Balance of physical and mental fitness should always be made a priority.
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