Do Sports and Adventures Spur Creativity?
I am a recent convert to the belief of the power of sports and adventures to vastly enrich a person’s life. After participating in a few Triathlon / Marathon, training for climbing big ‘14er mountains’ and learning new sports like skiing, skating, rowing, I have just begun to peel the layer of positive benefits that these activities have cumulatively delivered to my sense of ‘self’. Better health is just one part of the whole equation.
The ‘Flow’ state —
I find that when I run or ride my bike or swim, I come up with good ideas — the ideas could be about my job, writing or whatever I have been dwelling on lately. There is no doubt that physical exertion stimulates the mind and leads to a ‘flow’ state when I am totally immersed in that specific activity, cutting out all the other ‘noise’ in my mind for that period of time particularly. Moreover, there is this unparalleled joy of finishing as I approach the last leg of the run, last lap of the swim or last sentence of writing an article.
There are number of famous writers who were ardent sports lovers — Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes was a keen cricketer, golfer, boxer. Lord Byron, the poet was into swimming, fencing. Ernest Hemingway, the American Nobel laureate was into outdoors and adventures big time, which also seem to find a way in his books.
To me, adventures & sports put you in a different tactical situations all the time and gradually you begin to develop a comfort with the state of ‘being uncomfortable’, pushing you in a zone of ‘self-growth’. Hence, experiencing a number of different sports and adventures is a great way for one’s creative development including the ability to think differently, ability to take risks and developing general proficiency in multiple fields.
Sport as an artistic medium
I remember hearing a famous sports-person (can’t recall the name right now) comment that he sees himself as an artist first. To him, sports in its essence, is akin to making an art.
An artist, by definition is reflection of a creative persona, and an excellent art is a product of the artist’s imagination and creative work. In a similar vein, an excellent display of a backhand stroke in tennis duel or a swimmer slicing through the water in the nick of time or a golfer hitting a birdie shot create a piece of magic frozen in that moment, akin to an artistic impression. As a human we feel better, we feel ecstatic, we feel deep emotions partaking in or even witnessing these sportive or adventurous moments. Isn’t sport or adventure an art in itself?
Moreover, there is something about human spirit — that deep urge to be part of something larger than the self, to seek new horizons, to push through challenges — that meet its match in embarking on new adventures or learning to play a challenging sport.
