Don't Jam Your Creative Machinery

Conscious effort inhibits and "jams" the automatic cre­ative mechanism. The reason some people are self-con­scious and awkward in social situations is simply that they are too consciously concerned, too anxious, to do the right thing. They are painfully conscious of every move they make. Every action is "thought-out." Every word spoken is calculated for its effect. We speak of such per­sons as "inhibited," and rightly so. But it would be more true were we to say that the "person" is not inhibited; but that the person has "inhibited" his own creative mech­anism. If these people could "let go," stop trying, not care, and give no thought to the matter of their behavior, they could act creatively, spontaneously, and "be themselves."