Today I would like to talk about The JOYurney initiative!
The JOYurney project (maybe better to call it phenomenon, stream …. or just journey) takes life from an idea of Beatrice Novara, a designer, who decided one day to share a story on her Instagram account (@bnovara) with one of her sketches and asked her her followers to give her an interpretation, an opinion or a title inspired by that drawing.
Beatrice’s drawing gave birth not only to words but thoughts, dialogues, even poems, thanks to the cooperation and the participation of many people. By this way lots of people have travelled together with fantasy; lots of people have enjoyed this beatiful journey made of emotions and memories, a journey shared among all and enriched by all.
Thanks to Beatrice and her followers’ creativity the journey has been going on since the 4th of April. That’s how in such a difficult period, it’s still possible to feel close to eachother even if we are far from eachother!
When Beatrice and I talked, as well as I congratulated her, I also asked how the project was born and what kind of responses or interactions she was receiving. And, with enthusiasm and optimism, she replied:
“I was not expecting such a success! So many people are taking part of my project and each one of them explains my drawings in a different way… we are all travelling with imagination, but staying perfectly still at home!”
Well, stuck in lockdown what is “saving” us is our ability to adapt and explore new resources.
Two are the aspects that brought success to Beatrice’s project:
- Awakening of our creative thinking;
- Creation of a place of sharing.
But why are these aspects so important for everybody these days?
Starting from the beginning, we want to define the creative thinking, that is the outcome of creativity. Creativity is not a single process, but the result of complementarity of deduction and intuition, reason and imagination, emotion and consideration. And some studies showed that both the right hemisphere of the brain (emotional) and the left brain (rational) are implied during the process.
We don’t usually take a break to look at a picture or just to release our creative energy, as we consider those moments a waste of time in the speed of our present-day lives.
Creative thinking allows us to open up to new chances: it lets us learn to dwell on pictures and details, it teaches us to think in an illogical way against rationality, increasing new ideas and innovations.
“You know what, Michi? I was also considering another thing: even in a difficult time like this, with plenty of bad news and death tolls, no one has never described one of my picture using sentences that leaked sadness or anger. All of the titles, thoughts and poems I get are full of happiness and hope”.
In this period when the mind is free and released from daily routines, it becomes full of thoughts and starts to wander.
And this wandering of the mind has the chance to founder in two ways. The first one is overthinking, when all the thoughts of fear and concern entangle to make up a never-ending loop that brings to no solution, implying negative emotions.
The second one is creative thinking, which consists on the ability to separate from temporary incentives and to create different worlds. This allows us to cover new directions that have never been explored before, full of positive emotions.
It’s important to be aware of the fact that both overthinking and creative thinking are voluntary mental actions. So, on one hand, it’s possible to choose not to overthink, to be aware of it and to give up the process. On the other hand, we can nurture the awareness of the present day and train our creativity process.
“This creative journey – hence the idea of the name The JOYurney – was created during a quarantine night. Alone on my couch, finally with a free mind, I was able to transform some of my deepest desires and thoughts into drawings. People who have always followed me on Instagram gave voice to them and so we brought to life this creative flow that makes us feel closer than ever”.
The sharing of creativity produced by The JOYurney on Instagram allows everybody to interact creating a sense of closeness and empathy that can fulfill our needs of attachment and collaboration.
So, let us get inspired by Beatrice’s (@bnovara) sketches let’s see where we can go!
Let’s ride together the wave of creativity and sharing, I’m sure we’ll make it!
