Where Does Creativity Go?

Can it be rediscovered?

Last Sunday, as I was leaving church, I had an epiphany. A little girl caught my eye. In her small hand, she held a delicate bouquet; an arrangement of purple and white lantanas tucked into a maroon Allamanda flower, cleverly used as a vase. It was beautiful. Simple. Ingenious.

That tiny bouquet got me thinking: where does this kind of creativity go as we grow older? And more importantly, can we get it back? In this reflection I was reminded of my journey into professional coaching.

As a professional coach, I have learnt that one of the most powerful things we do is help people reconnect with their innate creativity. We don’t offer advice or fix problems. Instead, through listening and asking powerful questions, we create the conditions for clients to rediscover their own resourcefulness enabling them figure out fresh possibilities in familiar circumstances.

This ability to think differently, to approach life with curiosity and innovation, often gets buried under the weight of routines, expectations, and survival-mode living.

What’s fascinating is how this process ties back to brain science. The brain, as I’ve come to understand more deeply through my reading on psychology and neuroscience, operates primarily in two states: survival and creativity.

When in survival mode, the brain is wired for fight or flight. It becomes hyper-focused on threats, limiting our ability to explore new ideas or connect meaningfully with others. But when we shift into the creative mode, energy flows to the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for strategic thinking, innovation, compassion, and flexibility.

Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson statement, “The brain is like Velcro for the negative and Teflon for the positive.” serves as an apt reminder of what is at play. The brain’s first priority is survival, not creativity. We are naturally more alert to danger than to opportunity. But coaching offers a structured way to flip that switch. A way to help people move from fear to possibility.

One framework I have heard mentioned in the context of training to become a coach is Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP). While its scientific validity is debated, NLP explores how our language, thought patterns, and behaviours interact. The core idea is that by becoming aware of these patterns, we can learn to change them and with that, change our results.

So yes, creativity can be rediscovered. Coaching which is defined the International Coaching Federation (ICF) as “a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires clients to maximize their personal and professional potential offers one excellent way of this rediscovery.

The little girl holding a bunch of lantanas in an Allamanda vase reminded me that when we are in a fearless environment we have limitless possibilities of creativity.