What is the 'third layer' of creativity?

First off: It was supposed to be the 'second layer' but thesecondlayer.com was taken. True story.

I work in creativity. I also work with, around, for, about, under, over, and inside creativity.

I am a professional writer, yes, but strangely, that’s actually not my primary interest in creativity. I majored in Religious Studies and Philosophy in college, and that is my primary interest.

For most of us, whether we realize it or not, our creativity gives us our meaning in life. Yes, it’s absolutely the novel we’re gonna finish one day, the painting we made in high school art class that still hangs proudly on our wall, or that apple pie recipe that won the state fair award.

What else?

But it’s also (and mostly) the way we nurture our relationships and friendships. Creativity is in the way we treat the children we know as we raise, teach or encourage them. It’s in the stuffing recipe we continue in our family’s fourth generation with our own modern twists, or the way we ask for a raise at work and then pass down what we learned to our more-trepidatious colleague. Creativity is in every conversation, every problem we aim to solve, every act of kindness (or — unfortunately — malice), every step of the political process, every health care diagnosis.

Creativity. Is. Everything.

And I want to talk about it. A lot.

Why me?

I’ve made every penny of my career working in, managing or teaching creativity. I’ve spoken about it to creativity researchers and I’ve presented these ideas to neuroscientists. I’ve worked with thousands and thousands of people, from students in a juvenile psychiatric hospital to CEOs in Mexico City.

I know some shit, is what I’m saying.

What’s this ‘third layer’ thing?

And I want to talk about how creativity intersects with physiology and philosophy and neuroscience, as well as how it interacts with doing chores, putting on makeup, or boredom. How we focus on the surface, first layers layers of creativity (the output, especially when it’s well-known or easily digested) and ignore the deeper layers where we usually find the meaning.

And I want to talk about how you ways you can make your own creative process just a li’l bit easier, maybe.

I’m gonna jump right in and write here every day for the month of March. (The third layer, the third month. Get it?) If you have questions, ask them. If you have answers, share them. If you have fears, unload them. Let’s get creative.