**1. Introduction**

Creativity is tilted heavily toward art more than a science discipline. There are no processes, steps, medication, or ingredients to guarantee creativity or creative performance. There are, however, many factors, such as environment, emotions, expertise, intrinsic motivation, etc., that enhance or improve the creative abilities of people. The aim of this chapter is to understand the relationship between emotions and creativity. Emotions are not a button one chooses to press or not to press. It is not thought or learned; it erupts when triggered by a phenomenon or a situation. Let us consider the emotional expression of a newborn. Have you ever wondered how newborns get to know how to cry? Most newborns announce their presence into the world with shrill noise referred to as Vitalis or the cry of life. Scientists have over the years tried to understand the message being communicated by the newborns through Vitalis without success, except to indicate that it is an expression of emotions of either distress or discomfort of being transitioned from one environment (womb) where they were completely dependent on their mother to a life outside the womb where

the baby has to depend on their own lungs to survive. Though science has not been able to decode the message of the cry of life, science tells us that the cry of life is an important expression in the first few minutes of human life. The lack of it, how high or low, and how persistent tells on the kind of attention, urgency of attention, how intense or detailed examination the child will receive. The universality and the tender age (day one) at which this expression of emotions occur make it clear that emotions are a natural and vital occurrence in the life of every human being. It is safe to say that every human being at one time in his or her life have encountered a situation where a story, movie, photograph, poetry, artwork, and music stirred up some emotion within them [1].

While the exposure to the creative work of people spurs the emotion of their audience, followers, or collectors, we also know that for people to achieve the impactful creative performance, they try to connect to certain emotions to power their creativity. They go to great lengths to transfer that emotional power into their creative works to captivate and inspire their audience to follow them or be hooked on their work or their person. Great artists such as Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson, Tailor Swift, Kojo Antwi, and Ibrahim Mahama have always been inspired by their emotions. Love, pain, fear, rejection, and several other emotions have invoked creativity in people over the years. Yet, the subject of emotional creativity is the least researched or discussed topic in creativity. Before we zoom in to what emotional creativity is all about, let us first try to understand what emotion is. Emotion is a spontaneous psychological and physical reaction, demonstration, or expression of feelings toward an experience or anticipation of a future event. A psychologist has told us over the years that emotions are solely an activity of the brain, but new evidence has shown that this is not the case. The Institute of HeartMath, a research center specializing in the study of the physiology of emotions, has identified a relationship between emotions, the brain, and the heart. The research center explains that as we encounter or anticipate an experience, erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers of the brain by the heart and the brain responds with signals to the heart and body in forms known as feelings [2]. These findings are affirmed by the James-Lange theory, which states that witnessing or experiencing an external event leads to a physiological or physical response [3]. For instance, if you come into contact with a bear on a lonely street on a usual night walk, your body will start to tremble and then your heart will start racing, which will send signals or patterns to the brain; the James-Lange theory suggests that the brain after receipt of the signals will interpret the physiological or physical reaction as being frightened [3]. The signaling of the body to a particular emotion leads us to the making of decisions and choices. When the brain tells me that I am frightened at the sight of a bear, I then make a decision to run, scream for help, throw something at the bear, or remain calm. We make several choices in terms of what to eat, wear, where to go to, who to visit, and the tone to communicate with based on our emotions. It is, therefore, imperative to understand the intricacies of emotions, starting with the types of emotions and how they influence our actions and abilities especially in terms of creativity or creative performance.
