Try Flow, Bank Serotonin and Meditate to Tap into Creativity and Avoid Braincramp

Danica Radovanovic, a creative information management professional and blogger from Belgrade, tossed three brilliant tactics into the pot to overcome braincramp. She's suggesting that flow, banking serotonin and practicing meditation work to get past times folks encounter blocks that prevent creativity.

Flow In Flow: The Psychologiy of Optimal Experience, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi defines flow as "the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it." He further theorizes that best moments in life occur when the body and mind are stretched to the limit in an effort to accomplish something both difficult and worthwhile. So Danica, your suggestion leads to extraordinary answers. But there's even more...

For optimal experience, Csikszentmihalyi suggests that it's "necessary to work for external goals and to postpone immediate gratification."

Flow experiences have these elements in common: "provides a sense of discovery, a creative feeling of transporting the person into a new reality. It pushes the person to higher levels of performance." Csikszentmihali sums this up as growth of self.

When people stretch themselves to the limit in flow experiences, the working memory of the brain is positioned to throttle high. Eric Jensen, suggests that the brain leaps to solve puzzles and challenges so it's natural that people achieve more when they work in flow.

Danica, your suggestion to tap into flow or, optimal experience, truly helps folks reach levels of creativity they desire.

Bank Serotonin You mention that Dr. Ellen Weber suggests that people bank more serotonin to maintain a state of well-being. Banking serotonin is an amazing way to establish fertile ground for creativity, Danica since folks would benefit from strategies to avoid cortisol build-up in the brain. Cortisol definitely contributes to braincramp since it inhibits focus and can lead to depression.

And, what is there about meditation that might help?

Meditation Danica says that recent research study findings show that high school kids who practiced meditation 15 minutes each day, regularly, had better grades and their blood pressure was normal or dropped down. And the control group who didn't mediatate for six months, had poor academinc results: no concentration and higher blood pressure...

And, there's more good news from neuroscience research about the benefits of meditation... "Meditation alters resting brain patterns, suggesting long lasting brain changes and increased cortical thickness," according to findings by Harvard, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Massachusetts General Hospital researchers. Additionally, "Structural changes were found in areas of the brain that are important for sensory, cognitive and emotional processing," according to this extensive research.

Danica, thanks for your contributions. Flow, finding ways to increase serotonin and meditation definitely help folks increase focus and cognitive processing. Since brain research supports your ideas, they're just what the doctor ordered to overcome braincramps. Thoughts...?

Stay tuned for more ways to overcome braincramps...I've had great contributions from many folks!