Enhance Your Creativity

Ink Spray Journal Map

Ever lose your drive when you're writing or working on a project? The following 5 strategies work well to put you back in gear...

1. Classical music enhances creativity and intellectual pursuits.  Bach, Vivaldi and Mozart work well to keep you focused so that you achieve a state of effortless concentration and enjoyment or "flow."  Try playing any of the following when you approach your creative project today:

• St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach
• Nisi Dominus by Vivaldi
• Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach
• Rondo in A by Mozart
• Piano concertos nos. 20, 21, 23, 24 by Mozart
• The Four Seasons by Vivaldi
• Canon in D Major by Pachelbel
• Violin Sonata no. 5 in F Major, op. 24 "The Spring" by Beethoven

2.   5 Tips Past a Creative Rut  Ever try mediation by doing something else as Lori McNee suggests?  Here's how to start...

• Stop waiting for inspiration to strike.  As the old saying goes, "A watched pot never boils."
• Pick something monotonous to do like mowing the lawn or washing the dishes.  Your brain will keep working on an inspiration, like a pot cooking stew on the back burner.
• Once your mind starts to wander, you'll be surprised how quickly it will start generating ideas.
• The trick is to record the ideas as soon as they pop up, so you don't forget them.

I like to keep 3 x 5 cards and a pen in my pocket so I don't lose sight of new insights.  What's your tactic?

3. Romance Your Creativity The creative process is very much like a relationship, the Idea Champions remind us.  "And like most relationships, it usually begins with fascination -- that curious state of mind that keeps you spellbound, charmed, and aroused." But we all know that soon wears off. What then?

If you are serious about your current hot idea, be willing to get closer to it. Be willing to go from the romance stage to an intimate relationship.

Understand what the creative process is -- an impossible-to-deny encounter with yourself -- your fears, your power, your vision, and what drives you to play the game of life.

Above all, do whatever it takes to put the elation back into your relationship to creativity.

I'm in, are you?

4.  Stop Multitasking  "Have your technology tools begun to manage you?" Myra While asks.  If you're constantly multitasking, you are deluding yourself because the brain literally focuses on one thing at a time.  Can you take focus away from driving for more than a moment?  The reason is that your brain bottlenecks.  And...

Constantly switching between even small tasks creates brain overload. Studies in which people's brains are scanned while multi-tasking clearly show that switching between tasks consumes a large portion of the brain's processing capacity.

5. Leverage Your Creative Fears Fears are actually something we *create,* Marianne Mullen says. Knowing that fear never goes away, you can truly learn to leverage your fear, and she provides seven steps to to just that. 

• Name it
• Own it
• Disprove it
• Claim it
• Act on it
• Acknowledge it
• Repeat it - Make a strong commitment to your creativity and trust in yourself that taking risks can only create more confidence and that you ARE getting stronger than your fears.

To see the details for each one, awaken your creativity by leveraging it or work these out in your way.

Once I published 12 Sparks for Heads-Up Creativity, on Forbes' Mind Makeover, I could not let go of my project.  Ever have that happen?  Would you be willing to share a strategy to "fire up" your creativity?  If so, provide the details or a link where I can find it.

Ink Spray Journal Map by Joanna Paterson.

Are Lefties Generally Right Brain Oriented?

"I wonder if 'handed-ness' is any clue to the brains strengths," Geology Joe asks. "I'm a lefty." That question primed the pump of my curiosity, too. So I did some research and found answers in the August/September issue of Scientific American Mind...

People highly gifted in music, art and math make extensive use of the right brain over the left. Back in the 1980's Harvard neurologists Norman Geschwind and Albert Galaburda were fascinated that so many musicians, artists and mathematicians are also more likely to have left brain deficits, such as dyslexia or stuttering.

As a possible answer to this they suggest that this right brain preeminence could result from higher-than-normal testosterone levels in the womb. In fact some research findings show that testosterone can impede the development of the brain's left hemisphere. To compensate for this, the right brain becomes more highly developed.

Since male fetuses are typically exposed to more testosterone than females, this increased exposure provides a possible explanation for higher number of male math prodigies and of males with language disorders, according to psychologists, Christian Hoppe and Jelena Stojanovic at the University Clinic for Epileptology in Bonn, Germany. They add that the hormonal account of origins of genius and pathology remain controversial.

Tom Davenport of Harvard Publishing asks, "Is the Right Hemisphere the Next Big Thing?" He concludes...

Emphasizing only one half of the brain is both individual career suicide, and a sure route to economic decline for a society.

Geology Joe, I think you'd agree that we desperately need the brillance of both sides of our brain, no matter which hand we use.

Thoughts?

Music Stirs Happy Memories

The Waif's - Bridal Train, jolted memories of a major life-change for me. Fanciful melody, poignant lyrics, along with video that amazingly recaptures scenes of a journey from Australia to America...

First, Mom and I boarded an ocean liner in Sydney Harbour rode the wavy Pacific to the Golden Gate and San Francisco. Next, we boarded a train east to Buffalo, NY. The Waif's video and music captured magic and mystery of a past era. What's your impression?



Music and images jolted memories to life! Interestingly, the brain remembers things by categorizing them. It could be a smell or body position such as kneeling that stirs it from your brain's hippocampus and neocortex. You might be interested to know "when the brain recollects something, these areas of your brain talk in sync to generate 'a memory.' Your brain rewires several different connetors to a an event as you sleep...

The visual connectors helped recapture my early experience. "Memories are not so much retrieved," according to Robert Jourdain as they are re-created. Memory is actually imprecise and unreliable.

Thanks, Gavin, for introducing me to The Waifs. I'll be whistlin' the Bridal Train tune as I go about my work.

What tunes might create joy as you carry out daily work routines today?

Freedom for Novelty and Risk

A good performance uses a framework of knowledge. But within that framework there's freedom. Jos van Veldhoven, Artistic Director of the Netherlands Bach Society.

Why is it that some folks are "born" rebels, especially many associated with the arts? A smile comes when I think about this because, in part it's brain related. According to Eric Jensen, the brain rises to challenges and novelty -- too little challenge leads to boredom. So it's not surprising that musicians or artists take foundational works or techniques from a master and put thier footprints on them in innovative ways. Similarly, businesses that cultivate a climate of freedom where they value novelty and risk will likely be successful in tomorrow's marketplace. What does a culture of innovation look like?

As Mr. van Veldhoven appoached Bach's B minor Mass, he did so with the idea that attempts to replicate authenticity stifles "flexibility and sense of spontaneity." No matter if its philosophy, science, education, or business, rules often surface within knowledge frameworks, for the purpose of keeping them "pure." While there's a fine line in going over the edge, many people delight in fresh approaches.

For instance, in a New York Times interview, van Veldhoven said he uses few singers in the choral parts of this Mass, which gives the whole work a very different feel. "I'm very interested in facts," says this Artistic Director, "but I don't want to be a conservator and do exactly what Bach did."

Consider van Veldhoven's approach as you think about where your business is headed..."So many musicians are trained to think of the composer as God, who had the truth in his pen -- one single truth, and only one. The composer isn't God. He's a friend you can talk to." Thoughts...

Energize Voice and Mind with Rap!

More and more, folks realize to keep their brain operating at optimum it needs to be primed, much like the country pump. To push their minds many take on Brain Age, Sodoku, or crosswords. My suggestion to help energize yet different parts of your noodle...is to chant and tap rap. Rap draws from your wellspring of intelligences. Here's a snapshot of how it works and why it makes a difference...

During Save The Last Dance, the male lead said, Rap gives you voice...And the female lead found that improvising new steps in rap took her beyond ballets' boundaries. Could you use the "I am here" confidence or presence of mind, rap helps develop, to walk into the midst of a hectic and sometimes hostile office environment to begin your day? Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect shows how this works...

While commuting to and from work, imagine putting your thoughts into rhythm. Begin to tap with your hand in groups of four beats, accenting the first, and talk as you tap. Within a few minutes, you may notice how easy it is to speak to the beat--in other words, rap! Unwrap your thoughts, then let them be spoken in rhythm. For example:

TODAY I WAS TIRED.
TODAY I WAS BORED.
TODAY I WAS STUCK
AND FEELING LIKE MUCK.
I STARTED TO RAP
I STARTED TO MOVE
IN ONLY FIVE SECONDS
I WAS IN A NEW GROOVE.

To start, just talk and babble. If you aren't sure what to say simply use nonsense words but let your heart and tongue express what you're feeling. Rap cleanses the mental palate, and you don't need to blare your sub-woofer in the process!

Why does chanting your own rap energize your brain? You draw from several intelligences as you create--intrapersonal, musical-rhythmical, logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic. Recent research shows the brain needs challenges to be vibrant. You'll be building new dendrite brain cells, especially on the right or creative side of your brain. And at the same time you fire up the left side as it talks to your body, especially the deeper systems that govern instinctual response and survival.

Ready to rap on your commute? Rap'll prime your pump!

Let us know about your experiment...

*Link to Right Brain, Left Brain Flickr image.

[Caution: if you cannot focus on driving, try rapping at other convenient places!]