At times creativity seem like a flash of insight in the mind and sometimes it is no less than a mountain to climb. To understand how creativity works and flows through us, it’s important to know one distinction that most of us go wrong with. Being creative doesn’t mean anything to ‘offer’ but it actually means to be able to ‘receive and perceive’ better. Creativity is entirely based on our state of mind / awareness to perceive, firstly the situation as ‘it is’ and then to be able to derive possible interpretations or simply the possibilities.
Which is the most common place where people are at their creative best? Perhaps Bathroom or Toilet. Funny! but true, not because they are physically free, but they are mentally free and relaxed to be able to receive better from their own mind and perceive better to choose from available alternatives. This phenomenon is similar to a situation where you carefully keep some article and then you indeed struggle to find it or remember it. Then at some random moment when you are having a leisure time or sitting idle, you get a flash in the mind that it was kept in that particular Drawer or Almira.
The first step to creativity is to develop the ability to drop interpretations about the situation in hand and see it the way ‘it is’. Create the distinction between the ‘event’ (what actually is needed) vs ‘interpretation’ (as interpreted by your mind), howsoever difficult it may appear. Then is the time to set free the horses of your Mind. The best tool that I have experienced so far to enable you to sort out the facts in a sequence and pattern, to be able to create ‘interpretations’ is a MIND MAP. Let your mind wonder in all directions and throw random words or phrases to you, try to put them on a Mind Map and you will see the magic pattern appearing suddenly. It not only helps breaking a writer’s block but also helps you thinking beyond your thought patterns limited by your earlier interpretations, typically referred to as ‘the box’. I personally use the Android app ‘Mindly’ for creating Mind Maps. Give it a try or you may have better ones that suit your style.
You may receive tons of ideas from the outside world, but unless they make sense to your ‘Inside box’ it will not manifest. So look inside yourself and free your mind, it will take you to boundless possibilities outside the box.
Sending Love, Laughter and Joy,
Parth