Today I decided to post one of my more popular posts from the Life List Club. How we come to have that flash of inspiration amazes me. The human brain is unbelievably complex and fascinating. This post came from curiosity about how cognitive the Muse may actually be.
Oh Muse, Where Art Thou?
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| Photo by Nicole N at Flickr |
Inspiration.
Imagination.
Creativity.
All three are words attributed to the occasionally elusive creature called the Muse.
While us artist-types rely on the Muse to inspire our current artistic endeavors, we aren’t the only people with muses. Everyone has creativity, and needs creativity to solve problems.
Through the creative process, we move through the mundane to come up with unique and original ideas. We use this process every day, from when we determine an alternate route when our traditional route to work is blocked, to deciding what to have for dinner.
How creative we are is influenced by our intelligence, memory, personality, attitude, mental health, and physical health, among others. While some of these factors are beyond our control, many of them aren’t. By altering those over which we have control, we can sharpen and develop our creativity. We can grow our muses.
EXERCISE
Exercise is one of the fastest ways to influence creativity, for several reasons. First, exercise decreases the effects of stress by releasing endorphins which positively affect our mental health. Positive mental health leads to a positive attitude. A positive attitude leads to increased mental flexibility, which makes it easier to be creative.
Exercise improves every aspect of cognition, including creativity. There is something about activating the right side of the brain that enhances creativity, and instead of trying to explain it, I’m giving you the link to a fascinating article about it here.
WORK ON YOUR WORKING MEMORY
Working memory is also called short-term memory. It is the part of our brain that stores information for short periods of time so that we can manipulate the information to understand and reason what we saw, learned, etc… Exercising your brain, whether through brain games, chess, word puzzles, etc… you can increase your working memory.
BECOME A BRAINSTORMING GENIUS
In the article “How to Get Mindpopping Ideas,” Michael Michalko likens creativity to the universe, and creative ideas to the subatomic particles found throughout. He gives three ways to harvest all those millions of ideas and thoughts while brainstorming.
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| Photo from Freedigitialphoto.net |
Observe and record each thought as a possibility. The key word here is observe. Don’t place judgment or value to anything your subconscious brain puts forth. When we judge the value of our thoughts, we snuff out creativity.
Become inclusive. When brainstorming, accept every thought as important and potentially valuable, no matter how crazy or random it seems. Creativity is the combining of elements in new and unusual ways.
Keep a written record. Writing down our thoughts and ideas moves them into long-term memory. Even if we aren’t consciously thinking of the idea, our subconscious is, and will create more and more ideas.
What are some ways you increase communication with your muse?
