Awaken The Possibility I.e. The Art Of Creative Thinking

I realized today while walking outside that one particular thing I didn’t perceive as something I could do in the past years, actually would’ve been not only possible, but even relatively easy or straight-forward for me to do if I wanted to. It wasn’t a huge thing, but it’s quite interesting when you suddenly find that a certain belief you’ve had turns out to be nothing but a smoke screen or some kind of stage setting you’ve thought to be reality. That is, once your mind has opened up a possibility into what previously seemed like a dead-end.

To awaken the possibility is the greatest thing you can do to and in your mind. You need to constantly train your mind to try to beat itself in the game of finding its own learned, fixed, and self-set beliefs and limitations. That often determines what you can or can’t do.

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” – Henry Ford.

Free Your Mind, Neo

In other words, you need to find “breaking points” in the “ matrix” around you. Those little glitches that hint you not everything is really like it seems to be and the way you think it is. Those glitches will give you clues where you can look into to find beliefs you hold that might need re-examining and perhaps should be shattered to make room for new. You especially need to find and plant little, previously overlooked seedlings of beliefs that can be nursed and grown bigger to establish new, stronger and more desirable beliefs.

That’s why it’s important to find new influences, new thoughts, and new ways to look at any area in your life, and the world in general. Breaking up routines and lazy thinking is the key. Challenge. Question. Seek new influences.

On the other hand, routines make it possible for us focus on creative thinking.  Many persons who are perceived to be highly creative have in fact turned out to have very “programmed” lives. Establishing frameworks, routines around repeated mundane everyday tasks (or, anyway, tasks you don’t want to be constantly re-thinking about), free up the mental energy from the mundane tasks to the activities that really matter to you personally. But often we need greater focus on getting rid off learned routines and re-evaluating different areas of your life at regular intervals.

The “Art” of Creative Thinking

One thing that can aid in finding new tracks of creative thinking is art. Any kind of art. It could be simply visual arts or music, or something else. At best, art can raise interesting questions inside your mind, new feelings, new reactions, new connections.

I guess quite many would say that art doesn’t play any significant role in their lives. In fact, many might not even admit or realize seeing any art around them for a long time. It might be true, but most often than not they probably have lots of pieces around them that could be classified as art. Maybe paintings, posters, music, design, architecture of any kind.

The important thing is not really to go to any gallery or concert to specifically see art (even though they’re great ways also), but just to sometimes stop and observe what is and goes already around you, as there probably are many even everyday things you haven’t even noticed. Who knows, the random street musician on your way to work might just be one of the best musicians in the world.

Also, even if you prefer certain kind of art like highly illustrative and realistic paintings, for example, it’s important that you go beyond your “comfort zone” in this sense as well and regularly contemplate other types of art as well. (Broadly speaking, I think going to see a punk band’s gig or a underwater rugby could be just as suitable, if those activities normally aren’t your bag.)

Take contemporary art for example. It’s a good example since so many seem to disregard contemporary pieces often as “ugly” or “wrong kind of art” or “waste of time” if they seem to break out of the traditional definitions of art and beauty. Many say contemporary art “doesn’t make sense” or that it’s “absurd.”
Well, our highly reasonable minds constantly try to classify things into specific categories are all time looking for patterns where they do not exist. When things seem random, patternless, or “empty” without reason, we often get anxious and want to just look away, or invent some artificial, made-up meaning or order. Unfortunately, this happens everywhere in so many different contexts, not just art.

Improve Creativity by Letting Your Mind Go

Creative thinking doesn’t follow from forcing every new experience to fit the same old format. The next time you are faced with something you don’t understand, be it art or some other phenomenon, don’t move on or try to figure out a meaning . Just let you mind wander free and see what associations it comes up with. Observe all feelings and notions your mind makes, but try not to get tied up with any single interpretation – just note the different thoughts and let you mind continue.

Letting our minds go easy without heavy processing is important for creative thinking. It’s why meditation is also such a powerful tool for creativity (and, for that matter, for high achievers who can find new and faster ways to reach their goals).
The everyday life is taxing our minds. Our minds are working in an office where there’s a lot of material being offloaded onto your desk every day and you are scraping to get the incoming stuff sorted out into the most urgent and important things that you then take and do at any given time. Over time, your desk and surroundings become messy and the less urgent (though not necessarily less important) things pile up and never get processed and organized, or even looked at. These piles also hinder your job as it becomes harder to find room for the incoming material and as well as workspace for dealing with the tasks at hand. Only periodical organization and cleaning breaks help you to get things sorted and classified, and get the clutter out of the way. The breaks also help you relocate important things you might have lost or forgotten, re-prioritize. You probably also find that two seemingly trivial things in different piles are actually somehow related, and might together actually make up something that is really important (weak signals could be one term for them).

Just similarly your mind need maintenance breaks. Creativity requires constant periods of quiet down time, when your mind can stop processing the massive amount of incoming signals. It needs the time just focus on de-cluttering or de-coding, and indexing the earlier observations. I.e. cleaning the desk and organizing the piles. This process often results in new connections being made between different indexed items in you mind.

Take Time to Foster New Connections

Many times the new connections in your mind are established between surprising and previously unrealized and unrelated items – and these are typically the most important connections one can make. That’s creative thinking. It’s your subconscious which needs to do the indexing and processing to find the really valuable and surprising connections. Without the maintenance breaks and downtime, however, these hidden gems, or weak signals, are never found.

The irony is that these maintenance breaks are typically most needed when you feel you’re under a heavy stress and have no time to slow down. Naturally, there may be times when you indeed may need to focus all your energy to get something specific done. But if you strive to be self-conscious and to control your own mind, you should know when a specific project crunch becomes an energy and creativity-draining, unhealthy permanent state of being instead. Then, doing something new and refreshing even for a short time might be just what you need to see your situation differently.

So, don’t always run forward, because there’s always something new to chase. Pause and reflect instead. Let your mind wander for a time. You might find a new possibility awakes.

Written by "Mike" Miikka Kukkosuo