Last night I had a marvelous sleep and so I was sitting there this morning, in a comfy arm chair, brimming with happiness and energy.
My iPad and my phone were right in front of me, screaming: check me out, take a look at what’s new.
Yet, I enjoyed the moment so much that I didn’t give in.
Instead, I just put on earmuffs and drank my morning coffee. Soon lots of ideas started surfacing, one of them: Enjoy a good moment when you see it. This was one of these moments.
I often have blissful mornings when I make the time for them. They knock on my door and when I open, they reward me with silence and creativity.
Coming up with your own solutions before checking up on Google or with experts can vastly improve your results, dispel worries, and increase your confidence in your own creative powers.
By relying on your own knowledge reservoir, your own subconscious mind, you might dig out nuggets no one else has found.
If you are lucky, you get to explore areas of the solution space (the set of all possible solutions) no one has looked at. Everyone else might have sniffed around in just one corner.1
Whether you are looking for a solution to a problem or want to write an article or blog post, I suggest you look inside yourself before you check up on solutions on the Internet.
I would go so far as to say, it is often (not always) best to not read anything before you have not described the challenge in writing and written about it yourself.
If you want to get your head around something, just start writing. That way, your writing comes from you and isn’t yet clouded by the most prominent public opinion or scientific expertise. Empty everything out.
The Road most Traveled
Many people, when trying to solve a problem, go right to Google and ask “How can I do such and such…”
Meditators are often advised to focus on a meditation object, and when they realize that their mind has started wandering, to just bring it back to the object of their meditation. The standard advice is not to follow any thoughts and emotions that may arise.
This, however, is often easier said than done. As soon as I am trying to quiet my mind, thoughts and reminders start coming from all directions.
Like a monkey of whom I have limited or no control, “my” mind bounces around, jumping from the cup of coffee I had before the meditation to yesterday’s cookies, and from there to the chat I had with a friend last night.
Quite appropriately so, they call it the “monkey mind.”
But is this monkey mind good or bad news? I have been contemplating this for quite a while and over time have come to appreciate it. Why? This state of mind can be used to harvest plenty of good ideas. I let the mind loose and it turns into a treasure trove of creativity.
How do I use meditation for creativity? How do I harvest ideas and gain insight?
Brutethink can help you to overcome a blank mind and unleash a river of ideas for any challenge or question you may have.
In a previous post, we introduced classical brainstorming as a technique to come up with new ideas. We posed a specific question, problem, or challenge and tried to list as many ideas as possible on how to solve this challenge. Usually this technique leads to more ideas than we can possibly implement.
Sometimes, however, our mind goes blank when faced with a question. At other times, even after having brainstormed on a challenge for quite some time, we are still not happy with our ideas. Somehow, we need some fresh sparks.