I. How Do I Activate And Explore My Creativity?
Is there some form of formula that one can trust to consistently come up with creative ideas and uncommon insights?
The real authoritative answer is NO. There is no known formula or exact step-by-step theory that is guaranteed to bring you creative insights in an exacting manner. The kind that would be scientifically acceptable.
Nevertheless, my quest to understand creativity has led me to develop a framework. The framework that works and if you open up to learn the framework from me, you would be ready to reclaim your creativity and unleash your inventions at the highest levels.
I know it might look like a big claim, but I have done my homework. I have considered all angles of the arguments and settled down with an informed opinion.
After reviewing the best of the best of ideas, books and theories about creativity and how to develop creative ideas, I observed that there is always an aspect that deals with intuition or the subconscious mind. Something that is neither rational nor even predictable.
Leading experts on creativity, productivity and human psychology are searching for ways to intentionally utilize the power of our intelligence and imagination to facilitate subconscious creativity.
Emphasis on subconscious creativity.
CREATIVITY DOES NOT SEEM TO BE SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS BY CALCULATED THINKING AND ANALYSIS OF FACTS, DATA, INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE. It is something that happens unconsciously or rather, creativity is not a fruit of your conscious efforts.
Let me highlight some globally acclaimed thinking about the subject matter.
In 2009, Elizabeth Gilbert, the bestselling author of travel memoir Eat, Pray, Love gave a TED Talk about the origin of creativity. Her big idea was not a new idea at all, she simply pointed out that in real life, NOBODY COMES UP WITH NEW IDEAS. The ideas come to them.
She proposed that we revert back to the way ancient Roman and Greek civilisations acknowledged new ideas and creativity. During that era, people spoke about fairies, daemons and genies that dropped fresh insights in the minds of people. People were not called “genius”, rather it was said that “they had a genius”. An external guiding light that offered ideas, and fresh knowledge to their host.
Socrates, the popular and influential Greek philosopher was known to often mention that he was guided by a daemon, a kind of divine spirit, oracle, or “sign,” that takes the form of an inner voice or non-vocal nudge. This spiritual guide helps Socrates and speaks wisdom into his ears.
This account is supported by many people, myself included, for example: I never consciously decided to become an inventor, the idea came to me. I simply perceived in my heart: “Boy, come up here! Boy, upgrade! Real inventions are required from you, you can do better than website designing and mobile app development” (As a Christian, I do not believe in daemons, fairies and genies, and so, I would describe such a phenomenon as God speaking directly to me)
In a nutshell, Elizabeth Gilbert believes that ideas generation are beyond us humans. Ideas are channelled through, from something divine and unto people. With story after story, she backed up her beliefs in an authentic manner.
The mind-set here been that there is no way to really control the process or even reasonably trust that someone can channel another creative thought ever again. The idea that the realms of creative idea generation is beyond human and no control can be asserted.
I find this to be a very limiting belief and not even close to what could be possible if one masters creativity. Serendipity might be a feature of creativity, but that should not be taken to mean it is outside our control altogether.
It is common knowledge that our best ideas seem to simply come to us, especially when we are in the bathroom. That moment when our mind is in a kind of blank slate and no active thinking is going on. This phenomena is now commonly referred to as the shower moment.
The cognitive psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman explained why experiences like the shower moment seems to aid creativity: “The relaxing, solitary, and non-judgmental shower environment may afford creative thinking by allowing the mind to wander freely, and causing people to be more open to their inner stream of consciousness and daydreams.”
I would like to draw your attention to the words “inner stream of consciousness”, those words once again suggest that creativity is not something one actively thinks about doing. It happens far away from conscious thoughts or schemes.
If creativity is not something that happens by following a clearly marked out step-by-step process consciously, but rather seems to involve the unconscious mind, then I think it is best for us to turn to other places for answers.
One cannot deny that there seems to be something intuitive about ideas and creative insights. Marriam-Webster Dictionary defines intuition as “the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference”
When we attempt to understand intuition, we find that the discussion moves quickly away from logic and rational thinking and towards the subconscious mind, something we also refer to as the inner soul, or the spirit of a person.
There is something about creativity that transcends the physical and the mental. An issue modern science seems to side-step by using polished terms like intuition, chance, inner stream of consciousness, and even quantum physics to explain it away. (No jokes, some people actually think it is all due to unknown laws of quantum physics)
It is hard for one to deny that there seems to be something spiritual about ideas and creative insights. Rational enquiry cannot explain creativity and so, I think it is in our best interest to move on and venture towards a model that has reliably explained spiritual things for over a millennium.
Religion, faith and spirituality have given mankind a means of understanding things that transcend our three-dimensional world where we live, work and play. Spiritual things cannot always be explained away by our current model of logic and science as it is obvious that our spiritual exploration is much deeper than our physical and mental exploration.
Matters of creativity and invention is a spiritual affair. There is something spiritual about creativity and if we want to make progress with regards to a deep exploration of our innate creative powers, one must turn to spiritual knowledge of God over academic and scientific knowledge.
The basic tenets of science; the true spirit of science demands we do so.