Ten Tools For Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is a skill we can learn and practice as we go through our daily routines. Every problem, stress, or conflict is an opportunity to experiment with a new approach or attitude. Here are some tips for tapping that internal resource:

1. Improv-It: Improvisation is the art of making things up on the spot, but making them up within the form of a game or specific instruction, such as "tell us about your day as if you are the world's most depressing newscaster." Improv games stimulate creative energy by engaging the right-brain's orientation to novelty within a set of rules that supply the left brain's search for order and organization. Some ways to do this in daily life include: have a conversation with your kids in which each person's sentence has to start with the next letter of the alphabet, e.g. "All of us can play this game," "But what if I can't think that fast?" "Come on, just try," etc. At the next work team meeting, have a conversation using only questions, or one where the next person has to use the last word of the person who just spoke.

2. Do the opposite. When Seinfeld's iconic loser George Costanza attributes his misery to having followed his instincts and decides to do the opposite of his own best judgment, he meets previously unattainable women and lands a job with the New York Yankees. When we choose to approach a situation from a completely different direction than what is ingrained and habitual we experience a degree of uncertainty that triggers the right-brain to search for a new and previously untried response. While we may not realize sitcom-perfect reversals of fortune through use of this technique, we will be gaining a psychological strength that increases our ability to size up unfamiliar situations quickly and respond effectively.

3. Feel the love. Creativity is positively associated with joy and love and negatively associated with anger, fear, and anxiety. A 2006 study[i] showed that positive emotions literally expand our field of attention so that we perceive a greater range of choices and are less inhibited about trying them out, part of a growing body of knowledge about the ways that positive emotions promote a creative perspective on the problems of life.

4. Observe synchronicities. True story: In 1981 I spent several months in Australia, where for awhile I had no job, little money and few friends so spent a great deal of time reading and writing at the library (because it was free). The journals of New Zealand short story writer Katherine Mansfield became a source of strength at that time of great uncertainty, after I stumbled upon a quote attributed to her that spoke to my immediate situation: "Risk! Risk anything!" she wrote. "Care no more for the opinions of others, for those voices. Do the hardest thing on earth for you. Act for yourself. Face the truth." Fast forward to 2001. I write a one-woman show titled Whistling In The Dark about that experience of stepping into uncertainty, and while the show is running at a club in Manhattan I open the Sunday New York Times Book Review section and find a review of a Katherine Mansfield biography that had just come out. The article's title? "Whistling In The Dark." Synchronicities are these kinds of events, co-occuring in ways that have meaning to us but are not causally related. They connect us to intuition, the internal GPS that guides to choose rightly even when the world around us does not approve or understand.

5. Go Within. Maintaining radio silence with the world around us for a period of time makes us more attuned to our inner world where insights, observations and ideas form. No texts, no twitters, no exceptions. Our field of awareness - generally crowded with the pressures and stresses of getting things done - needs a chance to disconnect from incoming messages and pressures so that the less structured, seemingly random inspirations and intuitions can bubble up. A busy schedule may take precedence over carving out a piece of quiet, but even a drive to pick up the kids at soccer can be an opportunity if we turn off the radio, breathe slowly at the red lights, and listen.

6. Act as if. Changing a role changes the frame through which we view a situation and opens up a range of new possible responses. New ways of acting follow new ways of thinking, but mental habits take time to change, and as the pace of life escalates we are likely to encounter situations in which we need to take action quickly. We can "rehearse" for this very real possibility in the course of daiy life by choosing a different role than we usually take in a familiar situation. Talkative and outgoing in a group situation? Practice being the quiet listener or appreciative audience. If the kids' fighting tends to trigger a desire to referee or add to the tension with more yelling, view it through the lense of a sportscaster observing the action but detached from it.

7. Go With The Resistance. Some people complain about things they will do nothing whatsoever to change, and yet we give them our heartfelt attention and counsel. Some people constantly, often insistently, offer advice we neither asked for nor need. Add to those any other of the ingrained personality quirks, the kind that make us feel resentful and drained, and think about this: resistance is futile. We waste precious emotional energy and space in our head trying to change other peoples' behavior, energy we should instead dedicate to creating our lives and engaging with our passions. Give a superficial "thanks, I'll think about that" to the advice-giver, a surface empathy to the complainer, and get on with something real.

8. Daydream. When stressful problems need to be addressed, it may seem natural to force ourselves to concentrate and focus on them until we work them out. But new research shows that possible solutions to the more complex problems we are dealing with are more likely to emerge into consciousness when we let our minds wander. [ii]

9. Reframe negativity. Creativity is a kind of psychological "muscle" that, like physical muscles, becomes more reliable and ready to take things on through training and repetition. We develop it by relating to adversity the way a body-builder relates to weights, as providing the resistance necessary to tone and strengthen a specific set of muscles, i.e., a dominant co-worker likely to grab credit for the team's hard work can be viewed as a much-needed catalyst for growing our own self-assertion, a draining relationship the stimulus for locating and expressing stronger personal boundaries. By reframing our response to the negative people and situations that are beyond our control to change, we remove their power to control us and become more resilient to the harmful effects of stress.

10. Get Discontented. A common theme that comes up in my training seminars and networking workshops is the disconnect so many talented, successful people feel from their own passions, especially when their work life has no avenue for their expression. One way to re-discover our internal drives is to notice what news articles and stories elicit a strong emotional reaction within us, and follow those feelings. Ask "what is it about this that gets me fired up? What part of me is activated by knowing this is going on?" Our abandoned passions and gifts are right next to our discontents, so follow the feelings until inertia is no longer an option.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jude_Treder-Wolff

Don't Underestimate What's Possible For Your Creativity

Vince Lombardi said, "We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible."

You know, even creative thinkers get stuck in the realm of the hum-drum every day . . . the realm of the possible. We may know that we have a talent for singing, for example, but our minds get so caught up in the way that WE envision our gift outworking itself that we fail to see the other exciting and fulfilling possibilities before us.

I worked with a vocally talented client once who was fixated on the idea that her singing was meant for use inside a church during the service. And it may well have been. The problem was that at the time we were working together, that opportunity wasn't available to her - the musical team had all the vocalists they needed at present. Even though the thought made her miserable, she concluded that she must not be meant to be singing now because she couldn't sing for her church.

What she didn't realize, though, was that it wasn't her circumstances that were limiting her potential, it was her thinking. When she came to me, one of the things we did was brainstorm a multitude of other avenues available for her to put her gifting to meaningful use while she waited for the opportunity her heart desired. She was truly amazed and encouraged by the possibilities that came alive for her, some that would open doors for the future that she never would've considered before.

Maybe you, too, are languishing. Are you waiting for your "big break" or for someone to notice your talents?Are you stuck in a mindset that tells you if it can't be the way you envision, it simply can't be?

Action step: Take out a piece of paper and write one of your creative gifts at the top of the page. Below it write the longest list you possibly can of all the things that other people do with that talent. This isn't about you right now. You can even come up with some wacky things that people could do. Use your imagination and come up with at least 25 options, but you get extra points for more. Now pick out 3 to 5 things that appeal to you. Do you know what you've just done? You have just expanded your horizons!

If you're a creative individual who's ready to be totally supported in YOUR plans, goals and the life you're dreaming of, I invite you to visit me at http://www.LiveYourCreativeLife.com While you're there, sign up for my informative and inspirational ezine. As an added gift you will receive my 7-part e-course, The 7 Secrets of Creative Success.

Melissa Williams, M.A., Creative Purpose and Productivity Coach, works with creative and artistic individuals to discover, embrace and fulfill their creative callings so that they can make an eternal difference, whether in ministry, career or avocation.

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We Still Do Not Know All We Wish We Did With Regards to Creativity

What makes one person more creative than another? There are many theories, some known facts and the reality is we don't really know. It has been shown that a child, teen without a father figure around, but an active mom, tends to be the most creative. It has also been shown that younger teens and single women apparently create in order to display their worthiness. Some believe that babies, through play and fun games from parents and siblings, are developing their brains in a certain way that indeed, ignites the creativeness of their minds. If this is the case, then how does it work?

Well, maybe if the child's brain develops pleasure from games, play, humor or ironic happenings, perhaps triggering the N400 brain wave during these events then chemicals are released and the brain "thickens" in those areas or makes stronger connections to allow for even more creativeness, self confidence to try new stuff (or the desire to).

Maybe the statement; "get the creative juices flowing" is actually literal in that regard, because as that young person turns to adult, they will seek out events that give pleasure to the brain by triggering those same chemicals in the same regions.

Of course, much more work needs to be done, but it would sure serve us well to complete such research - after all, the benefits to knowing would allow us to produce more creative geniuses for our society and civilization. This would further spur innovation and forward progress into future periods, thus, guaranteeing the strength of our nation. Think on this.

Lance Winslow - Lance Winslow's Bio. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/.

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