The Science of Creativity

Leo Widrich shares many strategies to increasing our creativity in his article,  Why we have our best ideas in the shower: The science of creativity (thanks, Titania Richard).

While there is lots to like about that article, Harvard researcher Shelly Carson mentioned one thing that I have said repeatedly here (1, 2, 3, 4):

“a distraction may provide the break you need to disengage from a fixation on the ineffective solution.”

Fixating on problems leaves no mental cycles left for solutions. Learn to recognize when your focus on a problem is becoming a hindrance to getting a solution. Find a way to take your mind off of the problem. Releasing this mental pressure creates the vacuum necessary for a solution to enter.

By Dan Pouliot

A New Hampshire native, Dan received his BFA in Oil Painting from UNH; his digital works are in multiple permanent collections. Dan’s been a positive psychology student/practitioner, a blogger, an amateur Remote Viewer, and now a novelist. His passion for positive thinking sets the stage for his debut young adult novel, Super Human, published by PortalStar Publishing. Dan describes Super Human as The Karate Kid meets Escape to Witch Mountain.

3 comments

  2. This clip is too short, but:

    K gets pie as a mental distraction. Ostensibly foolish and irresponsible, but actually wise. After eating pie, the solution comes to them.

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