Do you get Creativity Blocks?
Do you get creativity blocks? Maybe this will help. Let me first explain how we process information.
Our conscious minds distort, delete and generalise information. Our conscious minds take in between 7 plus or minus 9 pieces of information at any one time. We delete information because our conscious minds cannot cope with the overwhelm of information of modern living. We generalise to make life easier for us (I learned as a child that I could turn a knob to open a door and soon recognised that I could do the same with other doors). And we distort information according to our individual experiences (viz when a number of people witness and accident and each report of it is different).
The result of this is that every one of us has different thought processes and because of these filters we all have very different responses to events.
A method of overcoming creative blocks is to bypass your conscious mind. You may already be doing this without realising. Frequently, when I have a problem that needs solving, I go off and do something familiar. I make bread as its almost automatic my having been making it for most of my life. Or I do a simple activity like weeding in the garden. What this does is occupies the conscious mind with simple activities.
You could choose to sit and doodle. You could practice some dance steps or even recite the alphabet backwards – anything that is not all consuming for your conscious mind!
The concentration on these lightweight activities is sufficient to bypass the conscious mind and free the unconscious mind to work on the problem. Incidentally if you actively go to do simple tasks with problem solving in mind, then it is worth reminding your mind what it is that needs to be focussed on (i.e “ I need to come up with an idea for this project that has to be completed by Friday”)
Don’t underestimate the value of boredom either. Boredom occurs when you are not mentally challenged – when you do repetitive tasks or are not interested or stimulated (like sometimes in meetings!) It is a time when your conscious mind is likely to wander. Thus, boredom is another way of enabling your creativity.
Once you recognise this you can use that time to take control over the situation and use it for the benefit of your creative self.