Stimulants to activate your creative thinking

Change is stressful. Times like these can get on your nerves. But it’s during times of disruption and change that you have a chance to really grow, to activate your creative thinking and thrive. Old ways of thinking can bring us nothing but problems. Creative thinking creates the opportunity for breakthrough rather than breakdown.

The next few blog posts will explore the stimulants that energize and awaken creative thinking. Everyone is creative. Everybody has the creative spark within. Sometimes it just lays dormant awaiting activation. J.R.R. Tolkien, creator of “The Lord of the Rings”, believed we are sub-creators, following the lead of the creator God in co-creating the present and future. Quite an honor. It’s a part of being fully human.
Here are some stimulants to energize creative thinking]

Be ready not to be ready. This sounds like something that was conjured up in a pub after too many beers. But our day and age is marked by uncertainty. We need to learn to create in ambiguity. Psychologists have discovered that we live under the illusion of control. We try to control traffic jams, school choice, even the stock market. But the fact of the matter is control is only an illusion. The only thing we do have control over is our response to life and our thinking about it. Creative thinking harnesses our power to direct our thoughts channeled to the uncertainty of the creative act. There lies potentiality with a myriad of possibilities. Think of a painter with a blank canvas. There are countless directions s/he could go. Deciding to paint without knowing exactly what to paint is the first step in the creative process. Just start. Lean into uncertainty and see what wonder emerges.

Let go of what’s going away. We can hang on so dearly to the known that we miss the opportunity inherent in the unknown. Psychologists call this “ambiguity aversion”. It basically asserts that we would rather stick with a known reality than risk going into the unknown and a possible better reality. To activate your creative thinking you need to let go of those things that are keeping you from realizing a better future. Creativity has an immense power to influence the future into a better state. Think of Nelson Mandel who creatively worked in non-violent ways to connect with those who imprisoned him and bring peace to apartheid in South Africa. He let go of hate and revenge to embrace peace.
There are twelve other stimulants I will explore in the next few posts. In the meantime embrace uncertainty and chaos and let go of whatever is holding you down and keeping you from soaring.

How about you? What are some ways you are embracing uncertainty and letting go of what’s going away. Leave you comment below