Do you see what no one else sees?

How do you learn‚to be more creative

Last week, I answered a few questions and intend to make it a once-in-month feature. However, I individually respond to every single question I get. So do keep your comments, suggestions and questions flowing in.

Now for this week’s topic: creativity. What exactly is it? Creativity or creativeness is a mental process involving the generation of new ideas or concepts, or associations between existing ideas or concepts. Although associated with art and literature, it is also an essential part of innovation and is important in professions such as business, economics, architecture, industrial design, science and engineering.

Creativity involves bringing into being of something that did not exist before, either as a product, a process or a thought. Being creative is seeing the same thing as everybody else but interpreting it differently.

You may not realise it but your mind is in a constant process of creation - thoughts, feelings, ideas, even your future. In the same way your body constantly breathes, your mind constantly creates. It is the natural function of the mind to create, whether you are awake or asleep.

But remember that when you use your creative mind, nothing, I repeat, nothing, ‘just happens’ to you. Every event that occurs in your life has one cause, and that cause is YOU.

The inner recesses of your mind are a fascinating place. They hold all your hopes and dreams, your fantasies and the seeds for the future that you will create for yourself.

Just as a plant has its foundation in the hidden soil of the earth, so, too, are your thoughts based in the inner mind. By learning what the soil is made of and the process of growth that occurs in a plant, a scientist can learn how to develop richer soils and healthier plants. By learning what goes into the act of creation within your inner mind you can learn how to make your thoughts stronger and healthier, and enrich your existence.

To start developing the creative aspects of your mind, you must train yourself to think beyond all limitations or boundaries because we are all victims of our mental programming since birth. A wealth of observations and experiences are already within us; all we need to do is to employ ‘awareness’ and bring it into our zone of reality.

To start, always carry a small notebook and a pen or pencil with you. Whenever you are struck by an idea, quickly jot it down. Later you may discover that over 90 per cent of these ideas are useless. Don’t worry, that’s perfectly normal. What’s important are the 10 per cent that are brilliant!

Now do a simple exercise. Think of any colour - Red (for example) - and list out at least 25 things, from your day-to-day life, which are representative of this color. Like sindoor in a woman’s hair parting, tomato sauce etc. Send me your list, if you wish.

Next, try some doodling. Most of us have at some time or the other, when bored. We start with a few lines or a geometric shape and then add more lines and even colour if it is available to create a doodle. Now do it as a deliberate exercise, not as ‘time-pass’. There is no right way or wrong way to complete a doodle and doodles are not a test of artistic skill. So don’t worry if your finished doodle doesn’t make it into your local art museum. Just be imaginative and let yourself go.

Doodling is a great creative exercise because it forces you to use your creative vision in order to make a complete picture from a few lines. In addition, it forces you to think visually rather than textually, as most people do at work. As a result you are thinking in new ways. You are thinking more creatively.

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Thought for the Week

“Imagination is the beginning of creation. 
You imagine what you desire, 
you will what you imagine and, 
at last you create what you will.”
George Bernard Shaw
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

You Ask, I Tell

Once a month, Ankur Gupta will answer, some of the more interesting queries from readers

I must confess that I am simply overcome by a sense of gratitude, at the multiplicity of responses which OPEN MIND has evoked amongst readers, all over the world. 

So far, I have responded to every email query sent to graymattter@hindustantimes.com individually and will continue to do so. However I think other readers will find some of these queries interesting and plan to discuss them in this column, once a month. Here goes.

Kavindra Sharma writes : I wonder why, on some days, for no apparent reason, we seem to be in better control over our thoughts, while on other days, we seem to be in auto-pilot mode while doing some routine things like walking on a treadmill or ironing clothes. Then on some days, there is an overwhelming background thought (largely emotional) which we can call a ‘mood’ that seems to dominate the rest of our thoughts. How does all this map to your theory of chemical shower associated with each thought?”

Ankur Gupta : Moods emanate from both feelings and emotions, a subject too wide for me to cover in a single column. Suffice to say that your being aware of such happenings is itself a good beginning. Biorhythm (which combines an individual’s cyclical aspects of the physical, intellectual, emotional and intuitive elements) also helps in utilizing this self-awareness further.

Ravindra, a 30 year old Engineer observes : I have a fear complex - whenever I attend any interviews I am convinced I will fail. I cannot overcome the feeling and my confidence is also low. What do u want me to do?

PS: What you said in your first column is much like what I read that in Robin Sharma’s The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari. 

In your first column you said that you would tell us about methods for improving memory, focus and meditation. 

Ankur Gupta : I am intrigued by your question “What do you want me to do?” That question has to be answered only by you, since it concerns your life. Once you get a sense of what is it in life you wish to do, your focus will become clearer and your fear complex will dissipate.

What I can advise you is to take up one ambition at a time rather than multiple-ambitions. I have talked about providing maximum energy for each thought; do not spread the butter too thin.

There are so many things in life we keep reading about and yet do not internalise or adopt them.  

Keep reading OPEN MIND and you will get your answers though Robin Sharma and several others have already answered them earlier in some form or the other. 

Shyam Anand asks : Your article talks about 60,000 thoughts!!! Does this number increase or decrease with age ? I used to remember things to be done on a day to day basis, but these days I forget them, not because I am preoccupied but because I simply forget.

Ankur Gupta : Just like any old house frequently gets cluttered with various objects, furniture, acquisitions, people etc. age would certainly have something to do with acquiring a multiplicity of thoughts. However - and I wish to emphasize this - they are completely dependent on the individual who has these thoughts. In your case you are mixing up thoughts with memory, which though intertwined are two different things. If you reduce the clutter of thoughts, in all probability your memory will self-improve. Also there is the issue of stress. if you are caught in a tension-ridden domestic situation or work, your focus will literally get smogged out, with poor visibility and poor retention in the flurry of thoughts occupying your mind. So make a list of to-do items and it will simplify life for you :-) 

Note : If you live abroad or can’t get a copy of Hindustan Times, subscribe to http://epaper.hindustantimes.com (free of cost) and access all OPEN MIND articles. I mention this in response to several readers, who came in late, and want to read the earlier columns.

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Thought for the Week

“You could not step twice into the same river;
for other waters are ever flowing on to you.”
Heraclitus
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Know Yourself

If you do not fully understand who you are, 

self-acceptance and change become impossible

Last week we focused on decluttering thoughts. This time we throw some light on awareness, but before that let me respond to Ramchandra Bawlekar’s query from Ratnagiri. He asks : What is the difference between Mind & Brain?

A simple diffentiation is.. you can draw your brain (refer to any book on human biology) but can you draw your mind (no matter which books you refer to)? In scientific terms the mind is as yet poorly understood. It is intangible, it has no definite location, and yet it seems to be responsible for much of what makes us who we are. The mind is sometimes seen as the personalization of the brain, depending on the unique pattern of links between brain cells which builds up over our life time as we grow and develop according to our individual experiences. Some say that the mind also extends to every cell in the body.

Practically speaking, this is almost like attempting to identify a drop of water separately in a pond. Each unit of water in the pond, i.e. a drop, is inextricably interconnected with another. Consider your own body with its separately labeled body parts – your nose, your finger etc.; are they separate? If a pin is used to prick you anywhere on your body, it is not that only that portion is impacted… in fact your whole being erupts with an Ouch! And yet, while you are in deep sleep, you hardly notice the sting of a mosquito or a bedbug, because you are not in awareness at that point of time.

One of the basic principles in Marketing is the ‘AIDA Model’ which stands for the persuasive and successive steps of Awareness, Interest, Desire, Action. To produce a favorable response from any customer, the purpose and flow of advertising and direct sales efforts is defined as

Create Awareness >> Generate Interest >> Develop Desire >> Initiate Action

Sounds logical doesn’t it? Unless you are aware of something - you cannot be interested; and once interested - you need to have sufficient desire to be motivated to take action. So if we need to make up our mind to do anything, the first step is awareness, particularly Self-awareness, which includes a recognition of our personality, our strengths & weaknesses, our likes & dislikes.

As you grow in self-awareness, you will better understand why you feel what you feel and why you behave as you behave. That understanding then gives you the opportunity and freedom to change those things you’d like to change about yourself and create the life you want. Without fully knowing who you are, self-acceptance and change become impossible.

When we want good, solid information, we turn to the experts. So, who are you going to turn to for information about yourself? Who’s the expert? Obviously YOU! Self-awareness is useful to us throughout our lives. The ability to self-reflect is particularly healthy and forwarding.
Try this simple Yoga-Nidra exercise in self-awareness: Lie down in a comfortable position with your eyes closed in an undisturbed ambience. Take 3 deep relaxing breaths. Allow your jaw to drop and your eyelids to be relaxed and heavy, but not tightly closed. Slowly focus attention on different parts of your body. 

Start with your toes and work slowly up through your legs, buttocks, torso, arms, hands, fingers, neck and head. Focus on each part individually. Spend a few moments at each point. Become aware of your body’s various sensations, whether that’s pain, tension, warmth or relaxation. Where you feel tension, imagine it melting away. Where do you not feel anything? What part of the body feels dull, or even “abstract” (you know it’s there, but you aren’t having any concrete experience of it!)?

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Thought for the Week

“Knowing others is wisdom.
Knowing yourself is enlightenment.”
Tao Tzu
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Clean Up Your Act

Can never find your keys? 

Worry too much about something? 

Always put off tasks? 

Here’s a simple solution

Frankly I was unprepared for the range of responses to last week’s column, in which I warned about getting trapped in repetitive thoughts. While I will try to respond individually to specific queries, the more common ones will be addressed in forthcoming columns. Do remember that Open Mind cannot offer solutions. It will, however, stimulate your own thought processes enabling you to get the best out of yourself.

Ruchi Mittal, Mumbai, wants to know how we arrived at the figure of 60,000 thoughts per day. Can we really ‘count’ thoughts? Technology comes to our help here with Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) which produces images of blood flow in the brain to reveal which areas are active when certain tasks are performed, including thinking. fMRI may some day even unravel the exact genesis of thoughts!

For now let’s focus on a fairly common aspect of our lives : Can never find your keys? Worry too much about something? Always put off tasks?

There is an easy solution to this. One simple way to enhance our own individual performance and get an increased sense of well-being is to declutter your thoughts. What de-clutter means is to just remove all those things that you don’t really need.

De-cluttering implies developing the ability to be able to identify and sort out our own thoughts, including the stray, unproductive ones.

A systematic yet simple way of doing this involves making a list, especially if you’ve got a large number of things to remember and do, rather than store them in your head. This will help declutter your mind by allowing you to ‘empty’ all your ideas out onto paper.

Writing all your thoughts down clears up space in your head, so that you will be free to use your mind for more satisfying and meaningful reflections. Simply set aside a certain amount of time each day for your writing session in order to regularly de-clutter your mind.

You can do this on the computer too — you’ll be less likely to lose the list! Plus, you can set up your computer to give you a reminder message when you need to complete a particular item on your list.

The next important step is to get organised. If your mind is often full of thoughts such as, ‘Where did I put my keys?’ or ‘Do I need to order groceries?’ they can sap your mental energy if they build up too much. To avoid this get organised. There’s nothing more annoying than misplacing an item – your keys are probably the worst culprits – so always put important items in the same place.
Clutter and procrastination are closely tied together. One of the worst ways of cluttering up your mind is putting off tasks. They just sit there in your head and you can never quite concentrate on another task that you are doing at the time.

So just do whatever it is you need to do as soon as possible. Get it out of your mind and focus on the next task, or you’ll often put more energy into thinking about doing something than actually doing it! And it’s amazing how quickly you can do something once you finally commit yourself to doing it.

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Thought for the Week

“Get a purge for your brain.
It will do better than for your stomach.”
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times

Stop Thinking So Much

A new column on improving your brain power - at any age

 Psychologists have estimated that, on an average, we have as many as 60,000 thoughts a day! That’s almost a thought every second, if we subtract the time spent in sleep, when we leave thinking to our subconscious self.

Besides, 95-98% of these 60,000 thoughts are repeated every day. This means that there is very little room for ‘new’ thoughts.

Now each of these 60,000 thoughts consume energy. So if you can somehow work on reducing the repetitive thoughts, you make your other thoughts that much more powerful and effective.

Allow me to explain… Let’s say you have 60,000 units of energy available to cope with these 60,000 thoughts. Each thought then, gets only one unit of energy. But if you focus on reducing your thoughts, to say 5,000, then each thought can now tap into 12 units of energy and as a result your remaining thoughts become 12 times more powerful.

Most of us have experienced the power of this force when we have focused intensely on a job at hand. But if you are driven by a singular passion at a particular point, (as Yuvraj was in the recent Twenty 20 cricket series, when he struck six sixes in six balls) that ‘one’ single thought will have the power of 60,000 units of energy to back it up all the way to action and success.

What exactly is a thought? It could be an idea, an image, a sound, a smell, a touch or even an emotional feeling that arises from the brain. On a physical level, each thought releases a shower of chemicals (molecules or neuropeptides) that are released throughout the body. When thinking and feeling habits remain unchanged, the same molecular combinations of chemicals are produced over and over again. That is how negative thinking and feeling can trap and limit us. And that is why positive thinking can be so powerful.

How do you reduce the number of thoughts, de-clutter them? The only way is to identify and sort out your thoughts, including the stray unproductive ones. But there is no way we can be aware of every single thought we have. No matter how hard you try, you will find yourself falling back on autopilot.

So how do you de-clutter? I’ll deal with that next week. I also hope to answer your questions on any aspect of improving your brain power – whether it is memory, focusing power or even meditation.

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Thought for the Week

“Every thought we think, is creating our future”
Louise L. Hay

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First published in Gray Matter - The Hindustan Times