Creative thinking is a matter of mind. Like a good ballet dancer, the mind needs to be lithe, flexible and supple to deliver the best performance. A ballerina diets and exercises to death, to attain her coveted flexibility. Like her, we also need to carry out some necessary workouts to get the best out of our upper chambers.
Here is a collection of the most overlooked practices that can help writers to polish their creative thinking abilities for creative writing process.
Table of Contents
Breathing
Deep breathing, a most often beaten mantra for all kinds of yoga and meditation, unquestionably helps in balancing our mental faculties and increase in focus. Deep breathing makes our red blood cells happy and their robustness lets us to think and plan with vigor.
- Deep breath through your nose by making use of your diaphragm
- Draw air deeper into your lungs
- Take several deep breaths by letting go of everything else
Doing this for 3 to 4 times a day, you’ll notice a clearer brain with an increased ability to focus, think and plan.
Bearing
The way we carry ourselves marks a lot in impressions, style and persona, nevertheless it marks equally well for our thinking process.
You can test this yourself by doing math in your head while slouching, lying down or being in a way too comfortable position. Now again do some mental math while sitting up straight, having an erect posture or looking forward or slightly upwards. You’ll notice that it’s easier to think reasonably while bearing the later postures.
Sniffing
Sniffing fresh air with lush foliage around, helps anyone to clear up their mind. But there are a few souvenirs by Mother Nature that can do the job much better.
Rosemary: A very common herb, is popular for having a wake-up effect on the brain. Though not supported by research, but it is used by many people for clearing up their minds.
Basil: Another nugget from the pot of herbs, for thinkers, is popular for its affect on clear thinking and focus.
Listening
While writing this, I recall a punch line from Tom & Jerry, ‘Mozart makes babies smart.’ Couldn’t make much sense of it at that time, but today it translates well.
A study at University of California, discovered children who studied piano or participated in chorus to exhibit better puzzle solving capabilities, with 80% higher scores in spatial intelligence than their non-musical fellows.
In another study, 36 students were given three spatial reasoning tests based on standard IQ parameters.
First Test: They were made to listen to Mozart’s sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 for ten minutes.
Second Test: Heard a relaxation tape.
Third Test: Observed silence for ten minutes.
Results:
Average scoring was tabulated for the 36 students, showing following scores for the three tests:
First Test: 119.
Second Test: 111.
Third Test: 110.
The mental faculties of humans borrow a lot from the “awakening of senses”. Like exercising for our bodies’ lithe and balance, we need to tune our minds by exercising the senses. This helps in gaining a mental equilibrium and balance that surely is a keygen for creative writing and the like.
Eating
Yet again, like going green for an agile body we need to go green for the creative cells to function smartly. A smart body coupled with a smart mind, not a bad deal, eh!
- Mark sugar as a big no-no. Any kind of carbohydrates (simple or complex) give you "brain fog”, also known as the "sugar blues", hindering clear thinking.
- Avoid pasta, sugars, white bread and potato chips before any important brainstorming session as these tend to blur concise thoughts.
- Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a beggar, is a famous mantra. A healthy breakfast complements mental and physical powers. To this, both research and common experience, suffice.
- Creatine is a compound found in meat, used by athletes to help build muscle. A research study published in journal, Royal Society showed that the supplement aids in improving memory and mental agility.
- Nuts hold vast traps of minerals and amino acids that are valuable for healthy brain. Most common ones are almonds and walnuts.
- Olive oil, high in mono-unsaturated fat, has proved to improvise memory and mental agility.
- Vitamins, with their established benefits for the body, work equally great for the mind. Since the benefits are goaded well in all of us, so there so no need to go into their beneficiary details. Just a reminder!
Hope, these practices would give you valuable insights to improvise your critical thinking and analytical writing abilities.
Very Good post on Creative thinking.
Thanks,
karim – Positive thinking
Wow, now, the relationship between breathing and creative thinking looks like ABC, yet it was not such prior reading your post. Thank you for the sharing of your priceless insights on how to improve our conscious walk. I would dare to say your article explained how to make the paints into the art colors where the light talks- knock on the heart.
The only way one can write to surpass all current standards is if the author is passionate about what he/she is writing about.
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