This Month's Mind Flexors
Mind Flexors
are concise exercises to practice the six characteristics
listed below. If you put on ice skates and skate a little bit each
day for the next year, you will definitely be better on ice at year's end.
Research and common sense tells us that regular flexing of your creativity
capacity will make it easier for you to be creative on demand.
Mind Flexors
are designed to be fun and to exercise your mind. You don't have to do
all of them to increase your creativity, but practice never hurts! Some
people who have attended TMI's Unbind Your Mind creativity class share
ideas across e-mail or do the exercises with colleagues or family.
There are no
correct answers to the Mind Flexors. Give yourself permission to think
of as unusual answers as possible.
- Describe situations when "out of sight is out of mind" is equally
as true as "absence makes the heart grow fonder."
- What music and art do you most associate with a meal of fish,
salad, and white wine? Create the environment for your meal.
-
List
as many pleasant odors and tastes that remind you of your childhood.
-
Describe
why this is both the best of times and the worst of times.
-
Describe
some situations where you can have your cake and eat it, too.
-
Make
up some explanations for how the saying “ Fit as a fiddle” first came into
being.
- What food or drink do you associate with modern architecture?
Janelle Barlow,
Author
Mind Flexors,
I and II
You are free to use these Mind Flexors for your
personal use. With any publication or duplication in a document, electronic
or otherwise, full credit must be given to Janelle Barlow, TMI, and permission
must be obtained.
Unbind Your Mind - Six Characteristics
People who rank high in the following six characteristics tend
to be more creative:
Fluency of ideas: The more creative you are, the more ideas you can
produce in a given time. If your brain can rapidly produce 30 ideas, it does
not matter if most of them are of little value. You say that one good
idea is better than 30 bad or mediocre ideas, but it can take 30 ideas to
produce one good idea. Most people do not produce their best ideas until
their brain has sorted through some average ideas. It is almost as if the
brain needs to get warmed up in the same way athletes put their bodies through
warm-up periods before competition or training.
Withholding of judgment: If you delay your judgments, you will get
more high quality ideas when you are brainstorming. When you judge, you
are looking for what does not work or fit, rather than possibilities. It
is within possibilities that creativity sits.
Tolerance of ambiguity: Tolerance of ambiguity is the ability to
live in a universe where there are no right or wrong answers, where ideas
or thoughts are vague and yet unformed. There are two sides to this ability:
willingness to see both sides of the same coin, and willingness to stay
in the questioning phase before rushing to an answer.
Flexibility and imagination: Creativity demands flexible thinking,
almost a childlike attitude of wonderment. To be creative, you must operate
as if the world can be as you create it.
Concentration: This is the ability to stay focused on a subject,
even while you feel frustrated or bored. It is the ability to ignore distractions
while trying to solve problems or accomplish something. Concentration and
determination are critical aspects of creativity.
Preference for disorder: Creative people tend to like disorder. This
does not necessarily mean mess. One of the stereotypes of creative people
is that of the messy inventor or writer with piles of paper everywhere.
Mess has little to do with creativity. Disorder is something else. Preference
for disorder refers to asymmetry in design, nonlinear thinking, or shaking
up the normal order.
Previous "Mind Flexor"
selections:
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12
#13
#14
#15
#16
#17
#18
#19
#20
#21
#22
#23
#24
#25
#26
#27
#28
#29
#30
#31
#32
#33
#34
#35
#36
#37
#38
#39
#40
#41
#42
#43
#44
#45
#46
#47
#48
#49
#50
#51
#52
#53
#54
#55
#56
#57
#58
#59
#60
#61
#62
#63
#64
#65
#66
#67
#68
#69
#70
#71
#72
#73
#74
#75
#76
#77
#78
#79
#80
#81
#82
| TMI, USA has a complete book
of 365 Mind Flexors exercises available. It is authored by Janelle Barlow,
Ph.D. and is titled, Mind Flexors.
We will also publish here new (never before seen!) Mind Flexors--seven at
a time each month. We invite our readers to add their own creativity to
this list, and we'll credit you with your contribution. We'll also list
your creative answers on this page if you send them to us. |
Creativity Training Program
Unbind
Your Mind & Mind Flexors Publications
|
