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.

• A best selling book is called "Kickeroo." What kind of book is it and what is the main story line?

 
• Think of as many synonyms (same meaning) for the word "generous." Give yourself 3 minutes for this exercise.

• You pass by a movie theatre with 3 movies playing. The combination is very strange. What three movies are listed on the billboard?

• You notice a chair that is covered with a highly unusual substance. The chair is the most comfortable chair in which you have ever sat. What is that substance?

• One person is playing a guitar. Another is playing something else. Name three unusual but lovely combinations with the guitar.

• Design a piece of jewelry that has 5 practical functions in addition to being beautiful. What does the jewelry look like, and what are its five functions? 

• In three minutes, make up as many sentences as you can using the letters "E F J W." You can arrange the letters in any order.

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. 
 

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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 

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

email: 

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