Simple Exercise to Stimulate Creativity

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   kalixaoposted 13 years ago

   When you wake up, before you do anything else, including stretch, breath deeply in for five seconds, hold it for five, and let it out in a whistle for five.
   Do this five times.
   Note the first thing that comes to your awareness, a smell, memory, feeling, taste, sensation, sound, or image.
   Get up and write down or speak out or play out on an instrument this first thing in the morning.
   Then set it aside and go on about your business.
   After you eat your evening meal, or whenever your day is done, pick up what you've done and enjoy it.
   Repeat every day for one week, or until your creative juices really get flowing, and then as needed.

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      wvierraposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Interesting idea I will try this, except the instrument thing because I dont have one.

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      Stevennix2001posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      cool.  although i think you should've turned this into a hub instead of a forum post, but that's cool.  thanks for sharing.

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         kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         The hub is Muse Psychology and there's also Jumpstarting Creativity and Bricklaying for other exercises. I hope hubsters find these exercises interesting and beneficial.

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   Ingeniraposted 13 years ago

   Cool.

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   joshuanoerrposted 13 years ago

   Here is another one. Squeeze a tennis ball in your left hand while brainstorming new ideas. It will stimulate the right side of the brain which is the creative side. Always works wonders for me.

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      luvpassionposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      What -Are you serious?

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      kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      There's a lot to be said for occupying one hemisphere while using the faculties in the other. Nice suggestion. I'll try it, myself.

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      Richieb799posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I may try your idea, It would be marvelous if the leftside of the brain and this action was connected

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         kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         For a note, engaging or distracting different areas of the brain while concentrating on a task is always beneficial and can produce surprising results, but everyone's brain is wired up in a manner unique to them. Your language centers may be operated by the right hemisphere rather than the left, and your sensory processing areas may be in another area than with other people. So, try a lot of different things. Try writing with your dominant hand while tapping a rhythm out with the other, for instance. Zen focus techniques start with a simple counting exercise: listen to your breathing and count from one to infinity for as long as you can. See how long it takes before you lose count, and try to increase your count every day. This is engaging two different, opposing, areas of the brain - analytical and linguistic (left hemisphere), and the sympathetic nervous system (stem). In other words, notice whether or not you hold your breath when you're concentrating. One seems to suspend the other.

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   kalixaoposted 13 years ago

   Funny exercise: study a pet you have or have contact with and begin to make up what the pet's thinking, like in a cartoon. Write the pet's thoughts in little thought bubbles and share here.

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      starqueen13posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      "FEEED ME MORE TREATS! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE?!!!!"
      
      that would be my little hyperactive little Pomeranian

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         kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Poms are adorable, loyal and smart.

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   gracenotesposted 13 years ago

   For those who write personal memoirs, fiction, or just need to recall things from long ago:
   
   Lie comfortably on a sofa or bed. Close your eyes. In your mind's eye, take yourself back to your bedroom as a child, or any other room in your house, for that matter.
   
   As you bring up the image in your mind, start to look around the room.  Look at the walls, the windows, the furniture.  What was there?  Anything special, any toys?  An A/C window unit, perhaps?
   
   It worked for me.  I looked all around my childhood room.  Then I decided to look up at the ceiling.  I suddenly saw and remembered that when I was a small child, my mother pasted celestial bodies (moon, stars, comets) on my ceiling that glowed in the dark.  I had my own night sky to look at before going to sleep.
   
   Haven't tried this with any other rooms or places from childhood, but I need to!

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      kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      That's great! That really helps recall the ambience and details of past environments.

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   ralwusposted 13 years ago

   No way. I'd pass out! I don't need to do anything but think and write and of course, live.

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   M. T. Dremerposted 13 years ago

   I just read a hub by waynet the other day that suggested one of the ways to get rid of writer's block is to get up and move around. I think there is a lot of truth to this. It is easy to stagnate when all you're doing is sitting in front of a computer. It can feel good and get the blood flowing just to move around and take some deep breaths. I don't know if there are any studies linking exercise to successful writers, but there probably could be.

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      kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Absolutely, I go down and take a swim every day and I'm totally relaxed and focus to write afterward.

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   DevLinposted 13 years ago

   I just get my head closer to the ground. That seems to work.

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   Pearldiverposted 13 years ago

   In the Morning: It's very important to scratch your bum and fart 5 times in unison with the birds at 'Sparrowsfart!'
   
   It gives you a sense of One with Nature...
   And it shows the birds that you can do anything that your partner can do

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      kalixaoposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm sure everyone's gonna hit up a can of frijoles and give this a shot...it's good for a laugh, and laughter's good for creativity, right?

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