Four steps to enhance creativity

Dr. Frank Lawlis has done a great job of describing the steps to enhance creativity in his book, "The IQ Answer." Other authors have described similar steps. Let's go over these basic concepts which can be creatively applied to your own world with great results.

The first step is immersion. This is when you start gathering information about the creative challenge you have in front of you. Whether you want to start drawing, learn a language, travel to a new part of the world, become an inventor, or go back to school, you can immerse yourself in that challenge by studying everything you can find that is related to your chosen field.

While you immerse yourself in the material, keep asking yourself questions. Ask yourself what you know about the topic, what you want to know. Make a list of what you don't know. This is an exercise which involves many brain areas.

Next, you will start to incubate. Now the creative process is gearing up. If you can do this without being frightened, you are ahead of most people. The sensation of gearing up your brain is like traveling to a new planet. Your habitual brain normally fears this change and will let you know with anxiety and strange little fear-stories. You can keep your brain in a more creative mode by using music, movement, retreating from noise, turning off the TV and the radio, and doing breathing exercises.

The next stage is when you use symbols to encourage communication pathways in your brain. As Dr. Lawlis states, "Every brain is hardwired with preset images, visual representations of spirals, lattices, webs and geometric figures." If you like to doodle, this is a good time to make use of that habit. Allow your hardwiring to present itself on the page. When you do this, you are allowing your body to send you signals. Your mind responds to this emerging information and your creativity is deepening as you allow yourself to express these primitive mental pathways.

Now comes the evaluation part. Look back on what you have done and filter out everything that seems mundane or just doesn't interest you. Find some part of your recent creative journey and focus on it, elaborating and enhancing that pathway. Through this exercise, you may find a whole new avenue you have never considered. You may very well discover that you are quite good at something creative which you have never consciously known!