Тони Бьюзен – The Power of Creative Intelligence: 10 ways to tap into your creative genius (страница 4)
As well as being passionately imaginative and rhythmical, Beethoven was also passionately meticulous. It was Beethoven who pioneered the use of the musical metronome, stating that it was a Godsend to him because it would now mean that every musician and conductor in the future would be able to play his music at
As with Einstein, Beethoven was neither right-brained or left-brained. He was completely and creatively
My research into the great creative geniuses confirmed that they all used the ‘whole brain’ – the full range of their cortical skills, where each skill supplemented and supported the others.
These findings shed light on the second big problem with the research and its assumptions.
problem number 2
The second problem was a major one. The left brain ‘intellectual’ activities tended to be labelled ‘male’ activities, and right brain ‘creative’, and ‘emotional’ activities came to be seen as ‘female’ activities. This was comprehensively and dangerously wrong!
These labels simply extended and ‘confirmed’ the centuries-old beliefs that:
academics, education and intellectuality involved only words, number and logic and not imagination, colour and rhythm
business was a place for strict order only
men were logical, rational individuals with no emotion, imagination or ‘colour’
women were irrational daydreamers
emotion was not based on associative logic
creativity and art were not ‘proper’ pursuits, and had no rationality or science behind them.
The tragedy of these misconceptions, which sadly are still common today and which
Unfortunately these misconceptions are especially prevalent in the arena of education. Because we assume that education has to be ‘left-brained’, we label those children who are energetic, imaginative, colourful, curious or given to excessive bouts of daydreaming as naughty, disruptive, hyperactive, slow or backward. We should instead be labelling them as potential creative geniuses just beginning to explore the range of their abilities!
Similarly many businesses have become stuck in the ‘left-brained’ rut, and as a result are destroying not only the synergy that comes from combining left-brain business practices with imagination and flair, but also their reputations and their bottom lines.
Consider also, in the context of this book, the global image of the artist. Surveys have shown that most people consider artists to be messy, untidy, dishevelled, weak in logic and memory, and lacking in structural and organizational skills.
Sadly millions of art students around the world try to live ‘up’ (it’s actually
left/right brain thinking in the 21st century
As the Century of the Brain begins, we now realize that
A simple question and comparison will make this clear.
If we have been using only half of the skills of the brain, at what percentage efficiency have we been operating?
The immediate answer would appear to be 50 per cent. This indicates that we have been making ourselves into half-wits! However, even this is an overestimation, as a simple example makes clear.
If I said to you that I wanted to measure your efficiency at running, and in Trial 1 I allowed you to use 100 per cent of your body, including arms and legs. Imagine how you would do if I videoed your running style and then examined it for mechanical efficiency. Most of us would score pretty highly.
Imagine now that in Trial 2 I allowed you only 50 per cent of your operating potential, and tied your right hand and foot together, behind your back. How would you do? You’d be flat on your face within a couple of seconds! Efficiency? Less than zero.
Why? Because the parts of your body are made to work
It is the same with your brain.
In the Creativity Workout that follows, and in the remaining chapters, I will explore methods of unleashing that infinite creative potential.
creativity workout
1. Use the Whole-brain Skills Set to Examine your Life
Check how many of your left-brain skills you normally use and nurture. Next do the same with your right-brain skills. Pay attention to any of those right or left-brain areas that you are neglecting and begin to exercise and strengthen them right away.
2. Education
If you have children, apply whole-brain thinking to their entire education, including school, social and home-life education. Try to help your children achieve a balanced education, in order that they may lead far more creative and fulfilled lives.
Not only that – apply the same principles to your
3. Take Breaks
Surprisingly, whole-brain thinking demands that if you are going to be fully and truly creative, you must take regular breaks.
Think about it: where are you when you come up with those bursts of imagination, those solutions to problems, those great fantasies and daydreams? Most people’s answers include some or all of the following:
in the bath
in the shower
walking in the country
before going to sleep
while asleep
upon waking up
while listening to music
on a long-distance drive
while out running
while swimming
lying on the beach
when ‘idly’ doodling
In what state are your body and mind at such times? Relaxed, and often alone.
It is in these rest-periods that the two sides of your brain are able to converse and communicate with each other, and when the vast wellspring of your creativity is allowed to express itself.
If you don’t decide consciously to take these breaks, your brain will decide for you. Many ‘hard working’ (but not ‘smart working’) people report that, as the years go on, they become more stressed and their concentration begins to wander. This is actually a good thing, for it is their right brains insisting that a little bit of imagination and fantasy should be allowed in to balance an unbalanced state.
If you are in this situation and you continue to persist in pushing your left-brain-dominant lifestyle, your brain will make you take other kinds of breaks, ranging from losses of concentration, to mini-breakdowns in which you become unreasonably irascible, to full blown blow-outs where the only cure is … rest and relaxation!
Do it consciously. Give your brain and yourself a break. Your Creative Intelligence will love you for it.
4. Go for Long Walks or Rambles
The Romans had a special phrase,
If you have a creative task or problem upon which you are working, ‘Walk it Out’ and you’ll ‘Work it Out’!
5. Be Creative in your Everyday Life
Using a pen and paper, list those areas in your everyday life that you think are creative, and those that you think are not creative. When you have finished, read on.
The ideal answer to the above exercise is that
cooking
decorating
D.I.Y. and home improvements
photography
gardening