Bereft. It has been a hard and long week. Too soon to write about it though, so I will focus on something more familiar.
I haven't had a moment to write this week, but I have had a lot of time to think. One question I am always thinking about is the question of creativity, specifically how to cultivate it and nurture it. I know running, yoga and meditation are all a part of that process for me, but it has been an on-going conversation as to how. I feel like I am getting more clear on the answer.
According to neuroscientists, it's all about quieting the prefrontal cortex- getting your mind out of the way. Creativity, it turns out, is different than intellect and intellect can often interfere with the creative process. It is why free-writing is so helpful, it defies the organized mind. With yoga, I think it is about getting out of your mind and into your body and quieting the analytical mind, letting go. Though I haven't tested this theory, I think reversing habitual motions might be helpful too, in attempt to flip things in such a way that a new perspective surfaces- switching dominant feet and hands for example. Mostly though, like with most things, it is about getting really quiet and noticing and recording what bubbles up. Yoga, running and meditation facilitate that process in a beautiful way.
“I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
According to his psychodynamic theory, Freud believed, the "real functioning of thought" was presumed to be driven by the unconscious desires, by letting go, we could reveal the true nature of things through the world of dreams and free associations.
Neurologists have observed that patients with extensive damage to the prefrontal cortex cannot inhibit their stray thoughts and feelings. Neurologists believe that the prefrontal cortex is involved in filtering, or executive control, as in the conductor of an orchestra. Without such control, thoughts and feelings are moved by whatever random waves of brain activity are occurring.
It is suggested that creative moments may require the prefrontal cortex to be shut down. They have scanned jazz musicians while playing and it has been demonstrated that during those performances that large regions of the prefrontal cortex were deactivated while improvising compared to when they were playing from memory. The part of the brain that was lit up during creative moments (the frontal polar cortex) was the region that is associated with the implementation of higher-order goals or high-order feelings (to use the orchestra metaphor- the sheet music that the orchestra plays from). During creative acts, it may be useful to suppress prefrontal control to some extent and simply be guided by the frontal polar cortex instead and let the stray thoughts and feelings from the rest of the brain rise up and be filtered there instead. The deactivation of prefrontal cortex may allow thoughts to bubble up that otherwise would have been suppressed as irrelevant or inappropriate.
I have to do some more research about the frontal polar cortex to figure out how to stimulate that while suppressing the prefrontal cortex. That would be the ideal scenario it seems. Also, the prefrontal cortex is the voice of doubt and negative self-thoughts. Less of that would be nice for sure. And maybe I should keep a dream journal. Dreams tell a story. Dreams allow a deeper layer of yourself have a voice for a while.
Asleep or awake, my goal is to get really quiet and close my eyes and try to feel my way around.
“The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
I haven't had a moment to write this week, but I have had a lot of time to think. One question I am always thinking about is the question of creativity, specifically how to cultivate it and nurture it. I know running, yoga and meditation are all a part of that process for me, but it has been an on-going conversation as to how. I feel like I am getting more clear on the answer.
According to neuroscientists, it's all about quieting the prefrontal cortex- getting your mind out of the way. Creativity, it turns out, is different than intellect and intellect can often interfere with the creative process. It is why free-writing is so helpful, it defies the organized mind. With yoga, I think it is about getting out of your mind and into your body and quieting the analytical mind, letting go. Though I haven't tested this theory, I think reversing habitual motions might be helpful too, in attempt to flip things in such a way that a new perspective surfaces- switching dominant feet and hands for example. Mostly though, like with most things, it is about getting really quiet and noticing and recording what bubbles up. Yoga, running and meditation facilitate that process in a beautiful way.
“I have always loved the desert. One sits down on a desert sand dune, sees nothing, hears nothing. Yet through the silence something throbs, and gleams...”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
According to his psychodynamic theory, Freud believed, the "real functioning of thought" was presumed to be driven by the unconscious desires, by letting go, we could reveal the true nature of things through the world of dreams and free associations.
Neurologists have observed that patients with extensive damage to the prefrontal cortex cannot inhibit their stray thoughts and feelings. Neurologists believe that the prefrontal cortex is involved in filtering, or executive control, as in the conductor of an orchestra. Without such control, thoughts and feelings are moved by whatever random waves of brain activity are occurring.
It is suggested that creative moments may require the prefrontal cortex to be shut down. They have scanned jazz musicians while playing and it has been demonstrated that during those performances that large regions of the prefrontal cortex were deactivated while improvising compared to when they were playing from memory. The part of the brain that was lit up during creative moments (the frontal polar cortex) was the region that is associated with the implementation of higher-order goals or high-order feelings (to use the orchestra metaphor- the sheet music that the orchestra plays from). During creative acts, it may be useful to suppress prefrontal control to some extent and simply be guided by the frontal polar cortex instead and let the stray thoughts and feelings from the rest of the brain rise up and be filtered there instead. The deactivation of prefrontal cortex may allow thoughts to bubble up that otherwise would have been suppressed as irrelevant or inappropriate.
I have to do some more research about the frontal polar cortex to figure out how to stimulate that while suppressing the prefrontal cortex. That would be the ideal scenario it seems. Also, the prefrontal cortex is the voice of doubt and negative self-thoughts. Less of that would be nice for sure. And maybe I should keep a dream journal. Dreams tell a story. Dreams allow a deeper layer of yourself have a voice for a while.
Asleep or awake, my goal is to get really quiet and close my eyes and try to feel my way around.
“The thing that is important is the thing that is not seen.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince
RSS Feed