Using Hypnosis to Increase Your Creativity

What is Hypnosis
Hypnosis suffers from many myths and misconceptions. For instance, who hasn’t heard the stories of people under hypnosis being “forced” to act like a chicken? However, hypnosis is actually a natural state that we move in and out of many times a day.

Have you ever driven somewhere only to arrive with no memory of parts of the trip? Or how about sitting in a lecture and realizing that you stopped paying attention to the speaker because you were daydreaming. At times like these, your conscious mind becomes engrossed in other things but your unconscious mind still keeps active.

This is known as natural trance and happens to all of us. Research shows that the left side of our brain, the rational, analytical side, tends to operate in 90-120 minute blocks. After this length of time we find ourselves daydreaming or lacking concentration. This is simply our brain taking a short break, refreshing itself. When this happens, the creative, less analytical, side of the brain takes over. Hypnosis mirrors this process by tapping into the creative part of the brain to make lasting changes.

Rather than losing control during hypnosis, most people simply end up feeling very comfortable and relaxed. During this relaxed state, a person suspends critical judgment but the subconscious mind remains alert. This allows access to the subconscious mind which is receptive to suggestion. However, you can’t be forced to do anything you don’t want to do. Rather, hypnosis can be used to allow a person’s conscious and subconscious minds to believe in the same positive message.

It is important to note that the root cause of most physical and emotional problems is in the subconscious mind. These negative beliefs are formed from past experiences, often ones that are outside conscious memory or awareness. Hypnosis is a way of accessing and releasing that information and the accompanying emotional distress. Because hypnosis accesses the subconscious mind, it can also be used to enhance personal capabilities and performance. Hypnosis has been used successfully for a wide range of applications including improved memory and creativity, stopping unwanted habits, and controlling stress and anxiety.

Hypnosis and Creativity
True creativity seems to happen by itself because it is a product of the unconscious mind. In fact, the harder you consciously try to be creative, the poorer your creative problem solving skills become. The problem is made worse by self-limiting beliefs (“I’ll never come up with a good idea”) and the tendency to analyse and reject any ideas too quickly.

Hypnosis can help bypass these barriers that exist at the conscious level and let your unconscious mind come up with the sorts of ideas, solutions and innovations that it is so good at.

It is also important that you are relaxed to be creative. In fact, you are most creative when you are asleep – when you dream. Hypnosis allows you to enter this relaxed dream-like state on demand.

It used to be that the only way to experience hypnosis was to be hypnotized in a clinical setting. Now, a number of good hypnosis CDs exist that allow you to get the benefits of hypnosis in the comfort of your home. Using a combination of relaxation techniques, visualisation exercises and positive affirmations, these CDs can boost your creative problem solving abilities in many aspects of your life.

David Allen is an award-winning inventor with a strong interest in simple and practical methods to enhance creative thinking. Visit http://www.creativityboosters.com for more easy tools and techniques to increase your creativity.

How to Mix Creativity and Negativity

Do you know any people who are always negative whenever new creative ideas are proposed? These are the people who are always saying, "That will never work," or "That's a bad idea". You may even be such a person yourself, always looking for and finding the flaws in any plan.
Is being negative about new creative ideas always bad?

It depends.

An ability to be critical of new ideas can be a force for evil, but it can also be a force for good. People who like to pick apart and criticize new ideas can actually be very helpful in some stages of the creative process.

People who are constantly negative and critical are often able to easily spot what is wrong with a new idea. Because people who are negative can easily see problems in a new proposal, these people can actually make very important contributions to a project.

They can help their team mates find ways to correct potential problems in a new project before these problems happen.

The big danger when people are always negative about new creative ideas is that very often, their automatic negative comments can stop a good proposal before it gets started.

If these people make their negative evaluations at the early stages when others are trying to come up with solutions, they can stifle all the creativity in the room. The other people involved may get discouraged, embarrassed, or angry, and not bother coming up with any more ideas.
People who are consistently negative often have a hard time being creative themselves. This is because their own creative self may be too scared to come out anymore, afraid of inner criticism or ridicule.

In many cases, people who are always negative and who are critical of new ideas are actually jealous of the creativity of others. Many of the people who like to analyze and criticize new creative ideas are not really trying to make the new ideas work better. They may actually be trying to hurt and insult the person who came up with a good creative idea.

You can often tell when a person is negative just to be destructive. They make their attacks in a hurtful way, with sarcastic comments designed to personally attack and hurt the person who proposed them. This kind of negativity has no place in the judgment and evaluation of new creative ideas.

When a person automatically has negative judgements about each new idea they encounter, they are no longer evaluating each idea on its own merits. They are not being objective. They just feel compelled to look for all the reasons why something won’t work.

When negative evaluation of new creative ideas becomes consistent and automatic, it is no longer a realistic assessment. The danger is that negative thinking will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

If you focus only on why something won't work, you won't be focussed on why it can work. You won’t be trying to create the circumstances to make it work.

Here is an exercise to help you become better at finding the positive aspects of new and creative ideas.

Whenever you encounter a new idea, instead of thinking and saying, "This will never work," think of ways to make the idea work. Don't just try to think of one way, but think of several ways to make it work. Improve the new idea. Explore new mental pathways. Come up with even more new ideas.

Practice assuming that the idea can work, and tell yourself that you will find ways to make it work. Think to yourself, "What would have to happen for this idea to be successful?"

You do not actually have to believe in the new idea. You are doing this new type of thinking as a mental exercise so that you can improve a mental muscle that is underdeveloped in you. It may not feel right for you to do this, and it may not be easy.

But remember, you are already very good at finding out what’s wrong with an idea.

You need practice finding what's right with an idea. You need practice learning to find ways to make ideas work.

If you consistently look for ways to make new ideas work, you will find that your own creative abilities will also improve.

This article is taken from the new book by self help author Royane Real titled "How You Can Be Smarter – Use Your Brain to Learn Faster, Remember Better and Be More Creative" If you want to learn ways to boost your creativity and your brain power, download it today at http://www.royanereal.com

Acting on Your Creativity

"When you begin to act on your creativity, what you find inside may be more valuable than what you produce for the external world."

That quote from the book "Claiming Your Creative Self: True Stories from the Everyday Lives of Women" by Eileen M. Clegg is a reminder that creativity is an exploration of our psyche, our inner selves - that it isn't just about being identified as an "artist" producing a "work of art."

In "The Woman's Book of Creativity" author C Diane Ealy, Ph.D. [pictured] notes she's been listening to women talk about their creative process for years. "I am always amazed by how many of them describe wonderfully rich experiences with their creativity and then tell me they don't see themselves as being creative!," she writes.

"These women dismiss, discount, and rob themselves of their most powerful aspect, the characteristic which defines who they uniquely are as individuals - their creativity. So if it does nothing else I want this book to help you validate your creative process."

Creativity can show up in many of the ways we live life. Riane Eisler noted in "Sacred Pleasure" that while this capacity for creativity varies from person to person, "it can be developed - or hindered... The creativity we invest in our day-to-day lives is often the most extraordinary since... it can give far more meaning, and even sanctity, to our lives."

One of the keys to more fully accessing and using creativity is attitude. "We lock ourselves into paradigms and box ourselves in," notes Roko Sherry Chayat, abbot of the Syracuse Zen Center in New York. "Creativity comes when we view our situations in a fresh way."

Jodie Foster (in an interview we did about her film "Contact") said she appreciated the story's interest in scientific creativity: "The greatest scientific discoveries were all made by young people, who were able to say 'Well you know, damn it, two plus two equals five because why not?' They are at that time in their lives where they want to risk."

According to a number of researchers and writers, girls often have had their creativity dismissed and those "free impulses" discouraged.

Dr. Ealy notes in her book that repressing creativity can lead a girl to "become very conforming, to lack confidence in her thinking, and to be overly dependent on others for decision-making... The adult who isn't expressing her creativity is falling short of her potential. Inwardly she feels this, experiencing a vague sense of dissatisfaction intruding into everything she does."

Creativity can flourish more when it is part of your whole being as a person, in the flow of life, and not just a "segment" you do when you "get the time."

A list by Moondance magazine ("The Ten Commandments of Creative Women") includes some advice to help encourage creativity: "You will honor your creativity by nurturing it... You will allow yourself to take creative risks... You will allow yourself and your art to be a work in progress."

------
Douglas Eby writes about psychological and social aspects of creative expression and achievement. His site has a wide range of articles, interviews, quotes and other material to inform and inspire: Talent Development Resources http://talentdevelop.com/

The First 3 Secrets to Boosting Your Creativity

I have professed to be the ultimate left-brained nerd. For years I saw myself as the analytical automaton, sorely lacking in creativity. And creativity is something that I really valued. Think about it - being creative is defined as “having or showing imagination and artistic or intellectual inventiveness.” Who wouldn’t want that quality?

As I am also a professed personal growth addict, I have worked hard on boosting my own creativity. And I am happy to report that I do consider myself much improved in that area. If you can identify with me, don’t despair. It really was not as hard as I thought. How did I do it? Here are some of my secrets to help you get started.

1. Exercise your creative muscle regularly
There have been lots of studies on the human brain and evidence shows that our brains works very much like a muscle, which means that the more we use it, the stronger it becomes. In order to boost your creative muscle, start using it every opportunity you get, especially when it is just for fun.

Here are some things you can do:
• Pick up some brain teaser puzzles and work on those
• Instead of reading from a book, choose a toy from your children’s collection and make up a story about it at bedtime
• Play games that engage the mind such as mah jong or chess
• Approach things differently – instead of writing down a list of words, try using pictures or symbols

2. Identify your Creative Environments and Schedule Time There
Do you know where you do your best thinking? For most of us, it is not sitting at our desks. My best ideas come to me in three places: the shower, on my long walks, and in the car. There is something about the isolation and the relaxed state I’m in while engaging in these activities that allow my mind to come up with solutions to problems. So your assignment is to figure out where your best creative environments are and schedule yourself to spend time there.

A word of caution though – once you have identified what these environments are, don’t spoil it for yourself by expecting that you will be doing creative thinking every time you are there. Look for it as a special bonus, like a prize you get when you open up the right bottle of Coke. If I went for a walk specifically because I need some creativity, it doesn’t come as easily. But if I just let my mind wander to whatever it wants to think about, the ideas start to come. Learn to relax into your creativity.

3. Adopt a “the more the merrier” attitude
One of the books that has helped me develop my creative muscle is “A Whack on the Side of the Head” by Roger von Oech. It is a fun little book and I highly recommend it. In it, he talks about the “right answer” and the “second right answer”, and the next right answer. His point is that while we are in school, we are trained that there is only ONE right answer to test questions. And we adopt that same approach to everything else in life.

In order to boost our creativity, we have to remember that there is often more than ONE right answer. So, don’t just stop after you have one answer, keep going and see how many other ones you can come up with. Make it a challenge. It doesn’t matter how outrageous it is. The most significant inventions seemed completely preposterous at the time they were first considered. Don’t start judging when you are in the brainstorming phase. That can come later.

When you start using these suggestions, I think you will notice an improvement in your creative ability, as I have. I must admit that now I really enjoy my creative activities, like writing these articles, brainstorming with clients, and just letting my imagination run wild. And if you stay tuned, I will have a follow up article on this subject as there is much more great information I want to share with you.

Copyright 2005 Inez Ng
Are your business results suffering due to an ineffective leadership team ? Find out what coaching with Inez Ng can do for your leadership team at http://www.Realizationsunltd.com. You can receive helpful articles like this each month by joining her list. Want to know about saving time handling emails? Check out her ebook at http://easyemailstrategies.com.