How To Be Creative

Naina links to a fascinating article in Psychology Today entitled Capturing Creativity - a true spooky action topic.

The article discusses the fact that "new behaviors (or "ideas") emerge as old behaviors interact, and the process by which behaviors interact is orderly." No big surprise to anyone around here, right?

The article discusses not only theory, but specific practices for generating creative thought. My personal favorite: leveraging the hypnagogic state.

Salvador Dali, the great surrealist,used to grab ideas for paintings from the very fertile semi-sleep state we call the hypnagogic state. He'd lie on a sofa and hold a spoon in one hand, balancing it on the edge of a glass placed on the floor. Just as he'd drift off to sleep, he'd release the spoon, and the sound of the spoon hitting the glass would awaken him. Immediately, he'd sketch the bizarre hypnagogic images he was seeing.

Anyone can do this. We all have bizarre perceptual experiences in those moments before we fall fully asleep. Dali simply developed a way to seize some of them.

There are lots more practical ideas for getting creative, so as they say: read the whole thing.

Then come back and drop a comment about good creativity-generating techniques that you have used - or bad ones you've been subjected to!