If your inner critic keeps you from being as creative you’d like, consider the brick.
No, not for bashing the little bastard, but for stimulating original ideas.
Toronto neuroscientist Oshin Vartanian asks research volunteers what they can do with a brick. As they go from the obvious to the not-so-obvious uses, he studies what happens in their brains.
This article, Neuroscientists try to unlock the origins of creativity, from Toronto’s Globe and Mail, examines how by exploring creativity, researchers have started to look at the relationship between creative success and our ability to silence the inner critic.
We all have an inner critic. Some of us have more than one. The voice can be loud and abusive, or quiet, persistent, and nagging. How we deal (or don’t deal) with that nasty nitpicker affects how successful we are in allowing our creativity to develop and thrive. Of course, not all inner critics are harmful. Sometimes they help us set higher goals for ourselves or reach higher levels of excellence.
As researchers continue to study the confounding world of creativity, or what one scientist calls “a big muddled mess,” it’s fascinating to learn about what they’re discovering.
Away with Words 