How do I improve my creative thinking?
Question - Gurudev, how do I improve my creative thinking?
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar ji -
It is very important for us to probe into the source of thought.
Often we are called great thinkers, but what is a thought? Where does it originate? Is there any way that we can improve the thought process? What is the source of creativity?
Thought is nothing but an impulse of energy and intelligence.
That impulse of energy and intelligence, for it to arise and a correct thought to come, you need 16 impulses to meet at a point in the cerebral cortex at a certain speed. In that short interval of time, all the 16 impulses in the cerebral cortex, when they meet, is what we call a correct thought.
What do we do about it? We need to train our brain, our mind.
There is always dialogue going on in your own mind.
We all have a filter in our mind through which we listen and we accept only what we already know.
Something which doesn’t already fall within our belief system,
we straightaway filter out. This tendency in the mind to take things which it already knows and reject that which it doesn’t know, is one of the main blocks of creativity.
The second aspect for creativity is imagination. Many inventions happened through certain imagination and linking that imagination to the present state of ground reality. If you are thinking only of the ground reality, then no creativity will come. And also if you base yourself purely on imagination, then there is no creativity. A balance is needed. So, when such blocks come into us, there is a way to eliminate them. How?
By studying our own seven layers of our existence. What are they?
The body, breath, mind, intellect, memory, ego and Self. Are you all breathing now? Many times we are not even aware that we are breathing. We don’t care to look into something that keeps our body alive. Our breath has great secrets to offer.
A little bit of knowledge of these seven layers of existence makes a big difference in our lives. We become so alive and childlike.
Innovation and creativity spring from within us and spirituality — study of our Self, is the technology to tap that source