The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain
Tara Swart
288 pages, HarperOne, 2019
Brain agility and neuroplasticity are attributes that make us more adaptable and resilient and also increase our sense of agency in an ever-changing world. As geo-political and psycho-social crises are impacting us and our children at unprecedented levels, we are mindlessly creating a dystopian future and future leaders ill-equipped to deal with this. Of all the elements of brain agility, including: mastering our emotions; understanding the brain-body connection; trusting our intuition; making decisions for social good; staying motivated to reach our goals; and reframing creativity to allow us to design a future we can feel good about; it is creativity that can harness the most from the power of neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to change itself) to make social innovation more effective and have a positive impact on populations of brains, not just our own. Change starts with us. An understanding of how the brain works, raising from non-conscious to conscious the drivers of our behavior that may be barriers to success; priming the brain to notice and grasp opportunities that may otherwise have passed us by; turning “lack” thinking into abundance; and manifesting the real-world outcomes that we desire for ourselves and future generations, leads to a cascade effect of health, wealth (in whatever form that may be), and well-being. Key relationships are improved, and people are inspired. This is where science meets spirituality—a powerful combination that can reap benefits for all. My research into reframing the definition of creativity, based on neuroscience, started in 2013 with a conversation at the Stanford d. school, a hub for innovation, collaboration and creativity. Its mission is to help people become everyday innovators, everywhere. I hope you will enjoy exploring your brain with this excerpt of my new book, The Source: The Secrets of the Universe, the Science of the Brain.—Tara Swart
Creating the life we want requires vision, and not just the vision to imagine the reality we want, but also to spot the potential opportunities that are occurring around us all the time and that could help us make our way towards that future. In this sense, creativity is not the traditional view of being good at art or full of new ideas, but it is the ability to shape our own brain by what we expose it to, designing our own future through proactive choice. Examples of this are everywhere when you start to look: from celebrities who have reinvented themselves, redesigning their identities – such as Miley Cyrus, Mark Wahlberg, Angelina Jolie, Rihanna, Kim Kardashian, Justin Timberlake, or Arnold Schwarzenegger – all the way up to the ground-breaking icons that have changed the world, including Abraham Lincoln, Nelson Mandela, Gandhi, Marie Curie, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, and Emmeline Pankhurst.
Creativity is freedom. It enables us to direct the full power of our brain to create the life we envisage for ourselves. It enables us to draw on our other pathways, and use them in unexpected ways, using the law of attraction and visualization to manifest our desires.
A creative brain is one that can put ideas to use in unexpected ways, using contrasting combinations of thoughts to foster new ones. This is the new (and at the same time, ancient) superpower of the human mind: to reinvent, imagine, improve, and rethink. When we’re thinking with our whole brain, and devote our full creative power to a situation or problem, we see possibility where others see limitations. An Olympic sailing medalist I met at a party once told me: “When most people stand on a beach and look out to the sea at the horizon, they see the end. I see the beginning.” Creativity gives us the power of interpretation.
To be creative we also need to develop a certain level of confidence in our right to express our unique take on things; to value our own ideas and interpretations. When I explain this to people it often strikes them as a pretty radical suggestion. I’m often met with the response: “But I’m not creative.” This is frustrating and saddening. We are taught to think of creativity as something very narrowly defined (quite often linked to a natural talent for art). It is assumed, like a “logical brain,” that you either have a “creative” disposition or you don’t. I was told at school that I wasn’t creative because I wasn’t good at drawing. It turns out there is a generation of people afflicted by this myth.
This may have prevented you from starting your own business or even dressing in a certain way. The illusion around great artists of exceptional talent doesn’t help, but dig a little deeper and even the most successful artist is likely to have “made it” as a result of tenacity, resilience, and self-belief; that and a knack for spotting opportunities as they arise. You can take inspiration from this to turn the conventional notion of creativity on its head. Rather than being limited to artistic or cultural talent, it is about the ability to create your future, to be fully present and in charge of your life.
Neuroscience is currently exploring what it is that characterizes creative minds. Researchers at Harvard recently identified a pattern of brain connectivity that is associated with idea generation.[1] In their study, people were put in a brain scanner and asked to come up with novel uses for everyday objects, such as a sock, soap, or chewing gum wrapper. Some people were crowded with everyday, unimaginative uses, and found it hard to filter these out, so were likely to answer with the obvious examples, such as covering feet, blowing bubbles, or containing gum. Highly original thinkers, in contrast, showed strong connectivity between three networks of the brain (mind wandering, focused thinking, and selective attention), when they were thinking and came up with out-of-the-box ideas, such as a water filtration system, a seal for envelopes, and an antenna wire.
Stop Negative Filtering
Mind wandering, focused thinking, and selective attention can all be strengthened with practice. Giving yourself the time and space to think without distraction can lead to new ideas and perspectives. This is the benefit of actively allowing mind wandering. By consciously bringing our desires, hopes, and dreams to the forefront of our mind, our brain will be able to home in more effectively on opportunities that will lead to the outcomes we want. This is focused thinking and can be achieved through action boards and visualization. So often we filter out thoughts that don’t fit our immediate purpose and we may unconsciously police thinking that feels “off-beam” or wacky, but in freeing ourselves up to think a broader range of thoughts we enable action. This is why we need to sharpen up our selective attention and filtering skills. Why not apply for that new job or go on that date your friends are suggesting? Why not take up that new hobby you have been putting off for years? That new project idea that pops into your head when you’re trying to focus on something else: write it down and return to it. Or you could try flipping a problem on its head to give it a new perspective. Try to catch yourself next time you’re self-editing and ask yourself whether the thought you’re pushing away could be a fruitful one. Remind yourself to think from a perspective of abundance rather than lack.
There is a practice called “rapid prototyping” which suggests generating as many ideas as possible, relegating the ones that don’t work to “try again in the future or in a different scenario” list, and not stopping until we come up with the one that works perfectly for now. When I was considering starting up my own business, my mentor suggested starting a list of possible businesses and said that when it got to 100, there would be one option on the list that I could viably pursue. It took me two years to get to 100 ideas but then I knew in my gut that coaching was the reason to leave medicine. I felt nervous and excited at the same time but mostly I felt confident that I would put everything into making this work to create the future I wanted.
Ban Red-Pen Thinking
One of my most creative friends is a social entrepreneur who has built a brand from nothing. She is always innovating and thinking up new schemes. Her partner is the same. When I asked her what her secret was she said simply: “There’s no such thing as a bad idea in our house.” She explained that she and her partner give each other and their kids permission to explore their ideas without shutting them down. Good ideas will naturally rise up and stand out. Stamping on them (yours or anybody else’s) before you’ve had a chance to weigh them up can only be damaging.
Once we give ourselves permission to open up and play with lots of potential ideas and possibilities, creativity rewards us, enabling us to spot opportunities in unlikely places. It means we can sense when to take a chance and when to question or pursue something. It helps us hone a strong intuition, giving us the flexibility to recognize possibilities that might bypass us otherwise.
The writer Kurt Vonnegut once wrote “We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.” This illustrates the essential nature of creativity; it isn’t a frilly extra – it is the resourcefulness to think your way through difficult situations and challenges and come out flying. And who doesn’t want to excel at that?
Remember, You Are Creative Already!
If you’re still feeling a little skeptical about your creative abilities, look around you. You’ve created your home. You’ve created your career. You may have created a relationship and maybe even some children. You create your meals, topics of conversation, a welcoming atmosphere when guests come to visit, your garden, your friendships … the list goes on, and that’s before we’ve got to any of the more obviously creative hobbies you may have. And if you don’t think you have enough examples, try something new. What are your pre-conceived notions of how creative you are and in what way? We are all innately creative, and it’s time to push that intrinsic power to be bold in the search for radical self-expression—the life you really want. Set a big picture challenge and watch your vision unfold.