Friday, 12 August 2011

Beware of Past Experiences








In my first posting I mentioned that "our subconscious mind or the right brain, stores memory, organizes, recollects, visualizes incidents  and processes information from past experiences in an intuitive and simultaneous way and it is creative and emotional".


Everyone of us have a history, no matter our age or position in life is. Some are better than most, others are far worse than anyone can imagine. There might be some setbacks like job layoffs, relationships gone south, getting  betrayed by a friend or a colleague at work etc. In the same way there might be some past experiences of successes, appreciations and of great times.

Our past experiences can either take us to new heights, or shatter our future days making us run for cover. The decisions we take for the future basing on the past experiences makes the difference. This decision making capability lies in the conscious mind i.e left brain that processes information logically and is the place where we develop will power that also controls our nervous system.

The two sides of the brain communicate with each other constantly, mixing logical, rational thoughts with the abstract and emotional thoughts.The influence of the right brain abstract thoughts (creative and emotional) i.e past good/bad experiences on the left brain can either strengthen or hamper in the process of conscious decision making.  So it is essential to realize that life, no matter what we do, always continues moving forward and is always filled with extremes. We can either embrace our past, or allow it to manipulate our future. The choice is clearly ours on how we handle these situations. And the choices we make by combining both our past memories from the right brain with the logical thinking of the left brain will greatly affect ourselves and the people around us.

Converting failures into positive futuristic attempts should be developed as a habit because in fear and panic past memories of failure haunt us only to crush down and down  destroying our dreams, our relationships, our future goals.

Its evident every where that happy and successful people in this world use their ability, will power and optimistic approach with never giving up attitude to rise above previous hurdles. Rather, they don't look at problems and bad events as a crutch to wallow in negativity , they embrace them as learning experiences, helping them achieve their best moments yet. Many actually enjoy tough situations and problems because it helps them distinguish the truth, and see visions of what's coming next.

Once Mohammed Azharuddin, ex-captain of Indian Cricket Team was going through a bad phase with out of form. The continous failures in scoring runs at the crease made him go down and down. During that period Sunil Gavaskar advised Azhar to watch all the glorious innings he has played in his past and how he punished the best of the best bowlers of the world. And this recollection of past glory not only rebuilt his subsided confidence levels but transformed him to a person where every experience of his failure made him stronger and stronger and every success has added to his library to recollect during failures.

Yes, failures hurts when they come to bare. But life is a non-stop journey and it all depends on our thought process how we let go of the past by remembering better times of the past and realizing better times were only a few moments away and moving toward a brighter and beautiful future waiting to bestow upon our shoulders, giving more happiness than ever imagined.

Friday, 29 July 2011

The Power of Imagination

Below art represents an impressive artistic concept of the artist "Creating My Own World" 
Don't read ahead until you Observe it for a while....



The concept of creating my own world seems simple enough at first glance, but the longer we look at it, the more you'll see in it.

Creative and beautiful; it's hard to tell what was actually manipulated in this photo. It seems to be simple the soft blue and red background and the hand which was painting some birds; the jar is clear and provides eye catching contrast where the surface shines, and where the dark ink is concentrated. It was those swirled that made the best part of this piece ; they appear to fluid and inky, genuinely like the brush was dipped in the water and those shapes billowed out. 

The artist initially made a sketch with a poem that talks about the image itself.

"fish world of ink
when dreaming ..
imagination has no
boundaries -
so do dreams ..
like liquid thoughts ..
we create butterflies
only with our minds
and hearts."

 Isn't the creative process wonderful?







The ink represents the fluidity of imagination and creativity through which the artist creates fish, birds, butterflies and the world of his own. It has beautiful color, texture and a poetic touch.

The poem is equally deeper and in sync with the imagination and visualization of the artist.

Its very well said and one has to realize that "Imagination has no boundaries -so do dreams ..
like liquid thoughts (from the right brain) .. we create butterflies only with our minds and hearts."

Butterflies are nothing but the ideas and concepts that pour from the liquid thoughts of our minds and hearts.
The terms "ideas and concepts" more oftenly used by corporates but in reality they are applicable to every field. 

For a creative thinker, there is no place for success or failure nor any expectations, its only his imagination that lets him go beyond boundaries in search of novelty.  Finally, success adores those who dare to dream and let the power of their imagination take the flight......................


Friday, 8 July 2011

Awaken your suppressed Creativity...........


My intention in making this blog is not only to share my ideas with you all but to ignite the creativity that is already there within you. This blog  is not meant to come up with the single idea of my own, but rather to create an environment where great ideas and creativity can be nurtured and the ideas flow from all of you....

Opening Spell

Believe it or not, everyone of us have substantial creative ability. Just look at how creative children are. In adults, creativity has too often been suppressed in the process of academic education, but it is still there and can be reawakened. Often all that's needed to be creative is to make a commitment to creativity and to take the time for it.


Much of the thinking done in formal education emphasizes the skills of analysis--teaching students how to understand claims, follow or create a logical argument, figure out the answer, eliminate the incorrect paths and focus on the correct one. However, there is another kind of thinking, one that focuses on exploring ideas, generating possibilities, looking for many right answers rather than just one. Both of these kinds of thinking are vital to a successful working life, yet the latter one tends to be ignored.

Somewhere along the line, many of us have forgotten how to use our imagination to think and solve problems out of the box. Roger von Oech, in his book A Whack on the Side of the Head, recounts a teacher’s exercise in examining creativity. The teacher drew a dot on the chalkboard and asked a 12th class students to identify it. They responded with the obvious: a chalk dot. She noted that the day before she had asked a group of kindergartners, and they had come up with numerous examples of what it might be: the top of a telephone pole, a squashed bug, an owl’s eye, a cigar butt, a rotten egg, and so on. Somewhere between childhood and adulthood many of us lose the ability to be creative and search for more than one right answer.


What is Creativity?

Its not a god gift but merely an Ability. A simple definition is that creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. Creativity is not the ability to create out of nothing , but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas. Creativity is also an attitude: the ability to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it.

The difference between the normal people and the one who are recognized as creative people is that the latter realizes that there are other possibilities and strive hard to continually improve ideas and solutions, by making gradual alterations and refinements to their works instead of accepting only a small number of permitted possibilities.

Why Creativity?


Be it business or an art, creativity and innovation are important keys to success in today’s rapidly changing world.

Process improvement, problem solving, recruiting, retaining and motivating employees, decision making, dealing with limited resources, satisfying customers, drawing audience and rapidly changing technology are all examples of business realities that require solutions with the above said keys to success 'creativity and innovation'.

Why this blog is titled as "TheRightBrainThoughts" ?

Human brain has two very different ways of thinking. One (the right brain) is visual and processes information in an intuitive and simultaneous way, looking first at the whole picture then the details. The other (the left brain) is verbal and processes information in an analytical and sequential way, looking first at the pieces then putting them together to get the whole.

In general we assume humans have only one brain, then why to  talk about Right Brain and Left Brain?

To put it in simple words, the conscious mind is the LEFT BRAIN and the subconscious mind is the RIGHT BRAIN.

Our conscious mind, the left brain processes information logically in straight line like 1,2,3,4,5,6 in a very organized manner and also controls our nervous system. The conscious mind is the place where we develop will power. And this is the function of the conscious decision making capability.

The subconscious mind or the right brain, on the other hand stores memory, organizes, recollects incidents and processes experience. The subconscious mind i.e the right brain is creative and emotional.

The two sides of the brain (called the right brain and left brain, but should more correctly be termed 'hemispheres') communicate with each other constantly, mixing logical, rational thoughts with the abstract and emotional, with emphasis in one hemisphere.

That means just like we don't do everything with only the one hand, so our brain doesn't do everything with one side, although there is generally a preference.

Is it Better to be Right Brained than Left Brained?

Though right-brain or non-verbal thinking is often regarded as more 'creative', there is no right or wrong here; it's merely two different ways of thinking. One is not better than the other, just as being right-handed is not 'superior' to being left-handed.

Mathematicians are generally left brain people while creative thinkers are generally right brain. People of true genius know how to use both, giving greater resilience on the right brain.

Therefore either one way of thinking alone will not be enough in  making our dreams into realities.

Whether one want to be a great entrepreneur, author, musician, painter, or comedian, it takes lots of efforts. One can’t just suddenly show up and demand to be acknowledged because they think they have talent. It’s not that easy. One must do the hard work of practicing continually for improving ideas because creativity creates new ideas, energy and momentum.Perhaps another way to say this is that creativity allows us to take advantage of opportunities.

Therefore the job doesn't end by just capturing the thoughts from the right brain but it needs to constantly polish and shape those thoughts with the left brain to become a productive outcome without ignoring the fact that the basic raw material in this would be the thoughts from the right brain


For Example:-
With respect to making a product for business house requires to:
  • Come up with a great idea
  • Converting the idea into innovation (that can be monetized)
  • Develop a proposal
  • Finding a client
  • Selling the proposal
  • Secure contract
  • Developing the product
  • Implementing it to use
The above steps are not that easy. This all requires significant effort. 


Conclusion
In my subsequent posts, you will be having visual images which will provoke you to think creatively and differently that allows you to become a kid again and reawakening the ability to be creative and search for more than one right solution.

If you are a true creative, the work won’t scare you. Embrace it. There really aren’t any shortcuts, despite what you may hear. The only thing standing between you and your dream is hard work and persistence.