Being creative isn’t always about what’s right in front of you. Often, being creative means learning to subdue your common sense while harnessing your subconscious thinking to work more effectively in creating ideas and solutions.
Part 1 focused on common sense: Being Creative vs Common Sense.
Read on for part 2: Stimulating your subconscious for creativity.
How to Build your Subconscious
I once had the greatest brainstorm.
I was all by myself, and all I was doing was walking down the street.
The client wasn’t well-known nor the biggest in its industry. By their own admission, they were an exceedingly dull financial brokerage. They wanted marketing ideas to raise their profile amongst an elite group of businesses.
Nothing absolutely nothing about their services, I had no person I could turn for advice or insights about the end user’s mindset or perspective. I couldn’t think of a single idea.
Frustrated, I went for a walk.
Maybe it has something to do with getting outside to enjoy a beautiful sunny day in Sydney. Or even the exercise of walking to improve creativity.
Whatever the reason, as I walked down George Street, I I randomly looked up and noticed a city billboard – and BAM, I had an idea for my client! Good? I don’t know, but I texted it to myself.
A few metres ahead, another billboard prompted another idea. A poster in a shop window brought another. A piece of graffiti stimulated another. All these flashes of inspiration came to me in just a few blocks.
I turned into the Australia Square food court with its many different cuisines. The smells alone gave me more ideas, so I just kept texting myself silly ideas. Walking out the back, I headed to Circular Quay, sending myself more thoughts. By the time I got back to my desk, I had some 30-odd ideas, some of which were crazy enough the client loved them and hired our agency.
If you’ve ever been in this same situation, you understand the value of your subconscious mind.
A Quick Intro of Your Subconscious Mind
We have Sigmund Freud to blame. Around the turn of last century, Freud popularised conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds into our daily vocabulary.
Conscious Mind
The concious mind is easy to define: it’s anything we’re conscious of right now.
It’s all of the thoughts, actions, feelings, fantasies, memories, sensations and wishes we know we’re having at any given moment.
The conscious mind is …
Logical (how can we get from A to B?)
Deliberate (is this right or wrong?)
Practical (what should we do with this most efficiently?)
… which helps us make decisions, solve short-term problems, and generally interact and react to the world around us.
What isn’t particularly successful doing? Being creative.
Subconscious Mind
Operating just underneath the conscious mind is the subconscious mind, the part of our mind that is not our immediate awareness.
Always alert and awake, the subconscious is described as a vast mental warehouse of our …
Automatic responses we’re often not aware (breathing, yawning, sleeping)
Regular, programmed actions (routines, habits, anything when we’re on ‘autopilot’ – like driving a car or using a fork or spoon to eat)
Self-protections (blinking in bright sun, fight-flight-freeze when we’re in danger)
Memories of everything we see, say, do, smell, touch, taste, hear, believe, imagine and value – up to 95% of our daily life.
More powerful than the conscious mind, the subconscious greatly influences and shapes our behaviour without our direct input.
It’s also the source of our creativity and problem-solving abilities.
Unconscious Mind
Finally, we have the deepest level – the unconscious mind – where our most primal desires, repressed memories and instincts are stored. Intuition, for example, is thought to come from our unconscious mind.
And, like intuition, this underlying knowledge and remembrances are not something we can summon easily, if at all.
You might see how subconscious and unconscious are often used as synonyms when they’re not. One way to differentiate between them:
- Subsconsious thinking can reflect on things and actions.
- Unconscious thinking cannot reflect on things and actions. They’re buried too deep to surface.
Tapping into Your Subconscious for Creativity
As I said at the end of the first article, I was taken with a training session on common sense. At its end, the trainer told us to tap into our subconscious thinking. But, he didn’t give any hints how to accomplish this.
Over the years, I found bits here and there how to stimulate creativity through harnessing the subconscious. Some were lovely ideals, but not very practical. Others were lofty but not specific.
More so, along the way I learnt a few things about the subconscious to remember if you too want to use it more effectively with your creativity.
Your subconscious is already working, even if you don’t know it.
This ‘data storage’ of all our experiences is a continuously swirling mess. To make sense of what it’s gathering, if not to organise and remember it, the subconscious pushes around these bits and bobs until it creates something.
In other words, your brain is already trying to look for and make ideas.
Think of your subconscious as your own virtual assistant.
Think of it as Suri or Alexa. It’s a creative assistant sitting inside your head, busy as, doing hundreds of things for you.
In other words, it just needs a command from you to get started.
Your subconscious loves direction.
With 300 gazillion bits of information (give or take), your creative assistant has no lack of choice. What it doesn’t have is a purpose.
In other words, the only real thing you need to provide is a well-formed problem.
Your subconscious works best when it does it’s ‘thing’ in the background.
Once you’ve given your instructions, go do something else. It’ll prefers to work when you aren’t paying attention, not unlike the proverbial pot that doesn’t boil when you’re watching it.
In other words, the most productive action you can take is to ignore it.
Based on these four points, here are my top suggestions to harness your subconscious and super-charge your creativity.
1. Give your subconscious a healthy shot of self-confidence.
I often get an eye-roll with this one, but it’s true nonetheless. You need your subconscious in the positive frame of mind.
Not unlike Closed and Open Mind, the subconscious needs positivity to look for solutions.
According to The Psychology of Self-Affirmation (CM Steele, 1988), when you lift up your thoughts you create better self-integrity, which in turn builds and supports self-efficacy. (‘I am good’ = ‘I know I can do this.’)
It’s as simple as telling/reminding/repeating/focusing yourself on a regular basis to be OPEN, POSITIVE and FLEXIBLE.
The keys:
- Be specific (‘I can master this Project X’)
- Focus on now (not the future nor past)
- Do it regularly, if not frequently (daily affirmations on your bathroom mirror)
- Think of the positive outcome, not the obstacles or problems
Visualisation is a similar tool. ‘See’ your end goal in your head. It doesn’t matter you’re not there yet. It’s a similar positive force that programs your mind to find ways to help you achieve what you want. I’ve known many successful people to create a mood board of what they want, using many items to stimulate all senses (not just the eyes).
Not your cup of tea? That’s fine. The quote from Henry Ford fits well here: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re right.”
2. Give your subconscious a problem to solve.
The subconscious loves a problem. (It’s likely your subconscious is working on a problem you’re experiencing right now.)
To make this work most effectively, give yourself a specific statement that puts both the goal and the problem in one sentence.
Here’s a simplified example from QuestionPro:
“High school dropout rate stands at 20% affecting their lives both personal and professional. How can we get ahead of the problem to ensure a more educated, motivated workforce?”
An alternative method is writing one sentence which includes the 5Ws/1H (what, who, when, where, why and how).
Regardless of how you write your statement, take your time to get the right statement. As Albert Einstein said: “If I had an hour to save the world, I would spend 55 minutes defining the problem and 5 minutes finding the solution.”
Once written down on paper, stick it to your bathroom mirror. Put it on your computer monitor. Email or text it to yourself. Stick it in your pocket, using it as a silent prompt throughout the day. Your subconscious mind will continue to work on it when your attention has gone elsewhere.
3. Change the problem by reframing it.
We’ve all heard changing how we look at the problem changes how we solve it. In this case, the idea it to take a single problem statement and re-write it with a new perspective. This trick – called reframing – forces the brain to re-think how it might solve or address the problem.
The process is simple. Write your statement. Leave it for a bit. Come back, read it and turn it over. Re-write your statement at least 10 different ways. Paraphrase. Try different words. Use synonyms. Write it from a different person’s – or different occupation’s – point of view.
Remember too Sturgeon’s Law: not all of your reframed statements will be good. In fact, 90% will be bad, but focus on the 10% (not the 90%). You only need one sentence that’s provocative enough to get your subconscious’ attention. If you need more examples of re-framing, here are some additional examples.
For another twist, try finding a metaphor that is similar to the goal or problem you’ve facing.
4. Distance yourself from the problem.
Sometimes it’s best not to think about or work on your problem. There’s a point where diminishing returns sets in. It’s time to go do something else.
I find the best activity is something that your body is in motion. Take a walk. Work out. Swim. Play tennis. Cook an elaborate meal. Get your hands involved. (Did you know using your hands in problem solving increases brain power by as much as 40%?)
If you’re stuck at work, find quick distractions. Refresh your water, but on a different floor. Use the restroom in a different part of the building. Go outside for lunch.
As the old McDonald’s ad said, ‘You deserve a break today.’
5. Study the problem before bedtime.
What we watch, listen to, or do a few hours before bedtime influences our dreams. You can force this by reading about the topic, the problem or opportunity before you go to sleep.
The time between wakefulness and sleep is called the hypnagogic state, when we’re semi-lucid as we slowly drift to sleep toward Stage 1, non-rapid-eye-moment/NREM. It’s when the heartbeat, eye movements, brain waves and breathing slows, including motor movements, although this is also the time many of us get muslce twitches, called hypnic jerks.
Many creative people – from Thomas Edison, Emily Dickinson, Salvador Dalí – have used it to explore their creativity more deeply. For example, Edison would nap holding a steel ball in each hand. As he fell asleep, the balls would fall to the floor and wake him. In this semi-awake state, Edison found he had tapped into all sorts of new ideas and thinking.
This article from Medium by Laura Bosch – Use Dalí’s Hypnagogic Method to Elevate Your Creativity – offers more practical advice.
6. Pay attention to your dreams.
Dreams disappear within 15-30 seconds after we wake up, so you need a way to immediately remember what you dreamt about before it leaves forever. Like me, you probably keep your mobile or cell phone nearby. Send yourself a text. If you’re old school, keep a pen and paper at hand to you can record your thoughts quickly.
7. Learn to meditate.
Meditation is focusing the mind by quieting it. Doing so harnesses the brain’s potential. There are many ways to meditate so you need to choose the way that’s best suited to your lifestyle and practice it frequently. Here’s an article on meditation for beginners.
8. Use visual stimulus.
Your brain thinks visually, not in letters, words or sentences. Use post cards, pictures from magazines and Google Image search, or random visual stimulus (like a walk around the block, or a different path to work) to inspire your creativity.
9. Write.
Julia Cameron writes in The Artist’s Way – a brilliant book, by the way – about stream of consciousness writing. Literally, every day at the same time, sit down and just write. Do not edit. No need to censure or judge. Don'[t pretend your writing will turn into a bestseller. In fact, most of what you write will stink. But do not stop: just write.
By allowing your subconscious to speak to you through your open-minded writing, you very possibly will be amazed at what comes out of your head. I’ve sworn by this approach for years.
10. Listen to your intuition.
Your intuition is directly connected to your subconscious and your inner voice.
Your first response is the one most important and natural to you, so think hard about why you want to behave or decide differently than your gut reaction. Do you need to listen to your first response?
Finally, the last one is a cheat. Not really a #11, but if you can’t tap into your own subconscious …
10 1/2. Use someone else’s!
If you have a hard time tapping into your own subconscious, go talk to others. Different people bring different perspectives which – if you remain open – can point you toward new alternatives.
What other methods have you used to tap into your subconscious/unconscious thinking? Please add your comments and thoughts below.
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