Your brain and creativity

I was fascinated by a column on Sunday in The Fresno Bee by farmer/philosopher David Mas Masumoto. He talked about the brain and the many ways the creative process works.

As I've written a few times in this blog, my brain sometimes goes on vacation to the Bahamas at the exact time I'm trying to remember a name or a fact that should be easy to recall. I'm not even talking about the creative process. I'm searching my brain for basic facts. It's like a Rolodex keeps spinning in my brain, but the card with the name I want won't fall into the right slot. Now that's frustrating.

Mas used the research of Mark Jung-Beeman, a cognitive neuroscientist, as a basis for his column on Sunday about how the brain works during the creative process. Here's part of Mas' column:

Imagine the left side of the brain desperately searching for an answer, trusting logic over randomness, reason over emotion. Precision is asked for as we focus.

We repeat the question over and over in our minds, tightening our muscles, squinting, grimacing, clenching our fists, gritting our teeth. We believe that if we concentrate hard enough, somehow the right solution will fly out of our mouths.

But then we struggle. We incorrectly assume our focus helps us cut distractions and pay attention only to relevant details. Instead, we suppress options and inhibit creative connections that can lead to a break through.

Finally exhausted, just at the verge of quitting, we pause and take a break. In a resting state, we generate greater right brain activity; the right hemisphere is allowed to join in. Then new brain communication occurs between regions that are not ordinarily connected. A broader, general search party begins, the whole brain hunts for options. Then and only then, Jung-Beeman concludes, can the mental balancing act unfold and creative insight occur.

In these cases, the brain just needs to relax, Mas writes. "We give ourselves time and space to think. In Zen, they call this focusing on not being focused."

So it's really very simple. We just need to relax. Wow, that Rolodex card just dropped into the right slot.