The Science of Incubation: the Surprising Ways Your Mind Is Creative When You’re Not Thinking
Five Reasons Your Intuition is a Sacred Gift You Must Cherish
We would all do well to listen carefully what Einstein was trying to tell us when he talked about the Intuitive Mind.
1. Your Intuition Enables You to Escape ‘Left-brain Syndrome’
‘Left-brain Syndrome’ is the excessive dominance of the left brain.
The left brain is wonderful, but Left-brain Syndrome is the imbalanced, over-domination of the linear, logical left side of your brain. For example, your left brain might say things like ‘geez, I wasn’t expecting affirmations like these!:’
But if your left brain has that reaction, it’s really telling you that you need to take it on more vacations. That’s what this book does. It gives your over-worked, under-loved left brain some valuable quality time and mini vacations.
2. Admit It: ALL of Us Get Too Distracted These Days
Face it. The hundreds of distractions that come our way every day are exactly what’s keeping our left brains in overdrive.
Trying to understand the latest politics inside the Trump Whitehouse? Good luck — that alone could be a full time job for your left brain. Trying to absorb the myriad of information from your myriad of screens and text? That too can be a full time job for your left brain.
At the same time, beneath that barrage of information, your brain is telling you stories. Most of those stories today, unfortunately, get slanted toward the negative by today’s negative news (and any curmudgeons around you), and so the stories you tell yourself are probably all too negative.
The book’s aim to help you “escape distraction, unlock your imagination and unleash your potential” is achieved in part by getting you to start thinking about the real stories simmering inside you. Are they too negative? Probably. Time to examine them and rewrite them.
That’s why this book is actually not ‘new-agey.’ It’s not motivational-speaker blah blah. There’s a lot of science now behind all this. First, if you want to do some quality thinking or creative work, you need to escape distraction and give your mind space and time to work properly. Second, neuroscience shows that the stories you tell yourself are, quite literally, mental simulations that most parts of your brain treat as if they’re real. So it’s true: tell yourself you can’t do something, and your brain assumes you can’t do it.
Which leads to another fascinating area of science that this book taps into …
3. Take Advantage of the Science of Incubation
Why is it that so many people seem to get their best ideas in the shower?
Shelley Carson of Harvard University wanted to find out. Was it the hot water? The shampoo? No. It’s because their mind was actually distracted by the shower. That is to say, their mind was taken off whatever it was they were thinking about, perhaps by something as simple as massaging the shampoo into their hair.
It’s the science of incubation. By disengaging and becoming distracted from what you were thinking, that’s when a period of incubation can set in. It puts your brain into a sort of subconscious brainstorming session. It allows your subconscious mind to become active, and science now confirms that about 90% of your mind’s activity is subconscious.
In this sense, point 2 above is a bit incorrect. The problem today is not too much distraction, it’s the wrong kind of distraction. We need to let our brains get distracted from the mindless left-brain chatter that can go into overdrive inside your head.
This book is very much like taking a nice warm shower. (Shampoo included.)
4. Intuition is the World’s Great Misunderstood Word: It’s Actually a Form of Mastery
If you still think of ‘intuition’ as a vague, touchy-feely sixth sense, it’s time to hit the science books again. Most people have a complete misunderstanding of the word intuition.
Once again, neuroscience has shed a bright light upon what intuition really is. It is a very real form of intelligence, and in fact it’s essentially a by-product of mastery.
Robert Greene’s bestseller Mastery is where to start if you want to get a good, plain-language explanation of why intuition is probably the highest form of intelligence.
Einstein came up with his final answer to the puzzle of relativity while on a walk with his friend. The answer came through his intuition. That intuition and intuitive ability was enabled by his thousands of hours of deep work and study. At such a high level of mastery, his subconscious mind was able to connect the various dots and deep thoughts and come up with the answer. This is no doubt why Einstein wrote: “ The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
And lastly …
5. It’s a Way to Have Fun as Well.
We all are driven to take things too seriously. That actually makes us less creative.
We are typically at are creative best when we allow ourselves to play with ideas.
When was the last time you let yourself feel as much joy as the young girl here is obviously feeling?
Yes, you too can find ways to get back into that state of mind.
And it just might lead to your best ideas.
Take advantage of this sacred gift, and good luck to you.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on May 24, 2018.
