Great places to generate creative ideas

Apart from brainstorming in a group, most of us may like to be alone when we work on creative ideas. It is necessary to have a clear mind and in a relaxed mode, so meditation is great.

I have learnt meditation from some books and in general I only remembered these:

1) Breathe in and out slowly by raising/retracting the tummy.
2) Listen to your breadth.
3) Focus your feelings on a single point (e.g. between the eyes)
4) Let thoughts come naturally, but release it with every breathe out. (expect to do this very often, and is most challenging)
5) Some people recommend relaxing the muscles before going into full meditation. This is done by tightening the muscles from the leg upwards and relaxing with every breathe.

I am still wondering why simple steps need to be explained in books with 80-100 pages. After running through the books, all we need are the basic steps to get it going. We don’t have time to read through every single page.

Meditation helps to get into the relaxed mode, but you must never to this when driving. The two obvious challenges to effective meditation are wild thoughts and sleeping monsters. You can be anxious, bored, tired or stressed, and the creative thoughts will simply get jammed inside your head. However, I can be sitting at a noisy place or inside a train, but if relaxed, the creative mind may start to work effectively.

Other than meditation, the following activity helps me to generate creative ideas for solving problems:

1) Take a slow jog in the park or on the treadmill. This is my favourite. Sometimes I can jog between 30 mins to an hour, and creative solutions may just pop-up in the head.

2) Take a long leisure drive to relax the mind and help to generate free thoughts.

3) If you are a swimmer, go and take a slow swim. If you feel tired, just stay at the corner of the pool to meditate.

4) Lie in a hot bathtub or sit quietly in a steam bathroom.

5) If the weather isn’t too hot or cold, it might be a great idea to go to the garden for the fresh air and scenic environment.

6) Seaside or riverside. A place where lovers like to sit around to chat and hug is also a good place to think about creative solutions. The sea breeze and water waves help to relax the mind as well.

7) If you are a 9-5 employee, trying to think about a great million dollar idea during commuting on the train or bus is a good idea. Just watch where you are going, and avoid those construction pits.

8) Sometimes, it works to go to a pub or bar, grab a drink and start thinking. Its preferable if there is a live band in the pub, as staring into the wall doesn’t help.

While solitary creative thinking is very valuable, it is a demanding task that requires discipline and structure. However it is a technique that can be learned and after a while will become second nature. The trick is to deliberately make use of time spent alone and set clear goals on how to use those precious moments of mental solitude.

Watching TV and movies may not help to generate ideas, but sometimes certain scenes in the movies might triggers special thoughts that would lead to a solution. Different environment works for different people.

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