2.1. ENG Thinking 4 Real-life Activity NEW

In this exercise, you will experiment with various creativity inducing states of mind.

You’ll need some paper — drawing paper, printer pager, or anything else. You can even use napkins or a magazine — any paper that can be folded.

Start with your immediate thoughts and use them to transform the paper — one sheet or several — into another shape. The purpose of this step is to silence your inner critic and allow for more remote associations, increasing the activation of the default mode and salience networks.

Next, spend a few minutes in each of the mental states listed below and make another shape from the paper after each one. 

• Imagining: Just freely think about the task and the paper. What could you do with it?
• Mind wandering: Step away from your desk. Try doing a bodyweight exercise or yoga pose, or just lie down on the sofa or bed, closing your eyes for a few minutes. Let your mind roam freely. Notice the thoughts that come to mind without getting fixated on any of them.
• Daydreaming: Think of a place you’d love to visit. It could be a real place or an imaginary world. It should be peaceful, beautiful, and happy. Imagine yourself there. Engage all your senses. What do you see? Are there any specific colours or shapes around you? What sounds do you hear? Is it the sound of waves, birds, or something else? What do you smell? Is it the scent of the ocean, flowers, or something else? If you’re touching something, how does it feel? Is it soft, rough, warm, or cool?
• Being inspired: Choose a brief activity that brings you positive energy which you can engage with immediately. It could be listening to a tune, watching a motivational video or reading an uplifting poem. The idea is to engage with external information that feels refreshing for you.

Evaluate your paper shapes and design one more shape: Now it’s time to bring back your inner critic. Look at the paper shapes you made, and evaluate their creativeness: which ones are novel? Which are useful? Which interesting? What kind of methods to fold the paper worked best? Design one more paper shape, deliberately trying to implement the best ideas and methods that you discovered.

The takeaway from this exercise is that there’s more than one way to generate creative ideas. Your preferences in the above activities show your natural tendency to think creatively in the first stage of the creative process, through imagination, inspiration, or active doing. However, to perform an activity creatively, we need the harmonious play of the entire orchestra of brain networks.

Write a reflection of your experience with the real-life activity, max. 200 words, covering both steps. Try to pay attention to which activities you preferred.