The oldest of these brains is often called the reptilian brain. It’s located at the brain stem and actually does look like the brain of an alligator. It is about five hundred MILLION years old. Its main concern is literally the basics. It wakes you up, puts you to sleep, keeps your heart beating…things like that. One of its primary functions is simply survival.
The youngest portion of the brain is called the Cortex. It’s a relative child at about one hundred million years of age, but it’s taken over…most of the time. It likes to write books, compose music and dabble in jzjxc Spare Parts Of Injection Moulding Machine science. As Barry Manilow might say, it writes the songs. It has the leisure to do this because the other two parts of the brain take care of the simple stuff.
I got those out of the way because I wanted to talk about the midbrain, or mammalian brain, and a particular structure within it. The midbrain’s age is between the other two, at about three hundred million years. Its tasks are a little more complicated than the brain stem’s. It has to control your temperature and fiddle with your emotions for example.
Within the midbrain is a structure called the AMYGDALA. The amygdala is responsible for the “Fight-Or-Flight” mechanism you may have heard about. We generally hear about Fight-Or-Flight in relation to physical fitness and exercise these days, but it also impacts the thought processes, especially those involved with creativity, through this Fight-Or-Flight mechanism.
If you are not familiar with Fight-Or-Flight, in a nutshell it is a system found in animals and humans where the body and brain, when faced with danger, shut down some nonessential activities, move blood around to where it’s needed, ramp up some hormones, damp down some others in order for the Fight-Or-Flightee to survive. We’ll come back to Fight-Or-Flight in a couple of minutes.
Almost every day, I get one or more great ideas for an article, or poem, or essay. You would think that my cortex is responsible for this. Well, it is, but every once in a while, other portions of the brain create some static while trying to do their job.
Back in the days when I worked for somebody else, I would sit at my desk having great idea after great idea. However, when I pick up my pen to write down these great and wonderful things which seemed to be almost fully developed in my head, or when the boss turned to me in a meeting and said, “What do you think?” I would often go totally blank. In fact, simply looking at a blank piece of paper and realizing that some positive outcome is expected of me subconsciously, at least, poses a threat and my brain reacts as if saber tooth tigers were in the area.
Almost anything that lets you relax is of value. You will often find me on the patio, sipping a Miller Lite, watching the neighbor’s horses, or just daydreaming as I gaze over the pasture. Within reach is a small hand-held tape recorder. When a thought comes to me, I grab the recorder and murmur a few words into it. Years ago, before hand held recorders, people were advised to keep a pencil and paper nearby and record ideas as they popped up. Ever wake up in the middle of the night with an absolutely fabulous idea only to find it gone in the morning? Some of the great “thinkers” have written those ideas down before going back to sleep.
You see, one of the tricks is to grasp the kernel of the idea at the moment it occurs, which is almost never the moment at which you need it. However, if you have the basic thought available, that will give you the springboard you need to get past the initial fear or uncertainty, and to go on to complete the project.
Meditation, or similar relaxation techniques, is another means of initiating creativity. While the mind is wandering about fields of flowers and butterflies, a portion of the brain is hard at work sifting through ideas and coming up with all sorts of possibilities. If you get into meditation, you will often find that during and immediately after meditating you seem to have quite an insight into problems and quite a few “new” ideas.
Oddly enough, by the way, research seems to show that “creativity” doesn’t hinge that much on new ideas. What is happening is that our brain is putting old ideas and images into new patterns and contexts. That is one reason to remain intellectually involved with the world through the resources available to us. However, it might help to be a little selective. A steady diet of “Friends” might loosen us up for ideas, it doesn’t necessarily provide the raw material that we might get from CNN, Time magazine, or the Discovery and History channels.
Having a “thinking spot” or time can be of help. I find that I am at my most creative in the early hours of the morning when I am most rested and before the cares of the day descend upon me. I also seem to be in some ways more creative when I am seated, as now, in front of the computer reading the words as I type them in. Each new phrase or paragraph seems to remind me of something else I want to say.
Intentionally shifting your focus away from the problem often works as well. Many creative insights arise when a problem is seen in a new form or context. Several times throughout history, so-called creative individuals have solved difficult problems while involved in thought on other subjects.
Finally, realize that if you have been able to accomplish this task or a similar task in the past, you will be able to do it again. It might take a little while for the brain to work on it and to come up with a handle, but you will get there. In fact, being aware that it might take a little time and a few false starts can actually relieve some of the immediate pressure enough to get you rolling…or writing!
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