A creative imagination is more than just an active imagination. To actively imagine things, and see and hear things in one's mind, is an important ability, but it doesn't have to involve much creativity, does it? For example, normal daydreaming is a process of imagination, and it can consist of an elaborate fantasy world, but one mostly full of things that many people think about.
More creative imagination, then, must include the ability not just to imagine things, but to imagine original things. This means seeing things that others don't see, and coming up with new ideas. Can you cultivate this? Yes.
How To Improve Your Creative Imagination
Start by exercising your basic imagination. Try thinking in pictures more, or listening to music in your mind. Play little "movies" in your mind, until you can watch them on command. For those of us that can't easily do this
naturally, it can take a lot of practice. Fortunately, it is not an unpleasant activity.
Get more creative in your thinking and imagining. This can be as simple as paying attention to your creativity, because our subconscious minds give us more of what we pay attention to. When you ignore creative aspects of your life, you're telling your subconscious they're unimportant, but if you notice when you're creative, your subconscious mind will start feeding you more creative ideas.
Getting into different surroundings can encourage creativity. Want more creativity in your love life? Hike up a mountain with your partner. Do you write? Sit on a roof to write. Are you looking for creative new ideas for your business? Bring a notebook to the park and sit by the duck pond. A change of environment can get your thinking out of its ruts.
Start playing games that exercise your creative imagination. One such game uses a technique called "concept combination." Whether played alone or with other players, you combine random concepts or things in new ways, to see who has the best idea. A thermometer and a billboard, for example, could generate an idea for a sign that checks the weather and adjusts the message accordingly ("Come in out of the heat for a cold beverage," or "Come in out of the rain and warm up with our gourmet coffee," or "Come enjoy this beautiful sunset from our deck.").
Creative Thinking Techniques
Want the mind of a creative inventor? Start redesigning everything you see. Imagine better cars, faster ways to serve food, or better light bulbs. If you do this every day for three weeks, it will become a habit.
Want to be the person who always has something interesting to say? Train yourself to look at things from other perspectives. What would the Buddha say about this? How would a Martian view it? What's the opposite
perspective? The point isn't to ask others silly questions, but to ask yourself, to see what interesting ideas result. Do this until it is a habit, and you'll always have something interesting to add to a conversation.
For systematic creativity in poetry put a word on each of 40 cards; 10 nouns, 10 verbs, 10 adjectives, and 10 random words. Shuffle, deal out the cards and write a poem using one of the words in each line. My wife has had poems published that were created with this technique. Your mind will find a poetic use for any word if you use this method often.
Why Wait For Creative Imagination?
Creative inspiration can strike at any time, but such inspiration strikes more often when there is work instead of waiting. So if you want to come up with creative inventions, start mentally redesigning everything you see. Imagine a better bicycle, a faster mail service, or a better chair. Continue this for three weeks, and it will become a habit.
inventing things. Truly creative minds are always coming up with the questions too, and not just the solutions. To cultivate this kind of creativity, try these three things:
1. Change Your Perspective
Working just to not work (to retire) might seem silly to a child. Thinking from that child's perspective might give you ideas for how to make money doing things you enjoy. Seeing the world as a bear sees it might give a painter imaginative new ideas. Seeing things from a customer's perspective is a sure way to find creative improvements for a business. Try to see
everything from several perspectives. 2. Challenge Your Assumptions
What if restaurants didn't have employees? Customers pay a machine as they enter, feed themselves at a buffet, and everything is as automated as possible, so one owner-operator could run a large restaurant alone.
Challenge all your assumptions for practice. Do you really have to pay rent? Do fish tanks need water? Can friendship be a bad thing?
3. Let Ideas Run Wild
A flying bed may seem silly, but then it could lead to the concept of a helium mattress. Get out of bed in the morning, and it floats up and out of the way, to the ceiling. Ideal for small apartments. Never stifle your
creativity. Relax, let ideas come in any form, and remember that you can always discard them later.
If you want these techniques to be a habitual part of your thinking, you have to use them regularly. Since it usually takes several weeks to develop a habit, consciously use them each day for 20 days or more. List a few of your favorite creative problem solving techniques on a card, for example, and carry it with you. Look over the list every day and apply the methods there to anything and everything. In a few short weeks you'll have a more creative imagination.
Creative Thinking Games
Classic creative thinking games are a great way to tune up your brain. You can use these mind games to help you increase your brain power and to get you out of your thinking "ruts." Play them enough, and they'll habituate you to using creative problem solving as a normal part of thinking about things.
Creative Thinking Games For Groups
Group thinking games are especially good for long trips in a car. Have someone look out the window, for example, and randomly choose an object. Everyone in the car then tries to imagine a new way to make money with it. Common street signs become places to advertise, trees are sold with names, and a truck becomes a traveling grocery store.
Use the "change of perspective" technique as a problem-solving game. Just pick any topic, and see who can come up with the most unique new
perspective. Could there be a world where jobs weren't necessary? How would a virus define morality if it was conscious?
One creative thinking game uses a technique called "concept combination." You simply combine random concepts or things in interesting ways, and see who has the best idea. A chair and a microwave? Maybe an easy-chair with a built-in cooler, microwave and television, or microwaveable "couch potatoes" - a potato snack in the shape of a couch.
More Creative Thinking Games
A lateral thinking puzzle you can try right now involves nine dots, laid out three by three. Connect them all with four straight lines, without lifting the pen or pencil from the paper. When you figure this one out you'll appreciate the expression "thinking outside of the box."
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Many lateral-thinking puzzles use a scenario, real or imagined, with a selection of things you have to use to accomplish something. Imagine a ping-pong ball in an iron pipe that's set in cement. The pipe sticks up three- feet high, and has almost the same diameter as the ball. Using only a box of frosted-flakes, and a t-shirt, and your body and mind, how many ways can you find to get the ball out of the pipe? You could also set this up for real, to know if a proposed solution will really work.
Many riddles are just mind games or lateral-thinking puzzles. You move laterally in your mind, away from your usual line of thought, to solve a riddle. For example, what did his friends do when the cannibal was late for dinner? They gave him the cold shoulder, of course! Keeping your brain in shape doesn't have to be a matter of serious study. Why not play some thinking games?