Creativity

Forces of The Creative Spirit — On Linking Questions To Forge Original Ideas

Your mind is infinite

On Your Creative Spirit

We can all be honest here.

You, me, and other creatives get stuck; often, we just feel out of ideas. This happens as while trying so hard to come up with something new, we get caught looking back at what has already been done and pour our focus into not repeating it.

Our energy goes towards inhibition, where it should be spent wholly on creation — also describable as ‘forging new connections within our minds’. These new connections are the birthplace of our originality.

We may also become detached from our purpose, which inevitably leads us astray from our most energetic paths.

We get tired, disoriented, lost, and we feel lacking in creativity, which pushes us further towards the brink of giving up.

And it’s perfectly understandable!

Which is why I’d love to offer the following — creativity is a simple product of curiosity and associations.

Your mind is composed of approximately 100 billion neurons, giving you about 60 TRILLION neuronal connections to work with.

What’s more impressive still, is your brain’s ability to continually generate new brain cells, all of which will continue to forge connections with one another, including the old.

Neurogenesis is the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain. Neurogenesis is crucial when an embryo is developing, but also continues in certain brain regions after birth and throughout our lifespan.

What is Neurogenesis? — University of Queensland, Australia

Beautiful!

The creative mind is a magnificent phenomenon. Ignoring the part where it can easily mess with our memories, creativity is why we can create and explore imaginative new concepts and inner worlds, and it’s what leads us to the spark of life for innovation.

Count that we can dedicate new brain cells to information we’ve never yet encountered and that this will create new connections over time, and we realize there’ll always be something else to create.

For every idea in your mind, you can experiment with any combination of its connections, along with any combination of their connections, and so forth.

And considering the brain’s propensity to modify itself over time, you can trust these combination chains also to evolve over time.

Of all the elements of brain agility, including: mastering our emotions; understanding the brain-body connection; trusting our intuition; making decisions for social good; staying motivated to reach our goals; and reframing creativity to allow us to design a future we can feel good about; it is creativity that can harness the most from the power of neuroplasticity[.]

The Neuroscience of Creativity — Stanford Social Innovation Review

This means not only can you gradually come up with new ideas, but you can explore new angles on old ideas as well. Your mind is infinite! Now, if it pleases you, I’d like to assist you in your explorations.

Please, come with me.

What Do You Care About?

Before you can feel fully energized to explore the best of your new ideas, you need to determine your purpose and your passions in life.

These are your interests; the things, people and places you care about, the reasons why you cling to conscious existence!

It’s really simple too.

You only need to discover what makes your blood flow. This is what we’re looking at next.

Try this —

Start by getting yourself a physical pen and paper; if none are available, then open up Notepad or your preferred writing program.

You want to write down twenty things that do or would make you happy in life. Be free of judgment; no one has to see it!

This is your world; start shallow, and dig deep.

There are no wrong answers. Twenty things, be they people you could meet, objects you can have, places to visit (or even own), events that could transpire, ideas that excite you, etc.

I believe in you.

Don’t be shy to pass twenty.

Go.

Now, focus in —

Amazing! Assuming you followed through, go over your list, and pick the top five items that raise your spirit, or mean something profound to you.

In your mind, live them!

How do you feel?

Use all of your senses — hear; see; touch; taste; smell.

Experience it as a true part of your life experience.

It helps to ask yourself directly how it would be.

You can believe for a moment that it’s coming up, and anticipate it.

Are you pleased? Satisfied? Feeling powerful? At peace?

Okay.

Hold on to this list.

Then forget ALL about it!

After this exercise, you can let go. We’re just priming your brain to be creative in a way that’s meaningful to you. You can hold on to your list for future reference. 😊

You can even repeat the list exercise any time.

Keep in mind what matters to you, always. These are things that will give you your most natural energy, almost as if from another dimension!

There are countless ways of doing this, but the easiest is to have the list on you to look over in free moments.

Alright, let’s move on!

Creative Questions To Ask Yourself

The way of mind exploration — and exploration in general — begins as with any other search — by way of curiosity.

From there, all topics may be uncovered.

You can also be inspired and invent new characters, things, locations, events, systems of thought, or anything else that could potentially exist!

If you dare, you can even reach a step further, and create that which couldn’t exist!

It isn’t enough to ask yourself for something original. You must be more specific! Your question needs to lead you to an actual destination. We’re going to dig into this now —

The Five Primary Questions

These questions work like the primary colours — they are basic on their own, but combined lead to the entire spectrum of visible light! These are the basic building blocks to crafting with depth. And the best part is, you already know them!

Let’s explore:

Who?

Explore a person, a type of person, or even relationships between various types of people.

• Who enjoys an unreasonable number of eggs?
• Who is mysterious?
• Who depends on no one?
• Who would die for their purpose?
• Who is lethargic from the moment they awake?
• Who are getting along over a shared love for onion frites?

What?

Consider different objects and scenarios of interest.

• What are the consequences of egg addiction?
• What is a mysterious activity?
• What would it take for the most independent person to depend on another?
• What is the purpose of this thing or another?
• What are ways to become naturally energized?
• What is the perfect way to cook onion frites?

When?

Think about times, present, future, or past.

• When in life does egg addiction begin?
• When is the mystery most mysterious?
• When have any two opposing groups depended on each other?
• When is it okay to break from purpose?
• When is one full of energy?
• When could onion frites become sentient?

Where?

Explore imaginary places, make them detailed!

• Where could one discover the perfect egg?
• Where has always been a mystery?
• Where would show the illusion of a dependant society?
• Where was one when they found their purpose?
• Where is a natural energy draining zone?
• Where have onion frites been adopted as a sacred food?

Why?

For every object/person/place/idea, there may be unlimited possible reasons why.

• Why have eggs suddenly become the primary food in town?
• Why is the mystery so compelling?
• Why have all the independent types jumped ship?
• Why has the purpose shifted?
• Why is everyone attracted to the energy?
• Why does everything taste like onion frites?

How?

Your inventive spirit loves this one! Name the specific steps related to reaching a certain outcome.

• How can all the eggs disappear?
• How did the mystery lose its potency?
• How did one become dependant?
• How would?
• How will?
• How?

Endless Combinations for Fiction

Any of these questions can be placed together to add new depth to your ideas.

The following example is based on the intention to write a fictional story about characters who want to solve homelessness in their area — it often shows up a lot on my lists :

What kind of place — where — would provide homes for the homeless? How would it operate? Who would be in charge of such a project? Why was the homelessness crisis so bad to begin with? When did it begin? Why does anyone want to resolve it? What happens when some citizens disagree? How are they won over? When did anything like this ever occur here before? What happens when the project leader disappears? Where did they go? Who is first blamed? How is the problem investigated? What is a good representable name for the investigation team? Why were they ever put together in the first place? Who are the protestors? What is their connection to the problem? How do their actions affect others?

And so forth.

For as long as there are details, there are questions you can ask about those details.

One idea of a place where the homeless population are intended to be taken care of can lead to an entire unique and living world filled with all the necessary elements of a story!

I haven’t written any of it, yet nearly the entire thing just unraveled in my head from using questions to explore the possibilities.

For every question, a solution begets another question.

If you’re not satisfied with what you have, then you can ask yourself what you do and don’t like about it, and then tweak your story’s details accordingly. Only, be cautious about doing this once the story has already been developed into a draft, as a single detail chance can have a ripple effect throughout your story world.

The Point

You have so much potential! Whatever you were taught to believe over the years, or if you already agreed with me on this. It needs to be said — you have so much potential.

And if you’ve read this far, I trust you’re interested in exercising it.

I love to think of a world where the possibilities are endless. Whether these possibilities all manifest into the physical world, or remain in paintings, songs, programs, and storybooks — that’s not what matters.

Whatever your preferred medium of expression, I want you to be open and free in your discovery!

And it can all start by feeling love and curiosity.

The Sparrow

The sparrow symbolism means power, creativity, community, simplicity, and empowerment. Further, sparrow bird meaning and interpretations are also positive, such as friendly, caring, persistent, and productive, which show you the power of sparrow medicine.

As a worker, sparrow teaches you to be hardworking and vigilant. Sparrow Symbolism & Meaning (+Totem, Spirit & Omens) — WorldBirds.com

About the author:

🔍 Gustave Deresse is a Métis-Canadian writer and musical artist whose primary themes of writing include : spirituality, philosophy, creativity, humour, wellbeing, the weird, and self development.

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Thank you for reading, and take care. 🙏 🙏 🙏 — G

P.S. Sooner or later, I tend to edit my pieces. Subscribe to my stories by email for the chance to catch my original works, wonkiness and all.