There have been many writers who have talked about a particular set of conditions where creativity seems to flourish. Some are related to the creative environment but almost all focus on the state of mind an individual is in. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls it “flow”; Betty Edwards desribes it in the context of observation in her book “Drawing from the Right Side of the Brain”; Timothy Gallwey highlights that creative state in sport in his book “The Inner Game of Tennis”; Chad LeJeune describes the concept of Mindfulness to help deal with worry and anxiety; and David Bohm talks about attention, perception and sensitivity.

But I believe that all are talking about the same thing really – to be aware of the present moment, whether that be listening, observing, smelling, tasting, touching. If you are giving attention to the present moment you are not thinking or analysing. If you are thinking or analysing you are inenvitably reflecting on past content stored in your brain.

In my main area of work, which is product innovation, the role of ethnography for gaining insight into new product ideas is seen as very important. But again, the art of ethnography is observation, listening, perception, attention – i.e. being aware of the present moment.

This state of mind is also what is talked about in meditation. There are many forms of meditation, whether through focusing on the breath, doing yoga etc., but a common theme in all the methods is stilling the mind – in other words stopping the thinking. So meditation, in my opinion, is just another label given to the same phenomenon.

What is really interesting though is the power of such a state of mind, this creative, inspirational state described by all the different authors. If this state is the most creative state for new ideas and inspiration, why do we not talk about its power more. Why does our education system focus so much on analytical thinking all the time, often at the expense of spending time on harnessing creativity. In fact we often talk about “creative thinking”, but isn’t that an oxymoron.

Michael Wesch’s work on digital ethnography at Kansas State University is worth looking at, if you haven’t already. One of his well known videos is called “A Vision of Students Today“. I like it because it highlights how students learn and spend their time, including the power of collaboration, the immediate access to vast amounts of information and multi-tasking. In my view, it also indirectly supports David Levy’s point on “No Time to Think” (see post below).

I am interested in what ways today’s digital environment supports creativity and in what ways it harms it? In the physical world we are only conscious of a very small amount of the stimuli around us (e.g. sights and sounds) even though our unconscious mind might store vast amounts of information. Our intention and focus filters the information in our conscious mind. I am not sure we have found such a balance yet when interacting in the digital world – and this I think has an impact on our creativity.

There is an interesting centre that has been set up at the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University called the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Their work is “to realise the potential of mindfulness-based approaches in mental and physical health”. The techniques taught are similar to some of the ones we covered in our sessions. Check out www.oxfordmindfulness.org if you are interested.

I added a new video link to a Google Talk by Dan Siegel on the Minds, Brain and Mindfulness training and how mindfulness training has a direct affect on the front, middle area of the brain – and the implications on mental health and behaviour. I also added another video link to a Google Talk by Mattieu Ricard on how meditation affects the mind and brain,