Unleashing Your Creative Mind

Imagination is our most underutilized creative tool, yet it holds the power to transform our lives through expanded awareness and possibilities. 

• Children naturally use imagination, creating entire worlds from simple objects while living fully in their subconscious minds
• Studies show 90% of young children generate hundreds of creative ideas, but this ability dramatically diminishes as we age through education
• Our educational system programs us to focus on right/wrong thinking instead of creative possibilities
• Most innovative companies deliberately cultivate "childlike creativity" in their design processes
• Creative problem-solving involves four stages: clarification, ideation, development, and implementation
• Judgment is the biggest creativity killer – avoid evaluating ideas during the ideation phase
• The "Wouldn't it be nice if?" technique creates an immediate positive shift in emotional state
• Follow with "How would I feel if?" and "What would it look like if?" to engage multiple dimensions
• Holding ideas for 14 seconds generates related concepts; 64 seconds begins manifestation
• Sustained positive emotions become moods, which become attitudes, which become personality traits
• When negative thoughts arise during imagination, simply say "not today" and continue your creative flow

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to May's Theme: Expansion
• 1:57 The Power of Childhood Imagination
• 4:23 How Education Kills Creativity
• 7:46 Judgment: The Creativity Killer
• 11:15 The "Wouldn't It Be Nice If" Technique
• 17:57 Emotions Become Personality Traits

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:13

So this is the month of May and before we dive into the month of May on this Patreon exclusive podcast, I just want to introduce Les he's the other owner of State of Mind Hypnosis, and also, if you're interested in our larger podcast as a whole, just head on over to our website and check out the podcast. It'll be linked in the description below. So, hi, les.

Speaker 2: 0:47

Hi, hilary, we're having coffee, so it's still kind of coffee with Hilary and Les.

Speaker 1: 0:51

That's right.

Speaker 2: 0:52

But it's just for our friends who are dedicated to their own growth and improvement and trying to find a regular method of expanding their mind and expanding their horizons in the future. So, maybe this one will be particularly helpful.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Yeah, so, as I've been kind of uploading to Patreon, as you've seen, may is about expansion, it's about trying new things, it's about maybe trying new things, it's about maybe trying new thoughts and just feeling into this new type of awareness. And so, yeah, we thought this morning it would be good to think about, well, what starts the expansion process, what kind of new thoughts can we have and where could that, could that lead us?

Speaker 2: 1:47

and where does that come from? It comes from the imagination. There you go that's it exactly imagination. It's a really underutilized creative tool it is it's shame.

Speaker 2: 2:04

You know what happens to us when we're young, Because if you look at any three or four year old at any given time during the day, they are lost in the exploration in their own little mind, of their own little world. They can pick up any object off the floor and turn it into anything they want and then create a whole world built around it and a whole story taking place in that world, and they can do that instantaneously. They can do that naturally. They do that with abandon that was abandoned. They literally release everything that's around them that you might call reality and they go right into their imagination world.

Speaker 1: 2:52

Yeah, yeah, they're really living in the subconscious mind. Yeah, we talk about the conscious mind in hypnosis, the subconscious mind, unconscious mind, super conscious mind, when we, you know, cross those borders into spiritual hypnosis, but yeah, they really are living in that subconscious world of make-believe and the rest of it, right. So the power of the imagination is just beyond. You know, I've, I've, imagined things in my past and and, yeah, they've, they've, many of them, have come true. It's not, you know, tomorrow sometimes, but it, it builds up that, that energy, I think. And and when we're immersed in that energy and that future or what we want in our mind, even though it might not be right in front of us, I think it opens doors, it highlights doors and they're more visible, so to speak.

Speaker 2: 4:02

you know more visible, so to speak. You know it's sad the way we get programmed out of imagination. It's sad the way we get changed. There's a really neat study If you wanted to see something really cool.

Speaker 2: 4:20

If you did a Google search of Ken Robinson on education. He talks about this study. It's a longitudinal study where they took young kids and they got them to be creative, come up with ideas on how to use a paperclip or what could you use a paperclip for, and things like that. And little kids can come up with hundreds of ideas quickly and easily. So they did this study and they started off this study sort of classifying kids as geniuses if they could come up with hundreds of ideas from a single question. And they found that 90 odd percent of little kids are fantastic at this. They're just geniuses at this.

Speaker 2: 5:07

And then they measured this over the years of their lives to the point where they were young adults 16, 17, 18, and found that this ability had dramatically deteriorated so that they were hard-pressed to come up with more than one or two ideas at any given stimulus question. And what they felt was they interpreted, was that this is the direct result of education the thinking that there is a right way, that there is a right answer, that there is right and there's wrong, and you want to avoid wrong at all costs, and the epitome of success is to be right, and it really closes the door on possibilities and it really takes away the opportunities that we might have to otherwise use our imagination. It's a skill, it's a tool. It's this thing that we need to use to keep it alive. It is, in many respects, some of the most fun stuff we can do with our mind is imagine and pretend and come up with ideas, and, you know, non-judgmentally and I think that's the big kicker here is judgment.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Yeah, because I know from myself at times, I know from people that I work with at times sometimes we want to imagine something big and great, or different or small, you know, it doesn't matter. But what gets in the way sometimes is judging like, well, you know what if it doesn't happen? You know, is this a waste of time to do this? I don't want to feel good about it and then it doesn't happen. You know, these things sort of get in the way.

Speaker 2: 7:06

Well, we really do associate imagination with children, and when we're using our imagination, somebody will tell us we're being childish. Naive or yeah, all these things and that feels like an insult when I suppose it could be a really good compliment, right To be suppose it could be a really good compliment right To be childlike, to still be of a child frame of mind, filled with wonder, filled with possibility, filled with the complete non-judgment of your own creativity.

Speaker 1: 7:36

I think the biggest, mainly because I come from this world of design. I think the biggest design companies I don't think people realize this whether you're designing a chair, or designing a kid's toy, or designing a car, you're designing a car there are whole teams of designers who go into this level of childlike creativity and just come up with stuff, things after things, after things after things. I mean they're paid to do this and they're paid big money for this stuff and they're paid big money for this stuff. And so I think it's important to know that. You know this isn't something to be judgmental of the greatest things that you work with or that you drive in or that you hold in your hand every day, your phone came from the most creative people.

Speaker 2: 8:43

I was lucky. When I was still teaching at the college and university I got to take a program from the State University of New York at Buffalo, so SUNY at Buffalo, and it was the Center for Studies in Creativity and they really have been able to break down the ideas or the parts of creativity and show how everybody has a tendency to be good at certain dimensions of creativity program which was really designed on creative problem solving.

Speaker 2: 9:23

How do you solve problems in in the most expansive and creative ways, they say. The biggest thing, the first thing that shuts down creativity is judgment. You have to when you're in the process of what they call ideation. But in each stage, creativity is broken down into four stages. The first is clarification understanding the problem you're trying to solve. Ideation coming up with as many diversely different and unique, never tried before ideas to address a problem. And development you pick one or two of these ideas that sound like they might solve the problem and expand on them, develop them, get them to the point where you understand exactly what you'll do. And the final stage is implementation actually doing it, actually making the change, doing the innovation. So, if these four stages, absolutely at any of the stage, but most especially in the ideation stage judgment picking good ideas from bad ideas is a process that you don't engage until you've finished coming up with as many ideas as possible.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Yeah, I remember a teacher in design school would have a. He'd bring in a huge bowl of candies at, like little Mars bars and you know chocolate bars and stuff and anyone who raised their hand with an idea. No one was allowed to shoot down the idea or say anything, yeah, but or anything like that, and he would like throw candies out to everyone who had an idea. It was great Just to get the process going. That's right.

Speaker 2: 11:03

When you're in the process of creating ideas, when you're in the process of imagining, you don't put any limits on it and you don't let anyone try to take it to the next step. You just stay in that. As many novel ideas as possible, right, that as many novel ideas as possible, right. The goal is to cover the board in novel, untried ideas, no matter how you might judge them later as being sort of way out there or bizarre or silly, or you've got to avoid all of those thoughts and just focus on the creating. And it's amazing, you know, there's long studies that have shown if you can hold an idea in your mind for 14 seconds, you can come up with a whole bunch of ideas just like that. And if you can hold that bundle of ideas for 64 seconds, you can actually start the process of manifestation, you can start the process of creation. So it's about not just having an imagination and using your imagination, it's about staying with your imagination, staying with your imagination for an extended period of time.

Speaker 1: 12:18

Yeah, yeah. So how do we start that process?

Speaker 2: 12:23

Well, you know, when we, when we think about the creative process, we think about the problem, start with the creative problem solving system, where you start to clarify the problem. You want to understand the problem. There's nothing wrong with saying you know, I'm not satisfied with this aspect of my life, I'm not satisfied with myself in this dimension of me, I'm not satisfied with this aspect of my relationships, I'm not satisfied with this part of my career. It is okay to identify that which you might call a problem right, and it poses problems to us. But the point is not to dwell on the problem. The point is to understand the problem, separating the actual facts of the problem from the emotions that it creates in you, of the problem from the emotions that it creates in you, and try to create some kind of separation there.

Speaker 2: 13:26

But once you've found yourself having even a basic understanding of what you don't like, what you want to change, what you don't prefer, is a really nice way to say it, because then there's not judgment. This is just not my preference. But that's the spark, that's the moment you can move into what would be my preference. And a really nice, simple, simple technique in your mind is to simply say to yourself. Wouldn't it be nice if?

Speaker 1: 13:58

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: 14:00

Wouldn't it be nice if take that stem of a sentence and use it over and over and over? Wouldn't it be nice if?

Speaker 1: 14:09

I found I did this a while back back in the fall and just thinking about things that I wanted in my future, and just those words actually created like a vibration. I could feel a difference in my being as I said them. You know, it was really fascinating.

Speaker 2: 14:39

Right, growing up. Wouldn't it be nice if I had a million dollars? Wouldn't it be nice if I had all my bills paid? Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to think about money every month? Wouldn't it be nice if I had so much money that money wasn't a question anymore? Wouldn't it be nice if I had a million dollars and you can see all the different dimensions of having that million dollars. Wouldn't it be nice if I had a nice new car? Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to think about that Right and sort of let that? Wouldn't it be nice? Just expand and see all the ways that that wouldn't it be nice. All those dimensions of your life, it would touch all those dimensions of your life. It would improve and spend some time there recognizing that.

Speaker 2: 15:31

And then comes the next great step, when you've already you're already starting to feel better. You're already noticing that emotional uplifting. Um, now you say what would it feel like if I had a million dollars? What would it feel like if I didn't have to worry about my bills? What would it feel like if I never had to think about money again? What would it feel like to have a new car? What would it feel like to be able to focus all my time and energy on doing things that are creative and enjoyable, rather than the things I feel like I have to because I need money.

Speaker 1: 16:12

Yeah, I just want to say here the amazing thing about the mind is that when we ask it a question, it goes to the nth degree to answer you. And it might not be right away, it could be in a little bit, but if you're asking yourself, what would it feel like, the body will respond at some point.

Speaker 2: 16:34

And let it, yeah, and enjoy it and get those feelings. In NLP they talk about swirling, swirl those emotions, sw in them, enjoy them, let them expand to every cell of your body, let them go from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet. At this point you've probably spent a whole lot more than 64 seconds. At this point you might've spent two or three minutes, and that's a great use of time. It really is. It's a fantastic use of your mind skills. It's a fantastic use of your time to spend your dwelling into these things and then, once you've figured out what it would be and how it would feel, ask yourself what would it look like if? And now, really kick that imagination in. You know, see yourself in the mirror, see your see, see your clothes on your body, see your world around you, allow it to change Right and now swirl in that, dwell in that that, dwell in that. You're going to discover that being in those feelings and being in that state of mind is expanding you.

Speaker 2: 17:59

Dr Joe Dispenza talks about this really really well. Dr Joe Dispenza talks about this really really well. I love this phrase that he says. He says if I have an emotion and I hang on to it. It becomes a mood, and when I have a mood and I hang on to it, it becomes an attitude.

Speaker 2: 18:27

And if I have an attitude and I hang on to it, it becomes a personality trait, right, and so we naturally do this with negative things, right.

Speaker 2: 18:31

We cling to negative emotions, we get in bad moods, we get ourselves in a state where people are saying what's wrong with you? Right, because we get that attitude and, unfortunately, because life conditions don't change unless we actively change them, it's really easy for you to suddenly find that you have this personality trait that is very, very negative. But the fantastic thing about that is it works positively too. If I can get myself into a positive emotion and I hang on to it, it becomes a positive mood. And if I can hang on to this positive mood, then it starts to become a positive attitude. And if I can hang on to that attitude, it starts to become a personality trait and soon I'm known, known as this creative, excited, imaginative person that others are drawn to.

Speaker 2: 19:27

So imagine what you bring into your life just by carrying around a personality of imagination, excitement and positivity. That's like a beacon of light in a world of darkness. People are drawn to you and imagine what that brings to you All these wonderful people bringing all these wonderful things to you because they're drawn to you, right? So that alone expands your circle of friends, it expands your horizons, it expands your possibilities, it expands your life in almost every dimension you can think of.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Yeah, I love that. I love that. I think that was probably one of our best podcast. I hope so. We have over a hundred and that was the best. Yeah, I hope that was helpful for you guys. And do you have?

Speaker 2: 20:26

anything else to add. Well, let's just remember these questions, understand the problem. Then wouldn't it be nice if? How would I feel if? What would it look like if?

Speaker 1: 20:41

what would it look like if Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, and just any little thoughts that get in the way, any of those little niggly, yeah, but thoughts. Just say not today and just keep saying the question to yourself, yeah set them aside To be able to go upwards. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 20:58

Say that again. Set them aside. Set those thoughts aside, not yet. Avoid the judgment. Stay in the creativity, yeah. Say that again. Set them aside. Set those thoughts aside, not yet Avoid the judgments. Stay in the creativity, yeah.