Psychology | Creativity and blogging

I write a blog post every Monday about psychology. I don’t do extensive research for most of my posts, I rely on being creative. The mind works differently when we’re being creative. We tend to solve problems by analysing the problem logically, but to find a solution we often need to be creative.

Creativity is about bringing together different ideas from different corners of our minds and is often about forming analogies in the mind. I reviewed an art exhibition recently that was inspired by Inca legend. You might ask what Inca legend and prophesy has to do with contemporary art, but in the mind of the artist there was a complex connection.

When we try to be creative, there is a mental process that is like a lucky dip, we look in those deep recesses of the mind for something and hope to get lucky. It’s not precise, it’s a little random and so we tend to get something different from the herd. Computers are programmed and predictable, they do the same thing every time. They can be programmed to be more random by introducing a random number into the programming or some random element into the architecture of the computer. Then it isn’t predictable. We can be a little random in our thinking too and so produce something different. This randomness can be applied to more than just writing. It can be applied to art, engineering, science and design. This ability to be a little random, gives us new ideas, new thoughts, new music, new pictures, new experiences and makes life interesting. Being random and being creative makes life worth living; it is life for humans.

Much of our lives are automatic, we don’t think about putting one foot in front of the other when we walk. We do decide where we are going at times though. Much of what we do is controlled by our subconscious mind. When we are consciously in control, we react to our environment. We eat when we get hungry and tend to do the same things every day, because we are programmed to do that. We are even programmed by our environment to like certain things and believe certain things. It’s only that random factor in us that sets us free from the mundane and allows us to stop and stare and appreciate  a sunset or a work of art.

Repeating behaviour, automates it. We repeatedly try to ride a bicycle and eventually, we find we can ride it without falling off. Then our subconscious minds take control and we go pedalling off down the street. Initially though, learning to ride a bike is quite random, trying different things until we get the hang of it. You can take a few cans of spray paint and a blank wall and try to create art and you’ll probably end up with a messy piece of graffiti. You randomly create, but after doing it a hundred times, it might be perceived as art.

When I write a blog post there is an element of automation, I’ve written over 1,000 posts now. There is also a pattern to follow, subconsciously that requires little effort. There is, most importantly, a random element to it. The creative element which often means I have no idea what will be in the next paragraph. I just dig deep into my mind and hope to find something; anything. If that anything isn’t suitable, I reject it and look again. It’s random and unpredictable; it’s creative. Tomorrow, I’ll write about art and photography, there will be words and pictures. I have no idea, which pictures or what I’ll write; but it won’t be the same as last week and it certainly won’t be the same or even similar to what you can read elsewhere. What would be the point of copying someone else?

What do you think? Please be a little randomly creative in the comments box.

Related articles

• Random Musings (Saturday Morning Edition) (wisecrackblog.wordpress.com)
• Creativity: The Science & Psychology (socialsolutionscollective.com)
• Subconscious Creativity (rocktherocxx.wordpress.com)
• Six Creative Ways To Brainstorm Ideas [VIDEO] (business2community.com)

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