I’m writing this far away from my home in Calgary, Canada. I used to enjoy the seasonal changes of the northern hemisphere, and used to find the majority of my creativity came from the abundance of amazing people around me.
Now, I live in the hot, tropical city of Brisbane Australia where the sun seems to shine twice as bright, and three times as hot. I am also very far from my dear friends and family but it’s the place I’ve called home for the past 2 years now.
With the change came a lot of time alone. I was in a strange place with no foreseeable end to the situation. I’ve endured moments of struggle, moments of loneliness and longing, and moments of profound creative insight. In proper stoic mentality I tried to ignore the first two points, and began to wonder if the solitude may have had a role to play in the newfound insight I was frequently receiving on problems. Problems I had previously not found success with.
Turns out the answer is yes..
In the 1960’s a psychologist and creativity researcher (yes there are researchers for literally EVERYTHING), named Frank Barron brought a group of successful writers, architects, mathematicians, scientists, and entrepreneurs together to search for a common trait between these creative individuals of different modalities.
He found something interesting…
All of them seemed to demonstrate openness to their inner self, developed a preference for complexity, had a high tolerance for chaos, and on top of this, they all had the ability to make sense and order of this chaos.
[The creative genius is] “both more primitive and more cultured, more destructive and more constructive, occasionally crazier and yet adamantly saner, than the average person.” — F. X. Barron
There is an understanding of the creative process brought forward by Graham Wallas in his published work The Art of Thought. His theory involved the following 4 stages:
1. Preparation
In the first stage, preparation, data is collected, wether consciously or subconsciously to be used later in the stages to follow. This may involve observations, readings, conversations, anything.
2. Incubation
The second stage, incubation, is the stage we are most concerned with when it comes to isolation. This is the stage where the unconscious processing happens with no direct effort involved.
3. Illumination
The third stage is the most obvious one. This is the stage where light bulb flicks on and the inspiration identifies itself. The so called “eureka moment”. This is when the idea forms and a solution to the problem, or concept is dreamt up. We call this the illumination stage.
4. Verification
The fourth and final stage, verification, is the stage where the work begins. This is the stage where the insight is verified by others and brought into practice.
The emphasis is on the incubation stage
A lot of the successful creative individuals studied by Barron were found to have placed a emphasis on the incubation stage of the process. This is because in practice, the first stage is always taking place. We are constantly taking in new information whether we try to or not, the hard part is taking that information and carrying it through to the illumination stage where the eureka moment lives.
This is why finding ways to improve this incubation stage can lead to a greater capacity for creativity to occur spontaneously.
To many people, this means meditation, going for a hike alone, colouring, or any situation where you can allow yourself to be alone and let your thoughts simply wander off into space. This is incubation.
This reminds me a lot the Taoist idea that “while the scholar seeks to fill his head with knowledge, the taoist seeks to empty it”. To culture the incubation, we should aim to empty our minds from all the knowledge we pick up on a day to day basis.
How can you practice incubation?
There are many ways you can cultivate this second stage of the creative process, one of the main ones being meditation, preferably alone, but it’s certainly not the only way to go about it!
Meditation
Contrary to popular belief, meditation doesn’t need to involve “clearing ones mind of all thought” like your yoga teacher might have told you. That takes too much effort and contradicts the entire premise. The idea is to be aware of the thoughts, to observe them, and let the mind wander where it wants to go uncontrollably.
Even zen buddhism talks a lot about allowing the mind to wander naturally and spontaneously during “zazen” meditation. Allan Watts speaks a lot about this in his book “The Way of Zen”.
It’s this spontaneity, this lack of effort, that allows meditation to release the mind. The hardest part is undeniably getting over the first week of daily meditation. If we sit still for more than 60 seconds our brains begin to panic and seek out the next available stimulus. After about a week of fighting this urge, however, meditation can actually become quite enjoyable.
Hike Alone
Another method, which we are huge supporters of here at 420 Alpine is to head out for a walk or hike alone. Let your mind wander and think about whatever it wants, and most important of all, do it alone.
If you are not comfortable going into the wilderness alone (which is a perfectly rational mentality), take a friend, but discuss the idea in advance that it will be a more or less a silent adventure and let each of your thoughts wander as you walk down the trail. Perhaps when you break for lunch and a send a blaze at the top you can write down any eureka! moments that may or may not have arisen in the process.
Solo Travel
Another great way to achieve this, which is the method that worked for me initially, is to go travelling alone. You would be amazed at the benefits travelling alone can do for you. It’s a great way to spend some extended time in solitude, exploring the world in your own way, and being alone with your thoughts.
Color, Draw, or Paint
This is a classic. People have been painting to clear their minds since we first discovered that we could stain clothes with madder. You don’t need to put too much thought into this one and don’t you dare try to use the excuse “I’m no good at painting or drawing”. The point isn’t to be good. The point is to graba piece of paper, canvas, chalkboard, notebook, or coloring book, and just going to town.
If you’re not sure how to start, Bob Ross is a legend, or you can try to copy a photo or someone else’s artwork (try painting this nerdy Jesus and send us your results if you really don’t know where to start).
Upload Your Painting or Drawing Of Nerdy Jesus Here
Originally published at www.420alpine.com.
