The Magic Chair
There’s a common misconception that, as a creative professional, you should always be creating. Well, that’s just not possible for most people.
Inspiration isn’t always a bright heat, it can also simmer. Some ideas need space to form. Creativity can become powerful after periods of non-action.
Cunning creatures will set time aside each day for their creations, nurture them like babies, and know when it's time to stop creating so they can either return to a period of incubation or enjoy their creations in their present state.
I have a friend that, when they want to initiate expansive thinking, will first sit in a specific chair. My friend calls it the “Boring Chair,” and claims that it holds magical powers.
The chair itself isn’t special, save for the fact that it’s neither a task chair nor a comfort chair. It’s a standard rigid chair made of wood of no remarkable comfort.
The chair sits in the middle of a room. The room isn’t special either, but it’s familiar and basically unchanging.
What’s unique about this setting is that there are no modern-day distractions in the room. No electronics. No books or magazines. Nothing to cue thoughts into distraction.
Before they embark upon a period of ideation, they clear their mind of obligations and take a seat. They may sit there, with only their own company and thoughts, for as long as an hour or as little as five minutes. When they’re ready, they get up and get to work.
What’s happening for them during this time alone? Is it meditation? Are they entering a trance? Honestly, I don’t know and they can only explain it further by calling it they’re, “grounding.”
The Boring Chair’s magic, as it turns out, is peace. While sitting in it, my friend’s normally busy brain can hone its focus and latch onto any problem at hand.
There are so many ways you could choose to try this on for your own well-being. No matter if you do or do not, the question remains: If you free yourself from the incessant din of the world, can you gain mastery over your creative mind?
If necessity is the mother of all invention, perhaps freedom is the mother of creativity.
Creativity & Brain Network Theory is next in this series.
