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Seven Creativity Exercises
by Michael Knowles

To stimulate that magnificent right brain of yours, try these seven creativity exercises.

But not all at the same time...

Mumbles

People required: 2 to 4

Find a silly friend or three and spend at least five minutes mumbling to each other. Use inflections the way you would during normal conversation, but no words are allowed. Will you laugh? Probably. It's a simple stretching exercise. Your right brain will love it, and left brain will be completely confused. And that's the optimal learning state.

Circle Story

People required: 3 to 7

There's probably hundreds of you who've played something like this as children. Get at least two other people. The first person starts off by saying, "Once upon a time, there was a..." and creates the beginning of a simple fairy tale or other story. Start building, then stop after about a minute and pass the story baton to the next person. The next person picks up where the previous one left off, and so forth around the story circle. Make at least two complete rotations through the circle before allowing someone -- anyone -- to end the story.

Geometric Chaos

People required: 1

Sit down with a pen and some blank paper. Pick up the pen, close your eyes, and rest the point of the pen on the paper. Open your eyes. Start writing from wherever you are. The object of this exercise is to write in such a way that the words and sentences form a geometrical shape -- a circle, square, triangle, or whatever you like. When you reach the point at which you started, keep writing beneath the first line so that you end up creating nested lines, a spiral of words.

You must write for at least five minutes or until you reach the center of your geometric object.

Write a Sonnet

If you're a poet, work in the formal setting of a sonnet. It's challenging, but doable -- and actually a lot of fun. Here's one of mine: One big river comes down from the mountains
Through great fertile valleys of gold and green.
Purple dahlias and azure fountains
Dance in the meadows where winter has been.
Into white water my log raft surges,
Buoyed up by foam, propelled by melted snow.
I ride it surely 'til it emerges
Far downstream where the few and faithful go.
Sometimes I pull the tiller hard and land,
Climb a tall Doug Fir for a longer view
To watch gold fingers touch the ocean sand
And know that I'll be carried down there, too.
   Somewhere between its finish and the start
   One big river carves the chambers of my heart.

That's certainly not a perfect sonnet, but I liked it!

Child's Play

If you are frequently around small children, sit and play with them. The rule: You let THEM show YOU how to play. If they're old enough to talk, ask them for help. Ask them, "Can you teach me how to play?" then let go of being an adult, if you dare, and be what happens.

Walking Real

Go for a walk. Let your mind wander. The rules: Breathe. Put one foot in front of the other. Don't step into a hole.

Tube the Toothpaste

If you're a neat toothpaste tube user, one who loves to roll it up from the bottom ever-so-nicely, stop doing it for a week. Squeeze that tube any old place you like. Heck, squeeze it with your toes if that winds your watch. How does that feel? Try this one with any habit you have -- do its opposite for a week, and watch your brain flip out.

My left brain always seems to want a logical conclusion.

Too bad, brain.

Copyright © 2002 Michael Knowles

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