Two of a number of books I’ve read this year dealt with creativity: Agilely, by Estanislao Bachrach, and Stand Up and Fight, by Rafaela Santos. Basically, both books introduce the topic explaining how the brain works —which is something I’ve been translating for 5 years— and the importance of controlling your thoughts to stay creative.

First, you should know you can shape your brain in the way you want it or need it to be. How come? Neuroplasticity is the ability you have to change the structure and the anatomy of your brain (plasticity: the quality or state of being plastic; capacity for being molded or altered —Merriam-Webster Dictionary). An interesting fact is you can keep on learning and molding the way you think until the day you die.

Becky Curtis is the founder of Take Courage Coaching, a program where people who suffer from chronic pain are taught to control their pain effectively without medications. Becky lives with chronic pain and she found the way of managing it by taking advantage of neuroplasticity.[1]

Knowing the brain is plastic meant hope for her. “What we focus on empower and enlarge, and my focus was totally on my pain. I needed to change my focus.” How did she put it into practice?

“Changing automatic negative thoughts. One of them was ‘I can’t stand this pain’. So, I started saying different things, like ‘I can do something healthy instead of this’, and in that way turn down fear, which decreases the pain. When we have negative thoughts, the brain releases stress hormones, muscles get tight and the pain increases; we are in fight or flight mode. However, when we are calm, thinking healthy thoughts, we turn the parasympathetic and relaxation part of the brain on, and the pain decreases.”

Neuroplasticity works for creativity as well. No matter what kind of life you live or what kind of genes you have, neuroscientists have shown that changing your thoughts, generating new neural associations, or combining different concepts in your brain (conceptual blending) —in other words, as you stay open—you create new ideas.[2] “You are able to learn and grow. You must keep your brain open for learning new things and grow. Stick to this: The open-minded always learn more,” assured Becky.

Finally, According to Estanislao Bachrach, creativity is “the mental activity where insights, or subconscious revelations, occur inside the brain which brings as a result a new idea or a valuable action. It’s breaking our customary pattern of thinking.” Creative people, therefore, “have a fresh perception, don’t judge too much and may have certain revelations that enable them to generate new ideas, products, or actions.”

In other words, no matter the profession or job, creativity will always be a plus to the person that worries about enhancing it, basically because it will enable you to generate more ideas or find more creative solutions. Therefore, if you want to stay creative, unlock your mind and take advantage of the natural attribute of your brain’s ability to shape and reshape.

According to Becky, encounter your work with no judgements, stay open, teachable and hopeful, focus on what you have, become a life-long learner, then you will become a real creative translator.

Pic: elblogdeleyes.com

[1] www.takecouragecoaching.com

[2] Agilely, page 44.