Thought Flow
Combine your thinking with one or more forms of expression to keep the thoughts moving.
thinking—Contemplation—is a fundamentally creative act of the mind, but sometimes a thought needs to be expressed before it can be fully explored.
Sometimes our thinking can get stuck; either we can’t bring a thought to mind, or our thoughts get stuck in a circular pattern.
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In Picture This, Lynda Barry describes how she has to keep her brush moving to create her comic strip: “The worst thing I can do when I’m stuck is start thinking and stop moving my hands. When I’m making a comic strip, the words and pictures come to me at the same time. Thinking hard makes that stop. And it does not help the comic strip. But if I keep my pen or brush in motion, something happens between the inside and the outside. Do images need some motion to come into being? What kind?”
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Typing: For people skilled in typing, it offers a way to capture ideas almost as fast as they come to you. For those of us who are slower, or if you’re typing on a phone, it offers a way to offload thoughts where you can get to them later.
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Writing: The act of drawing letters and words on paper is a fundamentally different activity than typing and activates a different part of your brain. Keep a notebook with you at all times for this.
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Talking: Don’t be afraid to slow your thinking down by thinking out loud. Find a private spot to do it so you don’t feel restricted. If you want to capture your thinking, talk into a recording device like your phone. Or if you want to talk to yourself while walking, wear ear pods and hold your phone and people will assume you’re talking to some on the phone.
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Drawing: We are visual thinkers, so your thoughts may take the form of a picture as often as they form into words. The great thing about a blank notebook is that it can capture both words and images.
Therefore:
Combine the act of thinking with one or more forms of expression—drawing, writing, typing, talking, or even dancing—to keep the thoughts flowing; expressing your thoughts makes room for fresh thinking.
Keep a Notebook with you to capture your ideas and keep them flowing