How This
10-Minute Routine Will Increase Your Creativity
Learning to channel your thinking--both conscious and
subconscious--creates the conditions that make achieving your goals inevitable.
"Your
subconscious mind works continuously, while you are awake, and while you
sleep."--Napoleon Hill
Your subconscious never rests and is always on duty because it
controls your heartbeat, blood
circulation, and digestion. It controls all the vital
processes and functions of your body and knows the answers to all your
problems.
What happens on your subconscious level
influences what happens on your conscious level. In other words, what goes on
internally, even unconsciously, eventually becomes your reality. As Hill
further states, "The subconscious mind will translate into its physical
equivalent, by the most direct and practical method available."
Consequently, your goal is to direct your
subconscious mind to create the outcomes you seek. Additionally, you want to
tap into your subconscious mind to unlock connections and solutions to
your problems and projects.
Here's a simple routine to get started:
Ten minutes before going to sleep:
"Never go to sleep without a
request to your subconscious."--Thomas Edison
It's common practice for many of the world's
most successful people to intentionally direct the workings of their
subconscious mind while they're sleeping.
How?
Take a few moments before you go to bed to
meditate on and write down the things you're trying to accomplish.
Ask yourself loads of questions related to
that thing. In Edison's words, make some "requests." Write those
questions and thoughts down on paper. The more specific the questions, the more
clear will be your answers.
While you're sleeping, your subconscious mind
will get to work on those things.
Ten minutes after waking up:
Research
confirms the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex, is most active and
readily creative immediately following sleep. Your subconscious mind
has been loosely mind-wandering while you slept, making contextual and temporal
connections. Creativity, after all, is making connections between different
parts of the brain.
In a
recent interview with Tim Ferriss, Josh
Waitzkin, former chess prodigy and tai chi
world champion, explains his morning routine to tap into the
subconscious breakthroughs and connections experienced while he was sleeping.
Unlike
80 percent of people between the ages of 18-44 who check their smartphones
within 15
minutes of waking up, Waitzkin goes to a quiet place, does some
meditation and grabs his journal.
In his journal, he thought-dumps for several
minutes. Thus, rather than focusing on input like most people who check their
notifications, Waitzkin's focus is on output. This is how he taps into his
higher realms of clarity, learning, and creativity--what he calls,
"crystallized intelligence."
If you're not an experienced journal writer,
the idea of "thought-dumping" may be hard to implement. In my
experience, it's good to loosely direct your thought-dumping toward your goals.
Consider the "requests" you made of
your subconscious just before going to bed. You asked yourself loads of
questions. You thought about and wrote down the things you're trying to
accomplish.
Now, first thing in the morning, when
your creative brain is most attuned, after its subconscious workout while
you slept, start writing down whatever comes to mind about those things.
I often get ideas for articles I'm going to
write while doing these thought-dumps. I get ideas about how I can be a better
husband and father to my three foster children. I get clarity about the
goals I believe I should be pursuing. I get insights about people I need to
connect with, or how I can improve my current relationships.
Conclusion:
"A man cannot directly choose his
circumstances, but he can choose his thoughts, and so indirectly, yet surely,
shape his circumstances."--James Allen
Mental creation always precedes physical
creation. Before a building is physically constructed, there's a blueprint.
Your thoughts are the blueprint of the life
you are building one day at a time. When you learn to channel your
thinking--both consciously and subconsciously--you create the conditions that
make the achievement of your goals inevitable.
You are the designer of your destiny. This
simple routine will help you crystallize where you want to go, and how you will
get there.
BY BENJAMIN
P. HARDY
http://www.inc.com/benjamin-p-hardy/this-10-minute-routine-before-and-after-sleep-will-increase-your-creativity-and-.html?cid=em01020week16a
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