You Can Have More Creativity And A Better Memory

The Australian Aborigines are the descendants of the original inhabitants of Australia.   For uncounted thousands of years, they followed a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle, although most are settled today.  The Aborigines adapted remarkably well to the huge area of the Australian continent.   Without maps to help them navigate through the land, and without pen and paper to help them record their harsh environment and landscape, the Aborigines did remarkably well to navigate this vast continent and survived and thrived.  Their sense of geography was not only highly accurate but also highly sophisticated.  How did they do it? The Aborigines passed geographical information on by means of stories similar to myths, which were also recorded in artistic ornaments. 

These stories speak of particular features of the land like a kind of road map. 

Also, these stories have been immortalised in striking fashion by many Aborigine artists.  By telling and retelling these stories, the Aborigines created an aid for their memory of the exact orientation of the land, while at the same time passing on their knowledge of the landscape.  Generally, stories or fairy tales, dances or songs are ideal ways for creating images that we will remember as long as we live.  You too can use this tool for your memory.  But instead of using songs to remember a route, why not use a route that you are familiar with, like a bus or car route to work or school to help you remember everyday things, like shopping list or to-do list?  Images form not only the basis of a good memory but also serve to inspire us to greater things.  People have been using  vivid imagery and imagination successfully as memory techniques or memory training.  In addition creative use of such imagery can be used to enhanced a student’s learning and study skills.

Not many of us can make sense of our dreams and often there is no need to.  Dreams serve as a kind brain dump when neurons fire off in random fashion to help us dissipate the sheer weight of information that our senses perceived each day.  But that is not to say there is nothing of value in dreams.  Many writers and artists have been inspired through dreams.  The Scottish writer Robert Louise Stevenson (1850 to 1894) composed many of his most famous stories, such as Treasure Island and Kidnapped, from images that came to him in dreams. 

Although dreams cannot be influenced,  there are some people who are able to play a role in controlling their dreams.  Instead of non-participative bystander, such people can control dreams and thought connections.  According to psychologists, this kind of dreaming can be learnt through a structured training process.  Those who dream clearly can remember their nocturnal messages later on and can store useful notes in their personal creative database.

What can happen if, in your thoughts, you were to combine with the object at the center of a problem?  You could then start spinning ideas from this viewpoint.  Let’s take for example you are a banker and you ask yourself how it would feel to be a dollar note or a coin?  Or if you were an architect, how it would feel or how would the world around look like if you were a building or a bridge?  If this technique does not help you, you can try “bundling” your thoughts.  This technique, used for stimulating intuition, has been developed by psychologists.  Write down on a blank piece of paper, the keyword from which you want ideas to spin off.   For example, seemingly unrelated words and sentences are grouped around a central keyword, it is surprising what patterns and structures will emerge.  You can then suddenly discover where the real problem lies.

With the keyword in the centre of the paper and in a circle, let things evolve and flow and allow your thoughts to just move you along.  Write things down quickly, giving each idea its own circle until, from the centre, lines points out in all directions.  Connect each word or phrase with a line to the circle before it.  If the connection is broken when something new cannot be connected to the idea or term you thought of last, then start again with the core word.  Allow the other thoughts to emerge until your associations are exhausted.  Drawing comparisons is a key to creativity.  This is a great way for you to recognise new relations, structures and openings that can give you fresh revelations, solutions or ideas.