Your Brain’s Hidden Superpower: Creative Thinking for Daily Wins

As a scientist, I've been taught to think logically and analytically - narrowing down multiple options to find the one best solution to a problem. This is called convergent thinking because all ideas converge to a single solution. It really doesn't lend itself to much creativity, but it got the experiments done and I wrote the thesis.

I'm happy to say that I now devote half of my time to creative thinking, which I find to be just as challenging as it is enjoyable.

If you want to really challenge your brain effectively, try thinking outside the box - and by that I mean Divergent Thinking. In contrast to convergent thinking, this involves expanding your thought process outward, or thinking laterally, to generate multiple possibilities and solutions for a single problem. By shifting your perspective on existing information, the resulting solutions can be surprisingly original, opening the door to creativity you probably thought you didn't have. Ever notice how some people (like event planners) can instantly pivot when something suddenly goes sideways and come up with a brilliant solution? They're the ones who have mastered divergent thinking.  

What is Divergent Thinking? 

Divergent thinking exercises force your brain to engage in cognitive processes such as building unusual chains of associations, transforming information in unlikely ways, and constructing unexpected analogies.  

When you allow yourself to practice this type of spontaneous, creative and free-flowing thinking, you're incorporating multiple different brain regions that are associated with memory retrieval, semantic processing and cognitive flexibility, all of which are excellent ways to help preserve cognition.  

Because the commercialized brain games (such as Lumosity) have not shown any clear benefit for improving memory and cognition (they tend to only make you better at the specific task you're performing) divergent thinking exercises are gaining traction as a possible strategy for slowing age-related cognitive decline and reducing the risk of dementia. 

Divergent thinking strongly relies on something called semantic memory, which refers to your general knowledge about the world, including facts, concepts and meanings of words. (This can be contrasted with episodic memory, which refers to your recall of specific events.) 

Although cognitive abilities can decline with age,

semantic memory tends to remain intact. 

Why Thinking Differently Works, Especially When Life Gets Messy

Creative divergent thinking requires you to retrieve information from your semantic memory, allowing you to exercise your cognitive flexibility to transform these memories into new concepts. Studies are beginning to uncover how this type of mental exercise is great for older adults. Incorporating this type of daily exercise is a way to promote mental health and active aging, and thereby reducing the risk of dementia. Divergent thinking may also be beneficial for slowing the cognitive decline that accompanies neurodegenerative diseases. High creative cognition in older adults has also been associated with a greater cognitive reserve, leading to higher confidence in one’s cognition and a tendency to develop healthier coping mechanisms. The authors say: "The ability to harness creative cognition and improve upon any shortcomings in creativity in aging would represent an area for enhancing daily living in older adults."

The more you can exercise your brain, the better. It truly is like going to the gym and building your muscles, but instead you're building what's called cognitive reserve. Working your brain builds new connections between different brain regions and strengthens existing connections. This means that you increase your capacity to compensate for, or even overcome, the normal cognitive decline during aging! 

But how do you practice this type of thinking?  

It's easy...read on! 

In the 1960s a counselor and high school teacher named E. P. Torrance wanted to understand why some of his students were struggling. What resulted from his sensitivity to their needs was the establishment of one of the most well-known tests for divergent creative thinking: The Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT). Originally developed for educators to evaluate the students' creativity in order to assess where they needed help, the TTCT allowed students to build the skills they'd need to navigate a complex world: Creativity, Critical thinking, Collaboration, and Communication – the 4 Cs.  

Think Like a Genius: Unlock Creative Solutions to Everyday Problems

Below are a few of the exercises of the TTCT that you can incorporate into your daily routine. Practicing these tasks in your adult years is great for stimulating new neural pathways that are so important for maintaining brain plasticity. In only 10 – 15 minutes per day, you can start using your brain in a much more creative way!  

The exercises will feel like work, but that's because you're giving your brain a proper workout! You'll enjoy them once you start remembering what it was like to be a kid again with unlimited creative potential.  

IMPOSSIBILITIES TASK  

Remember the Apollo 13 problem? An oxygen tank ruptured, which depleted the astronauts' drinking water supply and increased carbon dioxide in the air they were breathing. Mission control had the impossible problem of improvising a solution using only the materials the astronauts had on board.  

Try this: Practice overcoming limitations by asking yourself questions like: "How would I repair my grandkid's broken toy using only the items in this kitchen?" Go ahead and push your boundaries and challenge yourself to think outside the box. 

UNUSUAL USES TASK 

You may think you couldn't MacGyver your way out of a wet paper bag, but you'd be surprised at the ideas you come up with when you free-flow.  

Try this: Grab any household object, whether it's a drinking glass or a piece of furniture. Give yourself 2 minutes to come up with 10 different uses for the object.  Be as imaginative as you can, incorporating different senses such as vision, sound, touch and smell. 

IMPROVEMENT TASK 

Ever been frustrated when something doesn't work as it should? Expand your thought process to overcome common problems. 

Try this:  Similar to the Unusual Uses Task, grab any object and think of ways you could improve it. It doesn't matter whether it's even possible to make the change, just come up with some wild ideas. 

JUST SUPPOSE TASK 

This one is actually fun because it's so imaginative.  

Try this: Come up with some improbable situations, like being invisible, or a world without government, or suddenly losing ½ the Earth's gravity. Think of as many benefits and negative consequences as you can for each situation. Now think of some more! The possibilities are endless. 

Once you've gotten the hang of looking for different uses of everyday objects, try doing it while you're driving or walking.  

💡What could be other uses for that mailbox, the stop sign, the garden hose?  

💡You see a scene of a recent fender-bender...try to come up with 5 different ways it could have happened.  

In today's fast-paced world, it's also helpful to be able to pivot. 

Imagine a big party you've planned in the past, or one you're planning in the future. Now imagine what you'd do if: 

🔆 The bakery mis-spelled the name on the cake when they deliver it an hour ahead. 

🔆 Your oven stops working when the roast is only half cooked. 

🔆 A guest hijacks the upbeat dinner party by telling one depressing story after another. 

🔆 The venue you chose 6 months ago double-booked themselves and you discover the day before that you need to find another place in 24 hours.  

By practicing this type of thinking daily, you'll find that you're spontaneously seeing things in a different light, and maybe even coming up with some unusual and exciting solutions to common problems around your home or work.  

People tend to feel happier and more fulfilled when they are doing, or have done, something creative. Use these exercises to generate ideas for creating something uniquely your own, or to simply pass time in an enjoyable and hugely beneficial way. With these daily exercises, you're not only expanding your creative boundaries, but you're also building that all-important cognitive reserve to help delay age-related cognitive decline. 

Futurist Alvin Toffler insightfully observed, "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." Divergent thinking is precisely this mental flexibility in action! 

I'd love to hear some of your creative solutions.  

Email them to me and I'll publish them in my next Newsletter!