Reduce Stress By Nurturing Your Creative Mind

When you thing of "creative" people, you often thing of writers, artists, composers, inventors, but the fact is that you are creative every moment of every day! Your feelings, thoughts, and actions create the life you live, and what could be more important than that?!

Living with chronic stress can sink you into a pretty deep rut. A lot of what makes something stressful is how you perceive it. It's hard to change your point of view or see a way out when you are trying to cope with a seemingly endless stream of crisis after crisis whether the problems arise at the office, at home, or both.

The article below isn't exactly about stress relief, but shows you ways to change the way you think which can go a long way to help you shift your perception and finally get out of that rut. These excellent principles may be adapted to any situation, and will go a long way to reduce stress as well as empowering you to create the healthy, stress-free life you deserve!

The picture below is of a Mind Map. See the end of the article to learn how to use this effective tool. (Click on the picture for a larger version.)

Your Creative Genius Mindset: The Essential Qualities for “Outside the Box” Thinking

By Adam Sicinski, a qualified Life Coach whose areas of specialty include accelerated learning, cognitive psychology, NLP and mind mapping principles.

To be creative, is to have the capacity to think freely, openly, without limitations or constraints about problems and challenges confronting our life reality. When we are creative, we tend to see opportunities and possibilities that we would normally filter out of our personal experience. Creativity allows us to think outside of the box, around the box and through the box in an imaginative and free flowing manner.

In today’s day and age, our ability to think creatively about our life circumstances will help us to overcome the never ending problems and challenges that a “normal enriching” life throws our way. In retrospect, there are a plethora of strategies, techniques and tools that we could utilize to enhance our creative capacity, however for many people, these methods would be futile, because creativity first begins within the mind. If our mindset isn’t aligned and tuned into the “creative thinking channel”, than we will severely struggle to find the creative answers we are so desperately searching for.

The Mindset of a Creative Genius

A Creative Genius has a certain set of qualities, beliefs, methods of talking to themselves, asking the right kinds of questions and taking strategic actions that naturally cultivate creativity within the recesses of their minds. By consistently and persistently instilling these traits into your psyche, will help you to supercharge your mind and unlock your capacity for creative thought.

The Qualities of a Creative Genius Mind

Flexibility: A Creative Genius is flexible in thought, opinion and in the decisions they make on a daily basis. Flexibility naturally encourages “outside the box” thinking which expands possibilities and opportunities.

Possibility Thinker: A Creative Genius persistently thinks about the possibilities that are available to them at any one moment in time. They fully understand that focusing on “possibilities” will expand opportunities, conversely, paying attention to “limitations” will only attract a greater array of problems into their lives.

Risk Taker: A Creative Genius fully understands that without “risk” there can be no worthwhile rewards. They therefore take risks by thinking differently, by taking chances, and by utilizing creative techniques and strategies in a unique, untried and unorthadox manner.

Focused: A Creative Genius is fully focused and locked mentally on the goals they seek to achieve. They dare not break this lock until the moment their objectives are fully realized within their physical reality.

Imaginative: A Creative Genius utilizes the full capacity of their imagination to bend the laws of reality to find the answers and opportunities they need to overcome the challenges in their life.

Dedicated: A Creative Genius is fully committed and dedicated to the outcomes and objectives they seek to achieve. They simply will not allow distractions or circumstances to push them off course. If however they do get sidetracked, than they are quick to adjust their sails to the changing winds and alter their course accordingly.

Patient: A Creative Genius realizes that creativity is a process that involves patience and careful preparation. They don’t try to force answers, instead they proactively make slight adjustments in their approach to open up new perspectives and understandings that will unlock the solutions and opportunities they have been searching for.

Proactive: A Creative Genius is constantly moving forward towards their objectives. This doesn’t mean being “action oriented” 24/7. However, it does mean focusing your body and mind on tasks and activities that keep you moving forward towards your goals consistently every single day. They always ask themselves “Is this activity taking me closer to my goals, or is it pulling me away?” The answer redirects their thinking and actions towards their creative objectives.

Courageous: A Creative Genius is courageous in action and thought. They are always willing to try new things and break the rules and boundaries limiting the average mind. And it is for this reason that the impossible becomes possible within their perspective of reality.

Independent: A Creative Genius is an independent thinker and doer. Yes, they seek other perspectives, ideas and opinions, however in the end, it is their independence that allows for the flow of unique, insightful and creative ideas.

Intuitive: A Creative Genius is a very intuitive soul. They fully understand that some answers can only be realized when they have an intuitive understanding of the world and the problem they are facing.

Persistent: A Creative Genius is fully aware if they persistent long enough over a consistent period of time, that every problem can be solved in a surprising and creative way. For this reason they bring forth a resilient attitude to every challenge confronting their reality.

Curious & Playful Nature: A Creative Genius approaches every task or activity in a curiously playful manner. Reminiscent of a child learning something new for the very first time. A Creative Genius fully appreciates that only curiosity and playfulness is able to relax their mind and bring forth its fullest creative potential.

The Indispensable Beliefs of a Creative Genius

Belief in Self: A Creative Genius has full confidence and belief in themselves and their own ability. This confidence supports every aspect of their personality, helping them to approach problems with passion and excitement.

Belief in a Higher Power: A Creative Genius isn’t necessarily religious in nature (although they can be). However, they do believe that there exists a higher power - a collective consciousness or infinite intelligence of sorts - that helps spark the creative forces within their body and mind.

Belief in Learning from every Success & Failure: A Creative Genius essentially does not distinguish between success or failure. Instead, they only acknowledge the feedback they receive from personal experience, from the environment and from others. This feedback helps them to transform their creative approach when confronted with the same circumstances in the future.

The Strategic Self-Talk of a Creative Genius

Questions: A Creative Genius constantly and persistently asks questions that are focused on expanding the possibilities of reality and on solutions that will help them overcome the problems confronting their daily life experience.

Words: A Creative Genius speaks a language

that is optimistic and naturally reflective. They see the positives of every situation and approach it in a reflective manner that expands possibilities and moves them closer to solutions.

The Proactive Actions of a Creative Genius

Proactive Learning: A Creative Genius fully understands that life is a process of constant and never ending learning and self-improvement. They are aware that the more they know, the better they will be able to think about the challenges confronting their daily reality. As a result, they constantly and persistently seek out new knowledge, feedback and ideas about the world they live in.

Process Orientation: A Creative Genius always has an end goal in mind, however they are fully focused on the intricacies of their thoughts and actions within the present moment. They understand that within every moment lies the seed of opportunity that will help them expand the way they think and approach their life circumstances.

Journaling: A Creative Genius keeps a regular record of their life experiences, learnings and questions within a journal. The simple process of jotting their thoughts down on paper, helps to expand their understanding about themselves, others and the world around them. Moreover, the act of journaling progressively guides their thoughts gently down creative channels that naturally expand the possibilities of reality.

Mind Mapping: A Creative Genius consistently uses a set of accelerated learning tools that help to build strong associations between seemingly unrelated ideas within their minds. Mind Mapping is much like an “information process puzzle” that helps to piece together, organize and expand on thoughts in surprising ways - potentially leading to dramatic and life transforming creative ideas. [The picture is a Mind Map]

These Creative qualities are very much like muscles that must be trained and built over the course of days, weeks, months and years. The more time you spend flexing these muscles and utilizing them to expand the possibilities and your understanding of reality, the stronger, more creative, effective and efficient they will become. And it is only when you have these qualities ingrained deeply within your psyche, that your true Creative Genius Capacity will finally shine through.