A few weeks ago, I wrote about a study I found intriguing with some interesting findings around the brain and its function with creativity. I decided to try an experiment to unlock my creative brain.

Your brain has 2 hemispheres, left and right.  Your left hemisphere functions  with things such as logic, practicalities, reason etc. and the right is where our more creative impulses lie; creativity, imagination, dreaming, artistic leanings.  In normal day to day life we tend to use our left hemisphere most of the time and the right remains somewhat under-used (unless you are an artist of some sort or lucky enough to be left handed). Are we denying our creative brain?

Our right hand communicates towards out left hemisphere and our left hand towards our right.  The study suggested that encouraging more use of our left hand would ignite more synaptic pathways into our right hemisphere and lead to more creative thinking – which we could all do with in this day and age.

Experiment for the creative brain

I decided to give it a try by practising writing left handed, every day, for 10 minutes at a stretch for a month. My very unscientific experiment found some surprising outcomes.

I believe it did indeed unleash more creative thinking for me.  I found that, whereas I might have had to stop and think about one problem or one thing at a time the ideas started to flow with ease.  In fact they started to flow so fast and often I had a hard job keeping track.  It was like a grasshopper on speed!

Others noticed it too.  I didn’t realise at first that when I was speaking to someone, I would be verbalising ideas, thoughts, solutions as fast as they were popping into my head. They would sometimes spiral from immediately obtainable to possibilities and then eventually away into fantasy that would need a few more inventions to make reality. Those listening to me found it difficult to keep up with me and my thought-flows.

Warning, the creative brain can need controlling

I have had to make a concerted effort to rein it in.  To consciously re-introduce my left brain thinking so I can explain my ideas slowly and deliberately to those around me so they can grasp each portion before we move on to the next.  I’ve also lessened the amount of time I spend cultivating my left-handed writing to calm my excited thought processes. My creative brain needed a little more discipline.

I would therefore surmise that there is some truth in the study’s findings I read.  If not injecting you with some sudden creativity chemical I would speculate it at least breaks down blockages and opens avenues in your brain that have been under-utilised before.

Don’t just take my word for it – give it a go for yourself, after all who couldn’t do with more creative thought processes in this day and age? Try unlocking your own creative brain by writing left handed, 10 minutes per day.