Here's some excerpts from an email conversation I had with a friend today.
I think this is the same thing that improv trains us to do- or at least the aim of all that training and practice.
Forwarded conversation
Subject: Chill Out: The Key to Insight is Relaxation
------------------------
From: ----
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 2:19 AM
New Yorker magazine has a great piece about how insight works in the brain.
Jonah Lerher, author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist, explores what happens
in the brain when revelations, insights and new ideas are triggered. The key
finding is that insight comes easiest when we¹re relaxed and not focused on
the details.
From the New Yorker article:
Kounios tells a story about an expert Zen mediator who took part in one
of the C.R.A. insight experiments. At first, the mediator couldn¹t solve any
of the insight problems. ³This Zen guy went through thirty or so of the
verbal puzzles and just drew a blank,² Kounios said. ³He was used to being
very focused, but you can¹t solve these problems if you¹re too focused.²
Then, just as he was about to give up, he started solving one puzzle after
another, until, by the end of the experiment, he was getting them all right.
It was an unprecedented streak. ³Normally, people don¹t get better as the
task goes along,² Kounios said. ³If anything, they get a little bored.²
Kounios believes that the dramatic improvement of the Zen mediator came from
his paradoxical ability to focus on not being focused, so that he could pay
attention to those remote associations in the right hemisphere. ³He had the
cognitive control to let go,² Kounios said. ³He became an insight machine.²
----------
From: Heather Fink
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 9:46 AM
To: ----
I love that you sent this! It's so true and has been expressed in other ways:
Hegel said "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk" Minerva is
wisdom, and he is saying that wisdom comes at the last second, like
when you are trying to get to bed and all the sudden ideas come out -
or how things come to you at the last minute ...
Deepak Chopra:
Here's a newsweek article about his philosophy on non-seriousness:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/58790/page/2
And here's the quote that I like:
"If you're serious about anything, there is no enlightenment. The key
to enlightenment is non-seriousness. The very word means "lighten up."
If you're very serious and stressed about your golf game, you're going
to ruin it. And that's exactly the way life is."
----------
From: Heather Fink
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 9:47 AM
To: ---
PS - I think this is how improv comedy works and what it trains you to do.
----------
From: ---
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:36 AM
To: Heather Fink
100% agree
----------
From: ----
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 2:30 PM
To: Heather Fink
I love that- thanks for sending
I find it to be quite true...whenever you have to come up w a funny slogan
or a sharp visual, or well, anything on command (outside the emotional
spectrum), I find it quite difficult...ive trained myself over the years,
but for true creativity, it comes from offhanded inspiration that fires
subconsciously.
I think this is the same thing that improv trains us to do- or at least the aim of all that training and practice.
Forwarded conversation
Subject: Chill Out: The Key to Insight is Relaxation
------------------------
From: ----
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 2:19 AM
New Yorker magazine has a great piece about how insight works in the brain.
Jonah Lerher, author of Proust Was a Neuroscientist, explores what happens
in the brain when revelations, insights and new ideas are triggered. The key
finding is that insight comes easiest when we¹re relaxed and not focused on
the details.
From the New Yorker article:
Kounios tells a story about an expert Zen mediator who took part in one
of the C.R.A. insight experiments. At first, the mediator couldn¹t solve any
of the insight problems. ³This Zen guy went through thirty or so of the
verbal puzzles and just drew a blank,² Kounios said. ³He was used to being
very focused, but you can¹t solve these problems if you¹re too focused.²
Then, just as he was about to give up, he started solving one puzzle after
another, until, by the end of the experiment, he was getting them all right.
It was an unprecedented streak. ³Normally, people don¹t get better as the
task goes along,² Kounios said. ³If anything, they get a little bored.²
Kounios believes that the dramatic improvement of the Zen mediator came from
his paradoxical ability to focus on not being focused, so that he could pay
attention to those remote associations in the right hemisphere. ³He had the
cognitive control to let go,² Kounios said. ³He became an insight machine.²
----------
From: Heather Fink
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 9:46 AM
To: ----
I love that you sent this! It's so true and has been expressed in other ways:
Hegel said "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings at dusk" Minerva is
wisdom, and he is saying that wisdom comes at the last second, like
when you are trying to get to bed and all the sudden ideas come out -
or how things come to you at the last minute ...
Deepak Chopra:
Here's a newsweek article about his philosophy on non-seriousness:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/58790/page/2
And here's the quote that I like:
"If you're serious about anything, there is no enlightenment. The key
to enlightenment is non-seriousness. The very word means "lighten up."
If you're very serious and stressed about your golf game, you're going
to ruin it. And that's exactly the way life is."
----------
From: Heather Fink
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 9:47 AM
To: ---
PS - I think this is how improv comedy works and what it trains you to do.
----------
From: ---
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 10:36 AM
To: Heather Fink
100% agree
----------
From: ----
Date: Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 2:30 PM
To: Heather Fink
I love that- thanks for sending
I find it to be quite true...whenever you have to come up w a funny slogan
or a sharp visual, or well, anything on command (outside the emotional
spectrum), I find it quite difficult...ive trained myself over the years,
but for true creativity, it comes from offhanded inspiration that fires
subconsciously.
