5 ways to remove the mental blocks to creative thinking

Boosting your brain power with creative thinking can be a challenge. There are many things that can deter and distract the process. Here are just a few ideas to bust down those road blocks to creative thinking.

1. Learn to think for yourself
Often times productivity is valued over creativity. People who live or work in an environment that does not value creative thinking will most likely think only what they are told to think or what others think. When others ask you for your opinion, be as open and honest as you can.

2. Don’t be so dramatic
Watch out for those mood swings. Going from a very positive mood to a highly negative one will always block creative thinking. It’s like being a yo-yo: up one minute, down the next. It’s much better to not let your emotions get the better of you. Remember, things are rarely as good – or as bad – as you think they are.

3. Don’t be presumptuous
When you make presumptions, you are actually being lazy in your thinking. By simply not waiting to get all or enough information, you most likely will not come to the correct conclusions. There is a story of a customer who goes to the bank to cash a check. Shortly after he leaves, he returns and says: “Excuse me, I think you made a mistake.” The teller responds with “I’m sorry, but you should have counted your money before you left. There’s really nothing I can do, because once you walk away, we are no longer responsible.” The customer then says: “Oh, ok. Well then, thanks for the EXTRA 20 bucks!”. Look before you jump to conclusions.

4. Get Rid Of other lazy thinking habits.
Lazy thinking habits can be a major stumbling block to creative thinking. Try this experiment. Write down the Scottish surnames Macdonald, Macpherson, and Macdougall and ask someone to pronounce them. Now follow these with the word Machinery and see what happens. Most people are likely to mis-pronounce it. This is because we tend to think in patterns or in habitual ways. Obviously this kind of thinking can lend itself to a lack of creativity. Don’t think that, just because things happened in a certain way once before, that they will happen like that again.

5. Think Like A Child.
It has been shown that the neurological connections in a child of the age of two are often greater than those in the average adult. This is possibly because a small child has no limits to their thinking, as adults often do. If we use our brain like a child, without limits, we can actually begin to halt and reverse the brains aging process. With the right stimulus and a passion for learning, you can actually boost your brain’s ability to function more creatively.

By making some simple changes in your habitual thinking patterns, you will probably be amazed at how easy it will be to come up with some new, exciting, fresh ideas and solutions to many of life’s challenges.

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More Thoughts from Mellisa McJunkin – Health and Wellness Advocate

Question: What are you without an immune system?
Answer: You are dead.

As morbid as it may sound, it’s true. When your immune system is weak you will get sick. When your immune system completely fails you will die.

If I could show you a way to boost your Natural Killer Cells by up to 437%, would you be interested in hearing more? Of course you would.

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