Where You're a Genius

You want to quiet the noise in your head to solidify that fragile germ of an idea ~ Dr. Jung-Beeman

Have you ever wondered where your Aha! moments come from? That's brilliant! you say. That's pure genius! This is going to be the best book ever written because I'm so darned clever! Yeah, I've been there, too.

A recent study in an article titled, A Wandering Mind Heads Straight Toward Insight, shows that our Aha! moments are more method than we think. And they come from the strangest of places - daydreaming. The truth is, most of these thoughts are genius. They're the thoughts that come about from our brain working harder than it normally does - even harder than when we're concentrating on a problem.

"People assumed that when your mind wandered it was empty," says cognitive neuroscientist Kalina Christoff at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. . . As measured by brain activity, however, "mind wandering is a much more active state than we ever imagined, much more active than during reasoning with a complex problem."

She suspects that the flypaper of an unfocused mind may trap new ideas and unexpected associations more effectively than methodical reasoning. That may create the mental framework for new ideas. "You can see regions of these networks becoming active just prior to people arriving at an insight," she says.

Talk about a relief! Because I don't know about you, but I daydream all the time. Especially about my writing and my characters and story.

One of the most important points of this article, however, was that insight comes best when the mind is positive. How you are thinking and feeling when you delve into daydreaming and those "mindless useless thoughts" has a direct correlation on how effective that daydreaming will be. And it can be effective! Think of Descartes, Newton, Archimedes.

I've noticed a lot of negativity around the blogosphere these past few weeks. I'd like to shout out that we need to STOP! It's a vicious cycle. If we're negative, our work will suffer. We will suffer. And it spreads like a disease. It obviously affects us more than we think it does.

Now put a smile on your face, gather your confidence, and head out to a field or a quiet corner today. Let your mind daydream. Get that Aha! moment you've been waiting for.


~MDA (aka Glam)