When intuition and creativity (need to) take over
About the importance of creativity, bubble baths and long walks
I was in the bath. It had been a long day.
Well, no, it had been a normal day, but it FELT long. There had been arguments, last minute demands, indignation when requests hadn’t been granted on the spot, sulking even. You know, normal office life.
I had a knotty problem to solve. The one that had caused all the issues.
I thought about it in the office. I couldn’t talk about it to others, because they were all busy. I was left to solve it.
It is the first time I remember actively seeking out my creative brain. Letting my creativity and intuition take over.
This is what I did:
I said to myself ‘I can’t get to a solution, no matter how much I think about it. I’m going to leave it for now. It will come’.
And stopped thinking about it.
And you know what? It actually worked!
In the bath. Up to my chin in soap bubbles it came to me. The solution to the problem. Out of nowhere. After not having thought about it for hours.
I remember it so vividly precisely because it was the first time I counted on my creative brain to come up with the solution. Where I actively enrolled my creative brain and trusted it. OK, well, not before I had tried everything else first. But I did, and it delivered.
Then came the tedious task of explaining it to lots of stakeholders and getting their agreement, but THAT my logical brain could cope with.
Once the solution was clear it was obvious that it was the right one. Everyone agreed, no further arguments broke out. (Well, not about this issue anyway).
The importance of your creative brain
You see, I’ve come to appreciate my creative brain more and more over the years. Especially when I went through my own career change and felt that my well of ideas had well (ha!) and truly dried up. I felt stuck in a rut, doing the same things over and over again, without creativity, without (a need for) new ideas, but - crucially - also with NO IDEA where I was going to go next.
I see it in others too. The over-reliance on your logical brain or the influences from the outside world.
The thing is - and you’ll hear me say this over and over again - there are problems you CAN’T solve with your logical brain only.
Your logical brain is GREAT at finding and analysing data, strategising, breaking tasks down, planning, plotting your way from A to B.
What’s it’s NOT so great at? Looking at things holistically. Taking into account not just data and facts, but also less tangible things like the impact on people, emotions and - yes - what you WANT. Identifying what that B we talked about, your vision, your dream, IS.
And yes, changing your career is most definitely one of those ‘holistic’ problems.
The mysterious process of creativity
You see, the thing with creative solutions is that they are SO logical that you think ‘why didn’t I think of this before?’
But that is belittling the process that went into coming to that solution.
Because your brain is an amazing factory of connections, patterns and images. It takes information IN from a variety of sources, via different parts of your brain (and if you want to learn more about that I’d recommend you read Your Brain on Art and have a notepad and pen ready to make notes!), connects it and puts ALL of the information it receives together to come up with a holistic solution and ideas.
A lot is still unknown about how exactly the creative process in your brain works, as neuroscientists are still doing the work to figure out which parts of your brain are being stimulated during creative periods.
Now, to you it might feel that this whole creative process is at worst a load of gobbledegook (which means nonsense, but I like gobbledegook better), or at best a mysterious process that is largely down to luck or having a good day.
To be fair, it did to me too.
Until that bath. Which was - looking back, of course - the starting point for my journey into understanding creativity, the neuroscience of creativity and how to unlock your creativity.
What I’ve come to understand over time is this:
You have a logical brain, that’s great at doing all the planning, strategising etcetera. It’s largely overused, and can’t be used for intuitive decision-making, for holistic problems.
Your creative brain is sitting silently in the back, often underused, under-stimulated and undernourished. You need to cultivate and nurture your creative brain as well as make time to listen to it.
There are ways to access your creative brain. To NOT leave creativity to luck and *just* the right circumstances. Which is where I’m going next.
Ways of accessing your creative brain
Your creative brain is the quiet one in the back. The one that is being shouted over by your left brain, the logical brain.
So here are some things I KNOW work when it comes to accessing your creative brain:
Find opportunities to get quiet
Yes, a bath is great. But it doesn’t have to be a bath. It can be those ten minutes staring out of the window before you start your working day. Your shower. The five minutes before you get up, but are awake.
Find quiet. Through meditation or mindfulness, or by writing a journal. Find quiet, so you have half a chance of hearing your creative brain, hearing YOU.
Do something physical and repetitive
That sounds funny, right? But you know when you’ve got your best ideas? Yes, on a walk, or when you’re exercising, or cooking or knitting or *just* falling asleep, or cleaning the bathroom (or is that just me?). Doing something physical STOPS you thinking, stop you using your logical brain and allows your creative brain to be heard.
Nurture your creative brain
Julia Cameron (of The Artist’s Way fame) will tell you the same. For your brain to BE more creative you’ve got to be more creative, do more creative things.
BEING more creative happens when you nurture your creative brain. When you’re DOING creative things. I know this to be true.
Trust yourself
I said it earlier. When you come up with the solution to a problem, or ideas, you’ll know that it’s right. In fact, it’ll be so logical that you’ll wonder why you didn’t come up with it in the first place!
So trust yourself. Trust your gut. And trust your creative brain to come up with the solution.
Feed your brain information
I sometimes see people struggling with accessing their creativity. ‘It doesn’t work!’, they say. ‘I’m not creative’.
But your brain can only come up with solutions if it’s got the right information.
If you can’t work out a solution, DON’T start doubting your ability to come up with a creative solution. Instead ask yourself: ‘What information do I need that I currently haven’t got?’ and go and find that first.
Creative thinking techniques
Recently I’ve been reading Edward de Bono’s book Serious Creativity. His view is that we most definitely SHOULDN’T leave creativity to chance. In his book the godfather of Lateral Thinking provides us with a great number of techniques and exercises you can use to stimulate creative thinking.
What he’s saying is that you CAN be intentional about creative thinking. That you can create the circumstances in which creativity is most likely. And that there are exercises you can use to provoke your creativity.
No guarantee, granted. But there’s no guarantee with logical thinking either, right?
Do it together
Have you ever experienced this? Being in a room with people and being stimulated by the ideas you generate together? Yes? Yeah, me too. It’s great. It’s what we started doing with Ideas Club in 2023, and which we’ll start again this month! I’ll tell you all about it below.
But for now? If you need ideas, get together with friends or a team, and start generating ideas, opening up your creativity. You end up with LOTS more ideas, new insights and different perspectives AND you’ve had fun too!
So, why am I going on about this?
I believe CREATIVITY and your intuition is absolutely VITAL to resolving problems, including that of ‘what shall I do with my career and life?’
That’s one reason.
And I don’t just believe that, I KNOW that to be true.
But it’s so much more than that! Creativity is - yes - important for innovation and problem-solving, but it’s also important to DO something creative, for pleasure and for your health and wellbeing!
So it will come as no surprise to any of you that this week in my newly opened GROW membership (which follows the Positive Intelligence programme) our focus will be on Intuition and Decision-Making. On using your creative brain, in other words.
AND that this GROW membership sits within my newly opened community Change Artists, which is all about creativity.
AND that I’ve opened Ideas Club, in which we’ll learn about ONE new creative thinking technique a month AND help each other generate IDEAS (which you will have automatic access to when you sign up for a PAID subscription of this newsletter).
Creativity - in other words - is KEY to everything we do around here. And you’ll hear me talk a lot more about it throughout this year.
What do you say? You ready to get creative?
Tineke X
P.S. Creativity - no surprises there - is also woven into the fabric of my Career Freedom coaching programme. Because career change is one of those stickly holistic problems that can only be solved with your creativity and intuition.
Want to know more about how I can help you unlock YOUR creativity and get clear on what you WANT in your career (and life)? Book a free call in which we can discuss YOUR specific situation and you can ask me all your questions:
More about creativity
17 creative ways to creating IDEAS for your CAREER
Are you feeling stuck? Have you got NO ideas for what to do next in your career? In this FREE download you’ll find 17 ways to create the right environment for your BEST ideas to surface. You can find this download in the Career Freedom Starter Kit here:
GROW
This week saw the birth of my new GROW membership. Last year I ran two Positive Intelligence groups, in which I supported women in quietening their Saboteurs, growing their mental fitness and - yes - accessing their Sage (their wisdom and creativity).
The 8 week ‘bootcamp’ teaches you the operating model for mental fitness, which you can then apply in multiple different situations. And THAT’s what we’ll be doing in GROW, the ongoing membership inside my new community Change Artists.
This month’s theme: Intuition & Decision-Making
Want to know more about Positive Intelligence? Book a Saboteur Discovery Call now to find out more about how YOUR Saboteurs are keeping you stuck and about the programme:
Ideas Club
It’s HERE! Ideas Club is here!
On Wednesday 29 January at 5 pm UK time we’re back with the next iteration of Ideas Club!
So, what IS Ideas Club? In Ideas Club we generate ideas! But wait, that’s not all. And this is new: we’ll also learn ONE creative thinking technique. Together.
It’ll be interesting. It’ll be creative. It’ll be FUN!
And you’re invited! THIS is how YOU can get involved:
Sign up now by hitting the button below for your one-off workshop on the 29th, or
Subscribe to the PAID version of this newsletter and you’re guaranteed a place EVERY month in Ideas Club AND will get FREE access to my new community Change Artists
Coming?
Books
You didn’t think I would leave you without a book recommendation, did you?
Here are some:
A must-read if you want to understand how your brain experiences art and why art is not just a nice-to-have but absolutely vital to brain health.
The godfather of lateral thinking has got a LOT to say about creativity and how to provoke creativity. FULL of creative thinking techniques he then went on to teach to businesses.
Stephen Pressfield talks a LOT about resistance. How you’re going to encounter it as soon as you want to do something meaningful. Whilst the language is fairly combative (the author spent a lot of time in the armed forces), this book is widely regarded as a classic in the creativity world.
Ah, Big Magic. If you have a spare afternoon, then this is my BIG recommendation. A light-as-a-feather exploration of what creativity is. Easy to read, but still packing a punch. What else do I need to say?
Needs no further introduction. Other than to say that this is one of the books that shaped my life. And for that reason alone I’m thrilled to say that we’re back in March 2025 for another round of The Artist’s Way Group, including the (resistance against the) Morning Pages, the Artists Dates and LOTS and LOTS of creativity!
If YOU want to know when the doors open then make sure your name is on the waiting list!
That’s IT, folks. See you next week!
🔴🟡🟠
Tineke Tammes is a Career & Creativity Coach and supports professional women in making successful transitions. Besides that she is also a lifelong feminist, part-time portrait artist, never-only-read-one-book-at-any-time reader, and obsessive doodler.
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