Verbalizing out loud stimulates creativity
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Verbalizing out loud seems to enhance your creative output. The great German writer Goethe frequently used this technique to enhance his creative writing.
He would set up an empty chair in his room for an 'imaginary friend' to sit in. He would then have a conversation out loud describing his ideas for new plots, characters or settings for books he was working on. This process made him more aware of the subtleties of his ideas and gave them greater depth and power.
One of the core parts of Win Wenger's Image Streaming process is verbalizing out loud what you are seeing in your mind's eye. When you externalize an idea like this, and get it 'out of your head' and into the real world, it immediately becomes clearer to you. This is a form of biofeedback -- externalizing your thoughts so you can see/hear them more objectively. Wenger writes about 'the Principle of Description' in his book, The Einstein Factor (p.45). He sums it up this way:
- Describing aloud a real or imaginary object while you are observing it/imagining it, focusses your attention in such a way that you notice more and more details about it, enriching your experience of it.
- It is recommended that you verbalize your description aloud to another person or to a tape recorder, so that you can play it back afterwards and get the full feedback loop experience.
- The more sensory you make your verbalization, the better it is (for your brain!).
For all you fans of 'The Secret' out there who are busily visualizing and affirming the achievement of your goals, here's a tip to turbo-charge your success rate...
Verbalize out loud what you are visualizing!
This really enhances and locks in to your subconscious mind what you are going after. And remember Wenger's tip to keep your verbal description as sensory-rich and present tense as possible.
Labels: creativity, goethe, image streaming, win wenger
