When was the last time you had time to ponder a curiosity or seemingly unimportant fact?  Our lives are crazy busy with work, family, chores, and oh, not to mention the pandemic!  It leaves little time for our minds to be free to explore new ideas, ponder existing dilemmas, or rehash a concept for which you still have not stumbled upon a reasonable solution.  Taking time for yourself may seem unimportant given the current state of the world and our nation, but it is necessary for your sanity and personal growth.   

If you don’t make time to allow your thoughts to run free and your creativity to go wild and uninhibited, how will you ever explore new concepts beyond your comfortable day-to-day world?  

Finding the space and time to allow free thought can be challenging, but when you build time into your routine, you might be surprised at what you will find buried in your subconscious. The key to achieving this creative state of mind is to find a moment in your day when you are uninterrupted and able to allow your physical self to do a task or activity that keeps it busy while you let your subconscious mind explore new thoughts and ideas.  For example, do you really need to actively think about what you are doing when you take a shower in the morning?  Probably not. You have taken enough showers in your life to be on autopilot.  This is a great time to practice creative thinking and let your mind run free with random thoughts until you come across one you would like to explore more deeply and with more focus.  For me, running is another great example of a time when I don’t need my mind to actively drive my physical activity.

How to find the time.

All too often, I find myself busy with work, my daughter, making dinner, cleaning the house, doing outdoor chores, and the list goes on.  Rather than freeing my mind, these tasks keep me busy but unable to focus on anything creative and new. Even when I am driving, I find myself deep in thought about the day ahead or the day I am leaving behind.  This type of active thinking is useful information in the moment and engages my conscious mind in a purposeful and meaningful way, but lacks space for creative thought.   

When was the last time you were able to really clear your mind of the day’s business, when you just let everything go and your mind was quiet? When was the last time you noticed the environment around you, and you were present in the exact moment?  Clearing your mind is difficult to do for many people.  The practice of meditation is popular for this very reason. It is a method of calming your busy mind and being present in the moment.  I don’t know about you, but I have failed miserably at any attempts to meditate in the past.  As soon as the room is quiet, my brain thinks it’s the perfect time to fill my head with random thoughts and solve any outstanding issues from the day.
 

What’s the solution? Create an escape for your mind and body.

It isn’t until I can create an escape for my mind that I can finally move from the busy conscious mind, to that of a free, creative, uninhibited mind.  For me, the easiest way to achieve this state is to go for a long run and let the run become a form of meditation.  For all those non-runners out there about to stop reading, I believe that you can find this same mental freedom in something you love in your life just by applying the concept. I will only use running as an example. Feel free to apply this method to anything you can do where conscious concentration is not fully necessary. Other examples include hiking, walking the dog, fishing, elliptical training, and gardening. The list of possibilities is endless – as long as you enjoy whatever you are doing and can do it without conscious thought. 

So let us begin our “RUN.”  First things first, you have to get out of bed, and you have to commit to going. Some days just getting started is the hardest part.  This is important; there are many days that I don’t feel like running, especially in the cold or rain, but there is never a day that I regret going.   

You will never regret committing time to create space for your mind to be free.   

The next step, start “running.”  The first mile is always the hardest as my lungs scream at me and my body adjusts. I often find myself thinking, “Why am I doing this to myself?”  By the end of the second mile my body is quietly finding its pace and settling into a rhythm and my mind is no longer busy thinking about the physical task at hand.  Now my mind shifts to the tangible tasks that are occupying my conscious mind.  This goes on until my physical body begins to tire and my mind comes back to thinking about the physical task of running.  PERFECT.  Now the conscious mind has something to occupy it; it has a job that keeps it busy and doesn’t involve active thinking.   

Let the fun begin.  I begin listening to the sounds around me and tune in to my surroundings – the sound of my breath, the chirping birds, taking note of the changing leaves on the path in front of me.  It’s at this point my creative mind is ready to work. I’ve pushed past the physical and mental barriers.   

Sometimes I come prepared with something I want to explore, like an idea for my next article or a big picture challenge in which I seek solutions.  Other times, I let my mind guide me and explore the random thoughts that come into my head.  The goal is to think about these topics in an exploratory, inquisitive, and creative way.  I let my mind go free and introduce “what if” thoughts, following my thoughts down this path until they are complete and then do it again with a different thought path.  It’s almost like one of those choose-your-own-adventure stories we read as children.  Before long my phone reminds me I have been running for an hour and my time is up and I have to slowly come back to my conscious mind and get on with my day.  I may solve world peace on my run or in my mind during my morning shower, but the real challenge is implementing the ideas and turning those uninhibited, free-thinking thoughts into real tangible actions.   

Turn thoughts into actions.  

I find writing down my thoughts or sharing them with a colleague when I arrive at work to be an effective way to capture the ideas before they get lost in the busy shuffle of the day. 

Be intentional. I practice incorporating free or creative thinking into my schedule. You must be intentional about creating the space for this type of thinking. Otherwise, it simply won’t happen. Before long, you are just going through your day managing tasks, putting out fires, and checking the boxes.  My best ideas and most creative solutions have always come from when I am doing an activity that I enjoy, which allows me not to be stressed and in a frame of mind conducive to free thinking.   

Pay it forward. 

Be mindful that this practice is not just important for you, but for those on teams around you.  When was the last time you created a meeting environment that was fun for your executives where they had the opportunity for fun, free, and creative thinking? Build creative thinking activities into your schedule and create a space for your team to incorporate their own as well. You will be amazed at how much creativity can come out of this opportunity, and how giving your team permission to dream and explore may change their approach to their work and strategic plans.