Your Creative Mind: The Unpredictable Collision of Thought and Circumstance

by Frosty Wooldridge 

How do ideas strike you? When do they hit? Have you heard of the phrases, “Stroke of luck… flash of insight… eureka moment?” Creativity involves anticipation mingled with uncertainty. 

For the record, ideas grow out of your brain through a simple yet complex capturing of creative energy. What mental soil allows you to become a songwriter, poet, artist or inventor? Why do some of us “pop” with ideas while others merely drink a beer while passing the time away? Have you ever heard of a “Dreamcatcher?” 

Many people feature them above their beds and on the rear-view mirror of their cars. They include a small circle made of metal, wrapped in leather and several strands like a spider’s web weaving across the center. They may feature feathers hanging from the bottom of the circle. Dreamcatchers supposedly intercept bad dreams in order to protect the person from emotional pain. 

Some say they catch ideas from out of the night. The famous balladeer, John Denver, “caught” songs with his mind while skiing down slopes, walking in the woods or riding his horse. He wrote one of his most famous songs, “Annie,” in 10 minutes while riding a ski lift in Aspen, Colorado: “You fill up my senses, like night in a forest, like the mountains in springtime, like a walk in the rain….”  One song percolated in his mind around the campfire while watching meteors blaze across the night sky. “Colorado Rocky Mountain high, I’ve seen it rainin’ fire in the sky, friends around the campfire and everybody’s high…. ” I heard him sing it at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado back in 1973. I teared-up because I shared the same campfire and meteor shower in my own wilderness meanderings. 

What creates an idea, song, poem or painting?  I discovered that your brain cells mingle with the creative energy of the outer world’s limitless source. If you choose writing, stories occur to you during your life. You live them. You read about them. You meet characters. You experience events. The longer you live, the more you acquire ideas from the fertile soil in your mind along with your experiences. 

An older writer enjoys greater data with complex plots than a young writer who lacks miles on his creative odometer. An idea equates to an unpredictable collision of thought and circumstance. Einstein maneuvered his sailboat every weekend by himself on a large lake under the sky of the entire universe. He stated that his mind absorbed the universe’s vibrational energy that coalesced with his mathematical concepts. He penned notes from the universe.

 Steven Johnson wrote, “Chance favors the connected mind.” Possibility springs when you nurture your mind with concepts gained from reading, living and doing. For the poet, Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass” inspires anyone to search through Nature for meaning, spirit and imaginative process. You may have a positive temperament, negative disposition or neutral demeanor. Each allows you to become either a Walt Disney, Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Gilbert, Nellie Bly or Stephen King. 

Ideas don’t just materialize out of thin air; they are born from a blend of knowledge, life-experiences, hunches, and chance. At their core, ideas are simply new, unexpected connections made in your brain between things you have already seen, heard, or experienced.

Whatever your fate from your personality, harness your creative juices toward fruition by “catching” ideas. Van Gogh screamed at his paintings, cut off his ear and railed at the universe. Could he help himself? They say genius carries a bit of madness with it, like Michael Jackson, Robin Williams and dozens of others who lived tortured lives. 

In the end, you may open your mind to the limitless ideas of flying around you at the most uncommon times of your life.

One lady worked the fields when poems suddenly passed through her mind.  She ran back to the house to grab a piece of paper and pen to write them down.  At one point, as the poem’s words passed through her mind, she wasn’t fast enough to write them down.  She mentally “pulled” the poem back through her mind to copy it.

Elizabeth Gilbert wrote her brilliant book on living a creative life: Big Magic—Creative Living Beyond Fear.  It’s one of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read on living a “creative life.”  She expands your mind with her original techniques.  She explodes your creative energy with easy-to-follow pointers.  This is no kidding: I have read her audio-book 40 times.  It’s THAT good!

You may use her techniques at work, play, leisure, resting, sitting on a rock by a stream, or wherever you feel the energy of the universe pulsing through your mind.  

Some say that “luck” manifests when preparation meets opportunity. Be alert! Write down those ideas in your dream catcher—and enjoy a creative life.

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