When we want to create something, learn something new or even study a topic, our mind accesses a method to tackle what we want to learn, study or create. These are ways of thinking.
There are two ways of thinking that I will be dealing with in this blog post.
- The diffused mode
- The focused mode
This is salvador Dalí , A Surrealist and an Artist.
Dali used to have an interesting technique to help him come up with his fantastically creative Surrealist paintings. He’d relax in a chair and let his mind go free, often still vaguely thinking about what he had previously been focusing on. He’d have a key in his hand, dangling it just above the floor, and as he would slip into his dreams falling asleep, the key would fall from his hands and the clatter would wake him up, just in time so he could gather up those diffuse mode connections and ideas in his mind, and off he’d go back into the focus mode bringing with him the new connections he’d made while in the diffuse mode.
This is an example of the diffused mode thinking style! It is a more relaxed form of thinking as compared to concentrating and focusing all your attention to one particular topic. In diffused mode you let your mind, sub-conscious/ un-conscious and body provide you with all the answers.
But what does it have to do with more scientific or mathematical kinds of thinking?
Well, if you look down here, This guy was Thomas Edison, one of the most brilliant inventors ever.
According to legend, what Edison used to do was he’d sit and relax in his chair, holding ball bearings in his hand. He’d relax away letting his mind run free. Although, it would often noodle back in a much more relaxed way to what he’d been focusing on previously. When Edison would fall asleep, the ball bearings would drop and clatter to the ground just as with Dalí, and it would wake Edison up, and off he’d go with his ideas from the diffuse mode ready to take them into the focus mode and build on them.
So, the bottom line is, when you’re learning something new, especially something that’s a little more difficult, your mind needs to be able to go back and forth between the two different learning modes. You cannot be in both modes at the same time. One is a relaxed form the other is a more focused oriented form.
That’s what helps you learn effectively.
Next up! we shall discuss a technique that helps with the focused mode of thinking!
Creative Educational Ideas! 