How to “Eureka!” More: 4 Scientific Tips for Turbo-Charging Your Creative Breakthroughs

September 8, 2007 by Lani Voivod, Chief Scribbler.

Last fall I was in our town’s public library. An unlikely magazine cover jumped out at me.

It was the cover of the October/November 2006 issue of Scientific American Mind, and it hailed the following innards:

• “Flashes of insight in a BRAINSTORM”
• “Tap Your Creative Powers”

And the feature article…

• “AHA! The Eureka Moment” !!!!!!!

As the co-owner of Epiphanies, Inc. – a content strategy team powered by a mission, logo, and tagline that says, “A-Ha Yourself!” – such innards are priceless.

The article kicks off with Einstein flipping the concept of time and space with one of his bold flashes. Though we non-genius types may fall short of such humanity-shaking breakthroughs, we DO have mega-important insights that rock our own worlds, creative journeys, personal missions, and businesses.

As authors Buenther Knoblich and Michael Oellinger put it:

“We all know how it feels for a solution to a tough problem to suddenly appear in our mind. The chips fall into place, the lightbulb goes on - and the answer seems so obvious that we are amazed we had not noticed it sooner, which is what creates the ‘Aha!’ feeling.”

Want more breakthrough moments in your life or business? Here’s how…

SLEEP! That’s right. Cat nap, power nap, meditative shutdown, or the deep, eight-hour bed flop. Such time outs are prime playgrounds for churning ideas and problems, and restructuring them to create solutions you may have missed in the harsh light of the waking world.

GET FRUSTRATED! Often, our mightiest “Aha!” moments come after we face a challenge using our previous know-how to no avail. Our stale smarts have us running in circles, wasting time “reapplying methods we already know to be futile.” The upswing? “This mounting failure is precisely what drives us to restructure a problem. The increasingly tense stalemate initiates unconscious processes that change our mental representation of the problem…Suddenly, novel possibilities emerge.”

DUMB IT DOWN! Ever heard of “TMI”? It stands for “Too Much Information.” Ironically, TMI in your field or niche is a threat to your “Aha!” moments. When you’re steeped deep in your own info, “habitual use of familiar objects and problem-solving strategies limits the ways [you] employ them.” So while a certain level of education or experience is vital to your success, finding ways to get out of your own head is key to busting through mental blocks.

PERK UP! Wander. Meander. Break away and lift your spirits. The authors suggest a good ol’ ping pong game, or an ice cream cone - something simple that’ll boost you out of flat-lining emotions and thinking. Give your brain a break from its toils. “Plenty of research has shown that a positive attitude helps the unconscious brain look at a problem from a different angle, improving your chances of solving it.”

Remember, the best “Aha!” moments ultimately lead to the all-powerful “A-Ha!” - bold insight PLUS joy-filled action - that fertile birthing ground for novels, monuments, scripts, businesses, paradigm shifts, theories of relativity…and your next inspired creative venture.

Increase the number of “Aha!” moments in your life, and the chance for the “A-Ha!” that rocks your creative life, business, writing, and/or artistic recovery increases exponentially.

Eureka!

(c) 2007 Epiphanies, Inc.

Psst! Wanna use the above article on your own website, blog, ezine, or newsletter? Please do! Simply include this blurb with it:

As the founders of Epiphanies Inc., Lani and Allen Voivod, help lifestyle entrepreneurs and small biz dynamos “A-Ha Themselves” in fun and profitable ways. For FREE articles, tips, and strategies, sign up for their “Inciter” ezine at www.EpiphaniesInc.com!

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