Are you a conductor for creativity, passion and innovation? Creativity is a process, in which both hemispheres are absolutely necessary. Due to synergy a whole will emerge that is more than the sum of its parts. Here is an outline for this creative process.

• First, diverge, come up with as many ideas as possible. Quantity will lead to quality here.
• After this converge; select the best ideas to combine, develop and iterate on.

See the infographic below which shows how this is connected to your hemispheres.

As childeren we naturally live like this, in a constant state of flow.

"FLOW is way of life in which you are completely surrendered to what you are doing. You constantly let go and therefore life flows effortlessly. According to FLOW researcher Mihaly Csikszentminaly this allows for the spontaneous occurence of creativity and bliss in life. This flow of life cannot be controlled. You can only manage how you react to it (or not)."   - translated from LERENLOSLATEN.COM written by Jan Bommerez.

Every state of non-flow is due to an unbalance between both hemispheres. Traditionally education has been focused toward developing the left hemisphere; which is all about facts, text and details. This hemisphere can be seen as a closed system. It is absolutely neccessary for converging, it’s ability to divide things up.

Yet we do not only have this divisive mind, there is also a right hemisphere which is an open system, that connects to the intuition of the heart and specializes in imagination. That’s how new ideas, inspiration comes to us.

"Scientific breakthroughs have little to do with intellect. There is always a leap of consciousness which you could label as intuition. The solution just comes to you without knowing how or why." - Albert Einstein.

The right hempisphere specializes in seeing the whole, thinking in images. As opposed to the left hemisphere (text) it specializes and understands context. Let’s now make it pratical to see how two parts work together. The content of a phrase can be the same, yet its meaning very different:

• Now tell me how I can help you, please because I am dying to make your dreams come true.
• Now check out this short scene from ‘Coyote Ugly’.

  The right hemisphere decodes the sarcasm that you cannot make up from only text. Therefore you need both hemispheres to combine text and context in order to decode what someone means. Both hemispheres are absolutely neccessary. In order to function properly as a human being you need a balanced brain. This allows you to flow with life effortlessly. Therefore you need to be open, so the flow of life can work for you. This means you become a conductor for this flow of life.

We could also call this tao. Yet the tao that can be named is not the tao. Text is also a form. Text points to something, but can never be that which it points to. Just like the word apple points to an actual apple, but it can never BE the apple. Just like in our language we confuse ‘I feel angry’ with ‘I am angry’. What we often do is confuse the two. That is to say confuse form with the formless. Yet the formless, the tao, doesn’t have a form. The essence of what you are doesn’t have a form. The trick is to be in touch with both worlds, the form and formless. The only way to be open to this formless dimension is within, connected to your heart, to live without jugdement.  Inspiration comes to you from this dimension.

As a conductor inspiration will come to you easily. Resistance is the opposite of conducting. If you can give up your inner resistance you will become a conductor for creativity. More on this can be found here. This is similar to electrical resitance in materials.

"The electrical resistance of an object is a measure of its opposition to the flow of electric current. The inverse quantity is electrical conductance, and is the ease with which an electric current passes." Source: Wikipedia.org 

However this is something we don’t really learn in our education. This is due to a focus on more left brain abilities, mainly a heritage from the industrial age, even in most schools today. For more on this see Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind, Jill Bolte Taylor’s Stroke of Insight and Seth Godin’s Stop Stealing dreams.

Being creative on your own can be very valuable but in a group it’s a whole new game. Remember the Beatles? Alone they were quite good, but together they were magical. This is synergy. The power of synergy will increase enormously in groups. For this a nurturing environment is neccessary, a certain kind of culture. An ideal culture could be named ‘passionate’. See the model below for an overview of emotional states in a culture and to understand how reactivity, proactivity and creativity relate to each other as well as an open and more closed culture.

Proactivity is the key to get to a creative culture. This means taking responsibility for your own behaviour. Let’s Wonder Why Not.

Gratitude is owed to Jan Bommerez and Jill Bolte Taylor for their insights. See Jan’s book ‘Flow and peak performance’ or Jill’s book ‘My Stroke of insight.’

This graphic is created by Anne Nabuurs, Harm van den Wijngaard and Martijn Derksen with thanks to Fontys and FEC. This is a followup to the previously created MoNaTISA model. This name of this model is MoNa2ISA, which stands for: Mother Nature 2 Inspire Societies Aspirations.

Note: To summarize: The mind divides, the heart unites. It is the function of the left hemisphere (mind) to divide. Thus people only living in their minds are very divisive. You do not need to get rid of this as this mind helps you have continuity in your life. Luckily we also have a right hemisphere that is connected to the heart. The heart is connected with the flow of life when you open up yourself to it, by having no judgements. Decisions made from the heart will always benefit the whole. Hence the phrase: The mind divides, the heart unites. The heart is instantly connected with everything, faster than any computer ever will. This is why to listen to and follow your heart is great advice. Trust the flow/tao/universe, it always wants the best for you. Also non-violent communication helps you to express yourself from the heart. Please see this link.

Open up to everything you can be just enter the mystery.