How to set yourself up for that ah-hah creative breakthrough

Author Jonah Lehrer wants to give people a toolkit to hit those ah-hah moments in his book “Imagine: How Creativity Works.” (Image: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)

That ah-hah moment where you come up with a new idea often
seems like it comes from out of nowhere, but a new book
says all those ideas come from one place, and there are
things we can do to make ourselves more likely to flip on
the light bulb.

“It feels like magic. It feels like something
otherworldly,” said Jonah Lehrer, author of “Imagine: How
Creativity Works.” “But it turns out there is nothing
magical about it.”

Lehrer told 97.3 KIRO FM’s Ross and Burbank Show that
all of our ideas come from “these three pounds of
electrical meat inside our head.”

“One thing I wanted to do in this book is to show people
that it’s not quite as mysterious, as magical as we’ve
long assumed. Creativity really is a universal human
trait. The human mind is a connection machine. That means
we can all get better at it.”

He said surveys show people start doubting their creative
abilities as they age.

“You ask second graders, ‘Are you creative?’ 95 percent
say, ‘Yes,’ I love to paint and draw and write short
stories,” said Lehrer. “But you ask fifth graders and
you’re down to about 50 percent. You ask high school
seniors and you’re down to about 5 percent that think
they’re creative.”

Lehrer said the science is clear that creativity is a
universal human trait, but it’s something “we kill very
efficiently during the school years.”

Inhibitions also stunt our creativity, but Lehrer said we
can learn to get around it. He said scientists found that
when called upon to improvise, jazz musicians,
professionals trained in creativity and improvisation,
actually turn off those inhibiting signals from the brain.

“They turn off a part of the brain called the Dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex, a blob of brain just behind your
forehead. This is a part of the brain closely associated
with impulse control, so it keeps us from saying stupid
stuff, from eating too much ice cream […] but it also
gets in the way of our creativity,” said Lehrer. “When
you’re trying to write in a funny voice, or trying to come
up with a new jazz melody onstage, you want to get rid of
that voice.”

He said shutting down those signals allow people to create
without worrying about creating.

Relaxation is also an important requirement for that novel
idea moment, Lehrer said.

“Scientists have found that you can predict pretty
accurately whether or not people are going to have a
moment of insight, to solve these difficult creative
problems in the lab, depending on how relaxed they are,”
said Lehrer. “Unless they are in a state of relaxation,
they won’t be able to hear that insight.”

He said taking a drink might help.

“Just last month, a study came out that said when you get
undergraduates too drunk to drive, so more than a little
tipsy, but legally drunk, that they actually solve 30
percent more of these creative problems,” said Lehrer.

Marijuana might help too. “Marijuana does increase
divergent thinking, according to the latest lab research.”

Lehrer said that ah-hah moment is just the beginning of
the creative process; there are other components that also
play a role.

“Sometimes we need to go through edit after edit. After
you write your columns, you probably don’t want to turn
them in straight after a bout of drinking. You probably
want to read them in the morning.”

Where coffee and heavy concentration might hinder someone
in finding the ah-hah, Lehrer said when applied to the
latter part of the process, it can be a help. Recognizing
what point you’re at in the process and what conditions
you need to foster its progression is important to
improving your creativity.

“I think we can do a better job of making sure we’re
thinking in the right way, depending on the kind of
creative problem we’re trying to solve,” said Lehrer.
“I’m trying to give people a tool kit to, number one,
diagnose their creative problem, and then say ‘well should
I be going for a hike right now? Should I be trying to
relax myself? Or should I be having a cup of coffee?'”

Jonah Lehrer will be presenting his book “Imagine: How
Creativity Works,” at Town Hall Seattle
on Monday at 7:30 p.m.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor