We were talking in a recent class about accessing the different parts of the brain in order to enhance creativity. I’m fascinated by neuropsychology and how the brain makes neural connections during the creative process.

When kids take part in playing, their neural connections expand and strengthen. Dreams are known to activate the optical centres of the brain while we are asleep.

Try playing a bit yourself by linking your right brain where your optical centres lie with your front left brain where your language centres are, so that new neural connections happen:

Close your eyes and describe out loud in as much sensory detail as you can the stream of consciousness running constantly through your mind. You can record yourself if you like or touch type fast.

Before ideas of cross linking brain hemispheres, or ‘image streaming’ (Win Wenger) existed, Joyce, Woolf and Faulkner wrote their ‘stream of consciousness’ works representing the continuous flow of sense perceptions, thoughts, feelings and memories in the human mind.

You might be surprised at the electric fizzes of creativity that happen!

Another way to link your right and left brain hemispheres is to use images for inspiration.

You could try this writing competition. The above image is from a selection of beautiful water themed images to use as triggers. You could even do it for yourself if the entry fee is too steep. Details of a similar competition here