9 Harnessing Your Creativity
T
HIS IS GOING TO BE A SLIGHTLY LONGER CHAPTER THAN SOME OF THE
others in this book, for the simple reason that there is a great deal
to be said about creativity and learning. For far too long, these two
concepts have been dealt with as if they were unconnected. Yet,
creativity is a key part of being a competent learner.
To help you see this, let me recap on two areas that you have
already learned about that particularly relate to your creativity: the
theory that your brain is divided into halves, and the brain’s love of
patterns.
You have already seen that there is considerable evidence that
there are two “halves” to your brain, a left and a right side. It seems
that the left-hand side is mainly responsible for language and num-
ber. It tends to process information logically. The right-hand side,
however, takes a more holistic view of information. It enjoys patterns
and is probably involved when you are thinking laterally. The right
side is, not surprisingly, seen as the more creative of the two halves.
In very general terms, women tend to be right brained and
men to be left brained. As with many findings about the brain, this
kind of generalization needs to be treated with caution. Interestingly,
it seems that the corpus callosum, the part of the brain connecting
the two halves, is slightly thicker in people whose right side of the
brain is dominant. It is a reasonable speculation to suggest that peo-
ple who realize their creativity fully are those who can use both sides
of their brain most effectively. They manage to take a whole-brained
view of the world.
Your brain’s tendency to put things into familiar patterns can
be unhelpful when you are trying to be creative. Your mind seeks to