I decided to shake up my world a little by letting one of my women’s magazine subscriptions lapse. I wanted to subscribe to something different. Instead of More I signed up for Scientific American Mind. I haven’t regretted my decision. The information the May/June edition was interesting and varied: an examination of free will; a discussion of the difference between left and right handed people, and another on the limits of our understanding of mental illness.
Two additional articles on the mind when it rests were particularly fascinating. A growing body of research suggests that creativity is linked to a relaxed mind rather than to one that is alert. Alert brains help us focus on thoughts relevant to the task at hand, suppressing all others. But a sleepy brain is less focused and allows unrelated information to flow together. Like a pallet of watercolors dropped into a pond, ideas are allowed to blend and form new associations.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s swore he wrote “Kubla Khan” as the aftermath of a dream. My novella, “Marie Eau-Claire” came to me in the same way. Almost anyone can recount some “aha” moment that followed good night’s sleep. Happily for us all, another old wives’ tale rings true. If you have a problem, sleep on it.
( Courtesy of www.moniquespassion.com)
