Free your Mind in Less than 20 Minutes
Here’s a little exercise that I thought I would just blog today.
The introduction:
Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately is that when my environment is very intense, very fixed and very controversial, which is is a lot of the time. I find that my own inspired thought is very limited, I dream about things that I’ve done during the day and I only talk about things that I’ve read or talked about within 24 hours or less periods in time.
This crushes me, it truly does. I feel the need to be inspired - quirky and a bit different and gain perspective on the things around me. So I’ve become a fan of this small technique I like to use to show myself that I have a ‘real-time’ perspective on my environment.
What you will need:
A few pieces of paper
A pen or a pencil
No talent in drawing what so ever.
What you are achieving:
Through this exercise you’ll be working with the right hemisphere of your brain. Now it is a quick thing to do, but the longer you do it the better your results will be. It is a drawing exercise that exposes the key difference between your left brain and your right brain thinking.
How to do it:
Take the pencil and hold it in your drawing hand with the piece of paper ready to draw. Now choose an item on the desk/table that you think is easy enough to replicate on paper and draw it. Just draw, it doesn’t matter how terrible it is! The point is the just go with your Left brain and draw the object.
Now when you’re done, take a look at the drawing. Does it look like the object you were copying? For the vast majority of you, no it won’t.
Why not!?
I’m sure you envisioned it looking great in the drawing. But it’s not the case!
I’ll tell you why:
Your left brain has the tendency to work on a question answer basis, it will envision an object as a symbol - quickly rendering an example of what the item is, thus answering the question. “What is this object?”. It will give it a name and it will give it attributes.
When you translate these raw attributes to the paper, that’s exactly how it turns out - a vague representation of what the object actually looks like! A very left brain way of looking at things.
Now lets start again.
Get a new piece of paper.
Take a moment to think about what attributes your left brain has hastily assigned to the object. Look between the paper and the object and let these “attributes” become stale and not suitable - you want something that is more representative of the chosen object! Envision the actual scene as it is in front of you, as if it is already on the page.
You’ll probably find your left brain is now arguing with you, what is the point in staring at this object I’ve already labeled!? - Be patient.
You’ll soon start to feel you’re getting bored of the “attributes” of the object and are becoming interested in the shapes, the curves, the lighting… there is more to this figure in front of you!
As soon as you gain an interest for the shapes and the image as it exists, this is when you will start drawing. Take your time - your right brain is very free flowing so concentrate on keeping a flowing image in your mind.
Draw the image again, take your time. Examine the curves and the relative distance between this and that. Try not to use words when you’re doing it just think of it like “This is a thing and I’ll draw it the same as a thing”.
When you’re done, compare the images you’ve rendered. Is there a dramatic difference in the resemblance of the objects? I’m guessing that there is a huge difference.
Now pause and think about it: The image hasn’t changed in front of you but you’ve stepped away from this hasty and limited left brain thinking that we use to process our busy lives. You’ve gained a completely new perspective without changing anything around you!
Now if you like, reflect on this. Maybe try draw something else or instead of drawing, examine and enjoy this free flowing perspective.
This is here to make your day better.