Where do ideas come from?

Chintu: Mantu, I want to be creative. What can I do?

Mantu: For starters, find an answer to that.

What is a creative brain? In loose terms its a brain that can make many ideas. But aren't all brains thinking all the time? coming up with things every instant? Yes, but not all thoughts are usable.

Let's look at an individual idea and try to trace where does it come from and how does it come. For that let me ask you a question first. Suppose you have a square and you want to divide it into four equal parts, how will you do it? Pause here, take some time and come up with a solution.

Done? Let's proceed. Here are a few solutions to the problem.

I hope you got something like this. Here the solution isn't important but the thought process is. Rewind back a little and try to think how did you arrive at the solution? Did you build it or it just popped up? Don't worry if you couldn't figure it out this time, try the following 3 questions and observe how they are coming, i.e, how the initial idea is coming on which you are building the solution.

1. I am an odd number. Take away one letter and I become even. What number am I?

2. What's heavier? Hundred kg iron or hundred kg cotton?

3. How will you solve global warming?

I am pretty sure by now you have figured it out. The very first little idea always pops out of nothingness. At an instant, you have nothing and the next instant it's there. You can say an Idea is not created rather discovered in our mind. Then why do we call it a creative mind rather than Discovering mind? Perhaps because the discovered idea helps create something in successive times, who knows? certainly not me. 

Then won't we be able to help Chintu? Well there is a catch. Do you know how the structure of benzene was discovered? It was seen in a dream in form of a snake. Did you hear? A DREAM. So how did that work? I will explain with an analogy. Imagine you have a land, and somehow you can prepare the land in any way you like. Now imagine this land to have all the kinds of seeds of earth in it. Will they all grow? Of course not. Only those seeds will become plants for which the soil is made appropriate. You want Lavender or rose, make the soil sandy. You want magnolia, make it clay. Whatever plant you want, just tweak the soil accordingly. And if you leave the soil just like that, you will get only weeds.

Our mind is just like that. All the ideas are waiting there to germinate. You just have to prepare the soil. 

Chintu: Ok I got it, I guess. But how do I prepare the soil? 

Mantu: You just think.

Chintu: Think? I am always thinking. 

Mantu : You are just growing weeds. Think towards the thing that you want ideas for. The process of thinking itself will condition your mind, and when its ready, an Idea will pop up.