As I started mindfulness for myself and my children, one area always bothered me. What is the impact of mindfulness on the creative thinking process. Its a well known fact that the key aspect of the creative thinking process is "divergent thinking". Divergent thinking often flourishes in an environment of mind wandering and that is the direct anti-thesis of a mindful existence. So does mindfulness leads to creativity? Let us understand what creativity is? Most scientists defi

When I imagine childhood, I think Calvin and Hobbes. I imagine flights of imagination, constant expression, adventure and a thrill of exploring the world in my own brain. I imagine Charlie Brown and Snoopy and the endlessness of their free time which is unaccounted for. I imagine staring at the stars and the clouds and wondering what my next flight in space will look like. And yet, this is not how the childhood of our children looks like. There is tennis, there is piano, ther

We are in the 3rd day of creativity and today we are doing a group activity to build not only our creative storytelling skills but also our lateral thinking skills. Story telling is the backbone of any creative communication. Writing a story typically means defining characters, creating a plot and ending it effectively. In today's activity we are going to write a story but not alone but as a team. Creativity works differently when its collaborative. You can do this activity a

Day 2 of creativity is an interesting exercise to stretch your limits. Do it as a family and let your imagination go wild. Exercise: Ever been in a zoo and seen two animals looking at each other or looking back at you or seemingly in a conversation with each other. Did you wonder what they could be speaking about? Have you ever tried understanding their expressions? Wondered what could they be saying about you? Today let's put words in these animals mouth. Take the following

One of the primary methods of maintaining creative fire is to unleash that poet within. You can do this exercise as a family. Your first day of creativity is all about creating a haiku. What is a haiku? A haiku is a form of poetry that follows these simple rules: 3 lines Line 1: 5 syllables Line 2: 7 syllables Line 3: 5 syllables The 5-7-5 is the only rule. The poem doesn't have to rhyme. Your task on Day 1 is to create a haiku on the following 5 subjects: Breakfast The best

Children are a box of creativity. Its because the patterns in their minds are still forming and they haven't yet developed the "disability" to look at things from previous experiences. Here are a 3 things I learnt about creativity from my children: 1) There is no specific time for creativity: Aahaan churns out creativity in almost every single bite of his food, that is when he not obsessed with the idiot box. His bread often looks like a boot or an alphabet. His milk are the

As I was scolding my daughter for getting a bad grade in Science, I suddenly stepped back and stopped. My daughter's not big on loosing. It's particularly noticeable in group play. When she is doing an activity where she thinks she might not win, she just drops out of that activity. Its as if when she hears the dark clouds of failing, she winces and she backs off. She won't publicly display a new skill, until she has practiced it and is sure her performance will ooze out per

This is an important message for parents and teachers. Movement and free play is what underlines creativity. It's important to engage with your whole body, whole brain, and whole self. At the age of 3, my son's favorite playtime activity is to play with cars and putting them on top of each other, as if its a sort of garage. This is simply creativity at work. While he understands the concept of a garage, he is also trying to study balance by placing the cars on top of each ot

I have a riddle for you: Everyone has some, but wants more, and some people think they have less than others do. What is it? I’ll give you a hint: Albert Einstein and children have this in common. Okay one more hint: Some people find it in the shower. The answer? CREATIVITY. There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono Creati