Looking for ways to get your creative juices flowing? Perhaps it’s time to throw an imagination party
There’s an old English proverb – “great minds think alike” – paying tribute to when two people have the same eureka moment. But in reality, great minds often generate different ideas and it’s those alternative perspectives and thoughts that could be most fruitful. Brainstorming and creative meetings are commonly used in business, but have you ever considered the advantages they could hold for your personal life, too? You may already have a friend, art class, or study group you turn to for advice or as a sounding board, but what about taking this a step further and throwing your very own imagination party?
Sometimes people hit a point where they feel mentally stuck. Perhaps you’ve experienced the sensation of reaching a creative brick wall, suffered writer’s block or even just woke up one morning feeling uninspired by the coming day? For whatever reason, the creative juices don’t always flow. One fun and easy way to get your imagination firing again is to gather some friends who inspire you. Pooling skills isn’t just for boardrooms – anyone can do it.
Professor Jim Davies runs the Science of Imagination Lab at Carleton University in Ontario, Canada. He’s spent over a decade researching how the human brain comes up with different thoughts and images in the mind, and says that when people think of themselves as “not very imaginative”, they’re actually referring to their levels of creativity, which can be boosted. Creative thoughts are sparked by memories and experiences, and can also be influenced by the shared memories and experiences of others, because we don’t all work in the same way. A jazz pianist, he explains, will be creative in a completely different way to a person coming up with a microchip design. That’s why bouncing off other people can be so useful.
‘The more you experience in life, the more memories you have, which means you can start imagining other things,’
he explains. ‘Finding out about the memories and experiences of other people is something your conceptual imagination can exploit, too. We also need to engage actively, not passively. For example, listening to music is quite a passive activity,
but if you listen to music and try to imagine a music video to accompany it, that becomes an active, creative activity.
‘Brainstorming and pooling resources is brilliant for the conceptual imagination. When you introduce somebody else to a project or problem they’ll have a completely different perspective and may come up with a different solution.’
Throwing your own imagination party is simply about bringing people together to feed off each other’s energy and enthusiasm, and hopefully prompt new ideas to spark. You might make some coffee (or cocktails!), light candles, play music, or even have a theme. You could cover a table with arts materials and invite your friends to get stuck in or pose a particular challenge and ask people to come up with different solutions. Whatever you do, one thing there should be plenty of is laughter. The aim is to get people buzzing and bouncing off each other.
Hairdresser-turned-artist Nicola knows the value of an inspiring evening with friends. The 52-year-old hadn’t picked up a paintbrush since her school days when she decided to throw a spur-of-the moment art-themed birthday party for her stepdaughter Sophie. Now her paintings sell for hundreds of dollars and she was recently chosen to exhibit them on an online gallery for emerging new artists.
Nicola explains: ‘Sophie had to cancel her birthday plans at the last minute, so I dug out some old art materials and spread them on the kitchen table. The prosecco was flowing as I devised some games. We did a lucky dip, picking silly things to paint like drink bottles and items of clothing. It sounds silly but at the time it made us all laugh and it reminded me how much I enjoyed painting and being creative.
‘The next morning I came downstairs for a cup of coffee, saw the arts materials still out on the table, sat down and started to paint. I painted colourful eyes and faces, and started giving them away to my friends. Eventually I set up an art room in our spare room and things have just spiralled from there, all thanks to that creativity sparked at my impromptu painting party.’
Throwing your own imagination party is simply about bringing people together to feed off each other’s energy and enthusiasm, and hopefully prompt new ideas to spark
Researchers studying collective creativity have found that four specific activities trigger moments of group inspiration. The first step is help-seeking, where an individual recognises they have a question or problem they can’t solve on their own and reaches out to others for help. The next is help-giving, where friends or colleagues devote their time and attention to positive collaboration. When groups work in this way, seeking and giving help, creativity begins to happen spontaneously.
The third activity is known as reflective reframing, where the group pays attention to everyone’s input and uses it to refine and improve their original ideas. And the final step is reinforcement, meaning simply celebrating this type of brainstorming, which encourages creativity and innovation to flourish even more. Throwing your very own imagination party ticks all these boxes.
