Can you remember a class that taught you how to get creative or how to think? Teachers took it for granted that either you could think or not, in the latter case there was not much they could do for you. But not unlike any skill, we need to know how it works and practice a lot. Thinking can be learned and improved upon. But then we have to retrace first. Because, have you been taught how to learn? Chances are slim that you have. It was left to you to figure that one out as well. If you were lucky, your teachers used the same learning and communicating strategy as you did (most people in the west are visually oriented). So, you could get something from them in an unconscious way. You were quite out of luck if you had a different representation system from your teachers.

The three main systems are :

                                        Visual, auditory and kinesthetic (feelings). Apply an unsuited system to a certain task and the results are not what they could have been. Many people who are labeled dyslectic are highly creative but apply a wrong representation system to f.i. spelling. If one uses the auditory representation system to sound out how words are spelled phonetically, there is little hope of a sensible output. Even the word 'phonetically' cannot be spelled phonetically. In comes the aid of the visual representation system. Make a picture of the word and spelling becomes easy. Observe the eyes of the one who spells. Going to the side means s/he is addressing the auditory system. The eyes should move up, that is where the visual system is.

The right tools

A couple of years ago, I was for three months in Nicaragua. At one place where I was staying, the woman who tended the place had two daughters, about 9 and 11 years old. I noticed that they were always about, so I asked about their school. "Yes, they should go again", but it was not said wholeheartedly by their mother.
So after dinner I started to play some games with them, with the intention to find out where they were at and to help them a little. I soon found out that the spelling of the two girls was quite weak, especially of the oldest. Then I looked at her eyes while she tried to spell a word. First they went sideways and then down. So what happened, she tried to sound out the word and spell it and then went down to her kinesthetic representation system to feel if this was correct. She used everything but the correct system. I then started to teach her the eye movements upwards and asked her mother to keep practicing with her.

I hope she did.

Put in the time

We need to use the right tools and we need to put in the time. Nobody reaches top level in anything without a lot of hours devoted to it. There is no shortcut. But if you use the wrong or insufficient tools, the road becomes endless. CreActivity gives you an edge, but you still need to put in the hours.

The good news is, that practice speeds things up. And it's universally applicable. Learn something here, apply it also elsewhere.

In my own life, I notice that my memory gets worse, especially my short term memory, but on the other hand, I truly get the feeling that I get smarter every day. I can make connections more easily, apply stuff from here in another field, come up with many new ideas. This is such a thrill and such a different view on life than is the normal view, where people as they get older, go down in their capacities. Yes it is true for physical strength. I do not have the stamina that I used to have, but on a mental level, it is better than ever.

                                                                 And tomorrow it will be even better.