BRAIN VS CREATIVITY

A few weeks ago I attended a one day acting workshop.
For the hell of it? Absolutely.
Just so that 25 year old sponge inside my skull has something new to drink up.

That Saturday morning, I nervously made my way to the acting studio.
To my surprise, the room was full of equally nervous beings, all waiting anxiously, speaking in great fear about the daunting prospect of making a fool of themselves.
That, is exactly what happened.

We were told to leave our brains behind.
When it comes to acting, the brain is useless.
If anything, it just gets in the way.
To help us get into this state of mind, we were told of the acting academy's important mantra:
"Don't think, just be. Don't think, just do".

For me, this "Don't think, just be. Don't think, just do" malarky, was something I found easy to get my head around.
It was a breath of fresh air.
Soothing my soul it made me feel wonderfully free.
I was able to lose all of my own feelings, my own emotions, views and opinions, and just let them disappear for a while; fabulous.

We had to loosen up.
This involved being pinched in the face by the instructor and losing complete control of our bodies and where our body parts were going (whacking someone else's out of control limbs).

After embarrassing and humiliating body and facial exercises, we were ready for the big stuff.

I was up first to perform.
With a partner, I had to stop this person in their tracks and seduce them by saying the letters A, B & C, repeatedly.
I had no time do think about what I was going to do.
I went straight in.
Using my body to touch theirs, my seductive voice to hold their attention, and eye contact to really move them, I successfully seduced this poor soul that was my partner for the afternoon.
It was a strange but wonderful feeling.
In that moment, it was only me and this other person.
I felt separated from the rest of the room.
I switched off from my life and everything I knew.
Suddenly I was this other person, this person that wanted another so badly.
I wanted to seduce them, so I did.
After a round of applause I felt great.
What was more interesting was watching everyone else perform.
It came clear that the more people watched others, the more they had time to think about what they would do.
This reflected in the performance.
Because they had time to think about it, the performance was staggered, it was generic and it was predictable.
What the mantra "Don't think, just be. Don't think, just do" did, was help to give raw, spontaneous performances that came across very real and more believable - capturing the entire audience.

After a remarkable day, I left on a high; over a pint, I had a moment of reflection.
It occurred to me that acting is a lot like the creative process.
You wait for that Eureka moment. That moment after searching your brain high and low, back and fourth, inside and out, you finally find that show-stopping, awe-inspiring, award-winning, gob-smacking idea that will blow away the account team, then the client, then the consumer in equal measure.
But more often than not, when you search too hard, it just doesn't come to you.
You think about it too much.
It's not until you go off, do the cleaning, hang the washing out or just nip to the shop... BAM, there it is, your subconscious has kicked in and out of nowhere, that headline you've been struggling with all day has suddenly made itself known to you.

We often let our brains take over.
Brains that know right from wrong.
It's difficult to let creativity seep through and beyond this.
Beyond the facts.
Take the brain away, and there's a world of creativity to dive into.
It sometimes just needs a break away, a walk or two from the desk, our eyes on something other than a computer screen, and for us to
"don't think, just be. Don't think, just do"
to explore what's really out there.
Outside of what our brains currently know.