Finding a Natural Flow

Part of the Creative Writing Process Series

Photo by Aleksandr Neplokhov from Pexels

In our previous article, we learned by doing something different, our brain could access a different region as we relaxed, offering us a way to solve our problem. Often, we perceive creativity as something we need to access. The research shows this is not the case! Let’s look at an example from space.

Taking a shower offered NASA a solution with the Hubble telescope. R. Keith Sawyer, author of Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation told this story in a Time Magazine interview:

“In 1990 a team of NASA scientists was trying to fix the distorted lenses in the Hubble telescope, which was already in orbit. An expert in optics suggested that tiny inversely distorted mirrors could correct the images, but nobody could figure out how to fit them into the hard-to-reach space inside. Then engineer Jim Crocker, taking a shower in a German hotel, noticed the European-style showerhead mounted on adjustable rods. He realized the Hubble's little m…