THE PRINCIPLE

Balance between the hemispheres of your brain encourages calmness and creativity

Although the actual division isn’t this neat, in general the left side of the brain is responsible for logic and linear thinking, while the right side is responsible for creativity and intuition. Certain physical actions are believed to be able to encourage better integration between the hemispheres, resulting in a greater state of emotional balance and creativity.

One such exercise, proposed by Hawkeen Training (www.navaching.com), is ‘mind juggling’. Don’t worry, you don’t need circus-level skills – you use only one ball, like a tennis ball. Here’s how you do it:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands out in front of you as though you’re holding a tray.
• Toss the ball from one hand to the other, looking towards the ceiling and then closing your eyes.
• Keep throwing the ball, letting it go about 4–6 inches high, at the rate of about once a second. If you drop the ball, just pick it up and resume.
• Keep going for about 10 minutes. When it feels easy, throw the ball higher or move your hands further apart so that there continues to be a bit of challenge to the process.

An even easier exercise is ‘cross crawls’. To do it, stand and raise your right leg, bending at the knee, and bring your left hand over and touch the right knee. Then lower the right leg, raise the left leg, and touch it with your right hand. Basically you will be marching in place, touching each knee with the alternate hand. A few minutes should be enough, and to make it more challenging you can speed up the pace.

When you find yourself in a dull state of mind, try one or both of these and notice the difference (and ignore the weird looks you get from the other people in your office).

Website bonus

At www.CreativityNowOnline.com, click on the ‘Creativity Now!’ button. Bonus 8 is a video showing you how to do these two exercises and a couple of others.