How do you get your mind in gear?

It’s late. The deadline is tomorrow morning and you have run out of ideas. Your mind is tight and tired, you feel frustrated and you settle down to another long night of racking your brains trying to find the solution. Does that sound familiar? Do you find your self struggling to get an answer, to discover a creative solution to a problem it is your responsibility to solve? When it comes to the crunch, do you tense up and hunker down, or do you relax? When faced with an issue to resolve, do you find inspiration or do you get desperation?

You are creative, resourceful and whole

Co- active coaching holds the premise that the client is creative, resourceful and whole. This implies that the client knows the answers already, has the creative ability to come up with the ideas and has nothing to fix or put right. How is it then that the client comes to the coach in the first place? It’s a valid question and one I am asked a lot. “Surely,” the client says, “you are going to have to tell me things that I don’t already know?” And yet the role of the coach is to draw this inner knowledge and knowing out of the client, empowering them to stand alone, independent of, not reliant upon, the coach. It is through accessing the means to this wisdom that the coach’s role is paramount and to bring the client to their own realisation and transformation.

Led by the head

In my experience, and that is all it is, we are trained as a society to rely on the head, the conscious, left side of the mind, to work things out and to seek the heads of others if we cannot work it out ourselves. This is an important and essential skill. Yet there is a whole side to the mind that is less praised, less acknowledged and even less trusted, especially in the business world- the subconscious, right side of the mind. For thousands of years, philosophers, artists, poets, dancers, athletes and musicians have delved into the depths of this side of the psyche and created wonder, beauty and brilliance. Us mere mortals sit in awe and hold their skills and abilities in such high esteem yet cannot imagine ourselves capable of such feats. And yes, I do include the body in this subconscious wisdom, for the body is one of our greatest, and perhaps least appreciated, tool to provide insight in the moment.

When you access this powerful side of your mind, as well as the conscious side, you are empowered to create the life you want for your self that you would otherwise only dream of and take leaps in creativity and productivity that may propel your career and life forward in amazing ways. To have the full human experience, you can access both sides of the mind and learn to have them work in tandem, so that you are wise and knowledgeable, creative and informed, instinctive and logical, active and still, intuitive and rational.

The Power of the Subconscious

Listening to a BBC Radio 4 programme, I was reminded of a metaphor that Jonathan Haidt refers to in his book The Happiness Hypothesis that speaks of this relationship between the conscious and the subconscious. He speaks about the rider and the elephant, while the presenter of the radio programme, Meg Rosoff, refers to the horse and the rider. The rider in both is the conscious mind, small and weak in comparison to the power and size of the subconscious and primal, wild nature of the animal they ride. The skill of the rider is to work with the animal so that you get the two working together to create a smooth, powerful, relaxed and fluid relationship, in which the energy flows effortlessly and seamlessly between them. The subconscious can be an unruly creature and the conscious can be an authoritarian task- master. If this is the case, the two are going to be at logger- heads all the time. Instead, the conscious can learn to court the subconscious, to step aside and allow its beauty, power and brilliance to do the extra- ordinary.

Intuitive Voice

Meg Rosoff, well- known author, found herself having to write testimonials at the front of books that encourage people to purchase them and discovered that many books lacked a spark that she thinks has something to do with original voice. She believes that accessing that original voice comes through the intuitive, subconscious side of the mind. And so, faced with that urgent deadline that you haven’t found the answer to yet, perhaps what you are looking for is something original, unique and out of the box. You are not going to find it in the learned thinking of the conscious mind. It is going to appear in the mists and formlessness of the subconscious.

So how to access this powerful tool of creative genius? For me it is about flow. What athletes call being in “the zone”. I get there by going for a walk, having a workout, doing the gardening, watching a movie, or simply having a conversation about something totally unrelated. I may even sit quietly in a room alone, listen to music, have a shower, climb a mountain or pit my wits against some imagined adversary in a game or a book. Whatever it is, it quietens the conscious mind and allows the voice of the subconscious to be heard. Suddenly all tension goes and relaxation allows flow. Then inspiration strikes and desperation is left in the wings and a thing of the past.

You need both sides of your mind. Neither side must dominate, for different situations demand different skills. The two sides of the mind have differing talents. In our modern world where conscious mind, left brain thinking predominates, we must develop the wisdom to know when to let that part step aside and allow the subconscious to come to our aid. Co- active coaching works heavily with both sides of the mind, acknowledging that both are powerful and have different qualities. Allow the subconscious mind the starlight from time to time, most especially when the conscious mind has you stuck and thinking small. Get into the habit of practising this process, find the ways that work best for you, and then you will find a way of accessing this creative, intuitive wisdom whenever you need it, and those long desperate nights of frustration and stress will become a thing of the past.

Over to you

If you’re struggling with accessing that creative, intuitive side of your mind, why nor contact David Brown at [email protected] and arrange a free consultation in which we can explore how you can improve your creativity and productivity. You can also connect with me on Twitter at @PotentialityC and on Facebook at Potentiality Coaching.