THE CALM BEFORE THE CREATIVE BY JORDYN ZAHORANSKY

When I started to practice brainstorming, I always struggled with silencing my voice of

judgment. I realized this is for several reasons, including always having been told to

follow certain rules and always being told there are specific ways of doing things.

Another factor, when I start to brainstorm, is the anxieties of the day prevent me from

achieving the quantity or novelty of ideas I aspire to attain. I learned in ESP 252 if I

could silence my voice of judgement, I could double my efficiency and creativity.

Recently, I have been incorporating an exercise before I brainstorm in order to calm

down and clear my head. I had a yoga instructor that always started class with a head-

clearing exercise. For two minutes, we would silently reflect on our day. Then, for three

minutes, we focused on clearing our minds. She would suggest painting your mind the

color white, as to imagine your brain as a blank canvas. She told us this exercise would

help us open our minds after stress-induced days. Exercises such as this allow me to

stop focusing on normalized and unoriginal thoughts and allow me to seek novelty and

quantity of ideas.

This exercise helps me clear my head before brainstorming, which allows me to silence

my VOJ while ideating. I want to use my silenced VOJ to take better risks.

What do you do to help silence your VOJ?