Garden Gnome's 2008 Garden Adventures

5 May '08 8:47 pm

Chris-it is actually a compliment to us that you share such amazing stories !
I think we can all identify with going along to a garden centre with a specific plant in mind and coming home with the car boot full.Loved Deb's dry comment about your name on the doghouse!
I have had a thought-are you left-handed GG? You remind me of other left-handed boys who are geniuses in creativity.
It is 8.45pm here in NZ-I think Canada is about 18 hours behind us which means it is the middle of the night there ???
Dixie.

6 May '08 8:22 am

But no, Dixie. I am primarily right handed. I am ambidextrous though, so I can write the same thing with both hands at the same time or I can write the same thing with both hands with the left giving a mirror image of the right. My left isn't as experienced as my right and it shows up when hammering nails and stuff like that. Hand-eye coordination.

I'll tell you something I learned about 25 years ago. You see at the time I was building mascots with my own business. Building mascots is a very creative job and when you go to work, you have to be creative or else you can make big mistakes in design and execution of design. At first I was all right because I gave myself enough time to complete the job easily (6 weeks), but where I ran into creative problems was when I had three jobs to do at the same time. Instead of feeling creative I felt bewildered and nothing was getting done on anything and time was ticking by making anxiety increase. At the time I had no way to willingly turn on the flow of creative juices.

I found this book called "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" which in fact is a "how to draw with pencil and paper" type of book, but in the first chapter it describes how artists see in the "R Mode" and this is where creativity stems from.

The R Mode is an altered conscious way of thinking. Most people have experienced it and never knew it. I'll give you an example. Have you ever been driving on a trip, time slips by unnoticed and suddenly you are at your destination and you say, "That didn't seem so long", or have you ever gone out to your garden and got busy, next thing you know, hours have gone by and it's suppertime.

It works like this. Each person's brain is made up of two halves, the right side and the left side, joined by the cortex in the center. The unusual thing is that the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body and the left side of the brain controls the right side of the body.

The left side of the brain is calculating, remembers names and numbers, thinks in a straight line, is analytical, uniform and precise.

The right side of the brain is creative, thinks in terms of pictures, dreams, problem solves, remembers smells and shapes and faces, has no need of time, thinks in terms of fluid wavy lines, is lacadaisical, free form and fluid.

What the book did was to teach me how to turn the R Mode on whenever I want to. This was initially done by creating the ideal environment to induce the R Mode way of thinking and then consciously noticing the slight mental shift from the R+L Mode to the R Mode. Once you know how it feels then it's a matter of practice and soon you can turn the creative flow on whenever you need to or want to. To be well rested helps. Fatigue can interfere, but sometimes the body goes into the R Mode to combat tiredness. Basically, if the conditions are conducive, it's easy.

I encourage anyone who reads this to experiment with the R Mode way of thinking. Take control of your creative self.

Especially you, Dixie. You already create wonderful things. I don't know how your creative flow works for you, but if you learn this, I promise you, you will feel more creative than ever. Learn the ways of "R Mode" thinking.

Christopher

6 May '08 7:50 pm

Yes-I know the book well,Christopher.I am extremely right-brained-a visual learner. Accountancy,numbers,politicalspeak,analysing, makes me dizzy and I can't stand them.I can easily recognise another right-brained person,who are always very spiritual and sensitive as well as what you mentioned.Lewis Carroll,author of Alice in Wonderland was like that too,and Leonardo da Vinci could do mirror writing.A logical,left-brained person cannot understand a right-brained person.
I will always go to the left with hand and foot movement and circles.I paint left=handed sometimes.When teaching dyslexic chidren,I noticed that they were often left-handed and occasionally ambidextrous,and I knew that they learned with patterns,pictures,shapes,and music.
Sorry,Moosey, that I have gone off garden subjects,but I guess what I have written has shaped my life.
Dixie.

7 May '08 3:25 am

Hey Christopher!

What you don't mention is if your book explains how to turn on the left brain. Mine used to be dominant (well, well used) but now it is lost in action, presumed dead.

7 May '08 12:02 pm

I've thought about this a little too. I think of left brain activity as a capacity we've developed for problem solving and analysis. It can be very useful, but not all of life is a problem to be solved. Lots of life is just for experiencing with nothing urgent to figure out. Personal opinion: getting stuck in left brain mode is kind of like a persistant, low level panic attack.

Of course, some of the most innovative problem solving happens in the flow state (R mode?) When you've developed sufficient expertise in an area (usually requiring some left brain work) then you don't always have to analyze a problem in a formal way to find creative solutions.

This all reminds me of that "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainance" novel I read back in the 70's, Robert Pirsig I think. Anyone else read that?

10 May '08 5:38 pm

Since I am such a rebel, and refuse to fit into categories, I want to have both sides working as well as each other. I want to be both-brained. If this is not possible then I'll have to get horoscopical and be a right brained Virgo - would that work?

It's a groovy topic, though, Christopher. Dixie, your experiences with this stuff sound really interesting too!

11 May '08 1:54 am

Fascinating subject. I came across something recently, in an online car advertisement of all things, so I went searching for more information and found this explanation. (Btw interesting bit of synchronicity coming across it I thought.)

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,22535838-5012895,00.html

11 May '08 4:53 am

I've sent it off to all my colleagues and Rotary friends, and my sister and family. For me she spun clockwise alright. I couldn't see how she could possibly not. Then suddenly I had her spinning anti-clockwise. But the moment I shifted my vision of her she went back to clockwise. How does it work? Who figured it? AMAZING!!

11 May '08 5:18 am

I had the same experience as Jack. When I first saw it it very clearly spun clockwise and I couldn't imagine how it could appear otherwise. Then I started reading the info to the left of the picture and in my periferal vision I could see she was spinning counter clockwise. Again, it seemed that was the only way to see it and I couldn't make it flip back. So I closed the page and reopened it. Again it was rotating clockwise and again when I did some reading it flipped to counterclockwise. What fun.

11 May '08 6:27 pm

For me she changes direction while I'm looking at her, but I don't know why, if I TRY to see her change nothing happens but if I just watch for a while suddenly she's going the other way. It's a silhouette so there's nothing to really indicate which way she's going. The only thing that seems significant to me is the shadow of the raised leg, but even concentrating on that didn't change the effect of going one way and then the other. Maybe I need more practice. Anyway, I think I'm glad I can see her going both ways, even if I can't really control it at the moment. I hope that means I've got potential in both ways of thinking.

Garden Gnome's 2008 Garden Adventures

Great things happening

Interesting observation

Creativity

Turning on the left brain

Christopher, our metaphysical gardener.

Fascinating, MacFlax

Very cool.