Critical Thinking and Creativity

Critical thinking and creativity go hand in hand. Critical thinking lets you look objectively at a problem, issue, object or person and take into consideration the entire picture. Creativity enables you to take that entire picture and look at it in a new way. While some may think of critical thinking as more scientific, while creative thinking is more abstract, they’re more alike than they are different.

 

The creative person is likely to be seen as an imaginative and emotional type such as artists, writers and philosophers. A critical thinker is more likely to be thought of as a scientific genius who may be skeptical and lacking in imagination and creativity. Actually, both types are masters of the thought process.

 

The reasoning process of critical thinking shows imagination to be able to proceed to the next level. Critical thinking is present in creativity by carrying the thought process further than critical thinking logic and presenting it in a creative light. Great critical thinking minds such as Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin could never have brought their inventions to light without the streaks of creative thinking that took them beyond the realm of logic.

 

Here are some attributes that are similar in both critical and creative thinkers:

 

·      Interested in exploring new possibilities.

·      Challenge assumptions and standard ways of thinking.

·      Imagining alternatives to a situation or problem.

·      Have multiple perspectives on everything.

·      Use trial and error experimentation methods.

·      Thinks about new ways of doing things.

 

The phases involved in critical and creative thinking are also similar. For example, both types of thinking are triggered by a thought or even that takes the thinking process outside the realm of common thinking.

 

Then, the thoughts are appraised and clarified, opening the door for ways to explore the thought and how to present it to others. This leads the way to developing alternative ways to think and then implementing the thinking process through inventions, writing, art or ideas.

 

Both types of thinking also require a large measure of self-confidence and the ability to think of and present multiple ways to view a situation or problem. To promote both critical and creative thinking a person should have an inquiring mind that drives them to read, to engage in out –of-the-box thinking and to try things that are outside what they would usually do to try.

 

Critical and creative thinking can complement each other by bringing new ideas and ways of thinking into your life. 

 

5 Barriers to Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is essential to using your overall experience, background, common sense and other attributes to become more aware of how your efforts for success are being spent. When you have barriers to the critical thinking process, it can seriously harm your ability to move forward.

 

When you’re aware of these barriers, you can better overcome them and focus your thinking on what’s going to move you forward rather than getting stuck behind a barrier – unable to move forward.

 

Here are five barriers that can impede the critical thinking process:

 

1.  Thinking in Black or White – Some people ignore a situation’s complexities by thinking that there’s only one way to solve a problem. The problem is placed in a category, given a label and that’s the only way that matters. Thinking in black and white comes from our need to have certainty in our lives, but it’s false logic to assume that everything is totally one way.

2.  Thinking with the Ego – Egocentrical thinking is thinking with a lack of understanding others wants and needs. It limits your thinking to only your point of view and doesn’t have room for others’ ideas. This thinking process is deeply embedded in our psyches, and it sometimes takes deliberate effort to overcome it.

3.  Social Thinking – The drone mentality of social thinking only lets us see things in the way of the popular point of view – or the way that our spouse, companions, parents and friends think. Thinking outside the box is almost impossible when you have a barrier of social thinking and it can greatly impede the critical thinking process.

4.  Authoritative Thinking – Just because someone in authority says it’s true doesn’t mean it is. You’ve likely been swayed at one time or another by political leaders who say one thing is true only to find out later that it was a lie or a misleading way of thinking. The authority could be a person, peer group, institution or anything that makes you think that they’re right because they’re in an authoritative position.

5.  Judgmental Thinking – When you judge something or someone based on moral evaluation it’s usually done in haste and based on our past in some way – such as the way we were raised, educated or other values and mores. Judgmental thinking is usually non-rational thinking and can block understanding and insight about a person or an issue.

 

It’s important that we recognize our own barriers to the critical thinking process and replace those barriers with rational and reasoned thinking and then make a concentrated effort to avoid them.

 

Smart Shaming Trend

Trends can be anything you can think of from Cotton ball diets to rainbow-colored hair. Who would have thought that smart-shaming would also be included in the latest list? What’s wrong with being “smart”? Why is smart the new target of bullies? What does it mean to be smart these days? 

 

To answer questions popping in your head right now, indeed, smart shaming is already a trend – people would often comment things like, “Yeah, always the smart one!” in bitter tongues. There are many pseudo-names you should be aware of: The Grammar-Nazi, The Honor Roll and yes – The Smart One!

 

Smart-shaming can be viewed both in a positive and negative light. Focusing on the positive, this trend may mean that with or without the shaming part, “smart” is gaining popularity and getting noticed as a great influence in ones’ whole personality. How? Check the list below: 

 

·    Being smart means you’re not just book-smart but street-smart as well. Street smart is defined as having the ability to cross the street with ease, knowing how to haggle for prices, and surviving the metro (commuting, having your own apartment, paying your bills, etc.) Hence, your chances of surviving this world are higher than most. 

·    Being smart beats out being physically attractive in the long run. How so? Because the fact is we all grow old, and no amount of serum or snail secretions can counter that. The good thing is, being smart is the opposite. Brains grow by the year, meaning, you can get smarter provided that you ‘feed’ it with worthy experiences and new learnings. 

·    Being smart makes you a cool person these days. Why so? Because you can talk about a lot of things – books, experiences, etc. and you sure are not a bore in any gathering. That’s why people would want your company.

 

The list could be longer and there are longer eBooks if you would want a more readings regarding this millennial trend.

 

Healthy Habits for Healthy Brains

The brain is an organ and of course, in order to maximize its capacity, you need to take care of it just like any other part of your body. What makes your brain stand out from the rest of your organs is its intellectual function. You use it to memorize, learn, keep memories, do daily tasks, converse with people, amongst other things. So, can you imagine how a poor-functioning brain can affect your life? It may cause havoc your relationships, your career and even your finances. Of course, nobody wishes for this to happen. So, to make sure that you have healthy brains that healthily function, here are some habits to start practicing: 

 

• Sleep at least 7 hours a night – It takes at least two days for your body to recover from an all-nighter. This means your brain needs more. Remember the time when you are so sleep-deprived that you ended up giving extra bills to the cashier at the coffee shop or said yes to a suitor and wonder about the sweet you received the following day? Healthy brains need sleep. 

• Let the sun rewire your brain – This may sound a bit crazy but there is really unseen brain activity that connects you with the sun. Not that convinced yet? Well, notice that there are rhythms, patterns, and seasons in this world you live in and that somewhat has a connection to your brain. That’s why it knows night and day, Christmas and summer. 

• Take supplements – Fish oil is healthy for your brains. Do this especially if you’re the picky one when it comes to your food. picture this: you massage a muscle when it’s overworked, you bandage a scratch, but you can’t even hold nor see your brain. Show some love then by taking in supplements that it needs for proper function. 

 

The brain is a complex organ and so will discussing it. For further readings, eBooks are available for easy access. 

 

Challenging Activities to Challenge Your Brain

Why is there a need to challenge your brain? Think of how you go to the gym, jog, swim, bike to keep your muscles at bay. Now, how could you do the same to your brain? We all know that you can’t set an appointment for a brain spa or brain massage to keep your neurons at bay. As a matter of fact, brain cells die. But they do regenerate especially when you try to help the process. So, what could you do? Keep the challenges coming with the following: 

 

·    Learn something new – whether it be a musical instrument, new craft, hobby, sport, step into something unfamiliar to you. Knitting, the sax, forest bathing, polo, etc. are some of the examples you could add into that bucket list of yours. 

·    Try some silly but effective exercises - try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand or washing your face with your left hand of you are right handed and vice versa. Dong these simple exercises sends signals to your brain that something is amiss, thus, the brainwork follows. 

·    Enroll in a class you think is interesting and also take a class you think is not – observe your reactions. Sometimes when we already have our own set of biases, the brain starts to relax as it already knows what will happen next. Now, taking a new route like enrolling in a class especially the one you think is not interesting will hint new reactions from your brain. 

·    Do physical activity habitually, religiously and daily. This is not just for your physical health but to your mental health as well. Keeping the body healthy is also keeping your brains healthy. A healthy lifestyle has a holistic effect. 

 

The “challenges” above are just part of a long list of suggested activities to challenge your brain. If you want to learn more, there are handy eBooks available for easy you easy access. 

 

Why Bother with Cognitive Skills?

First of all, what are cognitive skills? It is simply defined as an individual’s ability to process his thoughts, learn and do problem solving. What has all these got to do with your life and being smart? Well, the skills related to cognition are: logic and reasoning, memory, visual processing, etc. so as you can see, these skills are vital in your life. How so? Top employers look for the following skills: 

 

·    Ability to focus on a task and meet deadlines

·    Ability to evaluate and give solutions to problems

·    Able to work with minimal supervision

·    Ability to observe and learn from observation

·    Able to read and understand materials

 

So, if you think it’s high time for you to improve on your cognitive skills, here are baby steps you could take: 

 

·    Know your stress triggers and try to address it as soon as possible. Stressed brain means poor cognition. Also, stress affects your physical health, so it makes it hard for the brain to reach its full potential if your physical body is not healthy. 

·    Take Omega-3 supplements or fish oil. It feeds the brain. Your gray matter is made up of mostly fats, and these types of fats are its friends. You could include nuts, spinach, soybean and wheat. 

·    Never stop learning. This applies to anything from a new hobby to Spanish classes. Learning something new initiates new neuron connections. And new neuron connection means healthier brains. 

·    Focusing on the improving your cognitive skills could also make you less susceptible to diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s.

·    Make it a part of your daily habit to exercise. If you can’t hit the gym, bike or jog, then stick to simple exercise routine you could do at home. Flexing your muscles also flexes the thing inside your head. 

 

If you feel you need to dig deeper, there are a lot of eBooks in the market today that tackles the topic at a more comprehensive level. 

 

How Being Smart Also Includes EQ

EQ, otherwise known as Emotional Intelligence is a measure (through a standardized test) of one’s capability to recognize and acknowledge his emotions and that of others. As a matter of fact, it has been said that it is, at times far more important than IQ (Intelligence quotient) to survive in this world. EQ can be akin to being street-smart versus being book-smart, or IQ. It is actually EQ that will help you navigate your relationships (family, personal, and work-related), success in career (because you need to work with people, not just machines) and life in general. So, after that being said, let’s move forward and learn ways on how to further improve EQ: 

 

·    Learn how to identify the toxic people in your life and do something about it, NOW – People attract energies and sometimes, when you are being negative, you attract someone negative and then you both drown in too much negativity to the point that you are not even noticing the saturation anymore. This is not good for your EQ. You are closing doors to grow and learn. Negativity makes your brain dull since there is no room for new learning. 

·    Negative emotions are a part of life, but it doesn’t mean you have to give them a room and invite them for a stay overnight – First, let us try to identify negative emotions. It could be anger, hate, shame, sadness or jealousy. The list could be long, but the focus is not there. Of course, you are human, and you may not have the power to make yourself feel only positive emotions. There will always be times when circumstances call for negative emotions. The point is to learn how to acknowledge and let go the negative, so you may start processing the situation and be able to move forward to the positive. 

 

IQ, EQ and social intelligence goes hand in hand. These are the three important factors you need to focus on if you want to improve your intelligence and your life. 

 

Smart Brain Defined

Were there times in your life when you felt you aren’t smart enough? You know, those situations that scream someone is better than you even without effort? Have you also experienced doing an all-nighter research, practicing until your head and hands ache already, and yet, your best turned out still not the best? Now, before you get frustrated and start experiencing self-pity, understand that there is actually more than one type of intelligence. So, this explains why some people are better in this, and some are better in that. To make it clearer, here is the list: 

 

Type of Intelligence	Characteristics
Logical-Mathematical	Interest in patterns, problem-solving, strategy games and science experiments. They love math, physics, chemistry and logic like chocolate. They are usually organized and disciplined.
Linguistic	These are the ones who are comfortable expressing themselves orally or through the written word. They love writing, crossword puzzles and storytelling.
Musical	These are the composers, singers and actors. They have the ability to see and hear musical notes. It has been said that this is one amongst the rarest type of intelligence in the world.
Bodily-kinesthetic	Think of the best athletes, dancers, sewers, crafters, woodworkers, carvers in the world and you got yourself a vivid description. These are the ones who show great control over their motor skills.
Spatial	These are the ones who create and build. Animators, architects and multi-media professionals. They are experts when it comes to processing thoughts in images and pictures.
Interpersonal	Ever wondered what charisma does politicians, great leaders or CEO’s have? This type of intelligence is the answer. People who possess this type of intelligence are generally good at sensing others. They are able to speak well and influence others.
Intrapersonal	This is said to be the rarest form of intelligence. Most often, people who possess this intelligence are misunderstood as they are often shy and quiet. But, in fact, they are the ones who are aware of their actions and are self-motivated.

 

It is always a good start to understand the different types of intelligence in order to know what you are trying to improve on. 

 

Social Intelligence and Smart Brain

How are social intelligence and smart brains related? The fact is, the relationship between the two has a major impact in your life that you may not be aware of. Not improving your social intelligence may be a hindrance as to why you are also not improving some cognitive functions, no matter how hard you try. How so? First, let us define social intelligence. It is actually the ability of build and sustain relationships. Aside from that social intelligence is also the ability to navigate social environments. Since man is undeniably a social being, then social intelligence plays an important role in the success or failure of his career, family life, etc. 

 

Ever experienced wanting to say an inappropriate word in public or to your boss but ate ice cream instead? It is called social tact. Being knowledgeable in it and practicing it could save you a number of unfortunate events and plenty of toxic discourse you don’t need in your life right now. So, if you are interested in improving your social intelligence, here are areas you need to check: 

 

·    Verbal fluency and communication skills – Social intelligence means having the ability to be in a crowd and go with the flow, to hold tactful conversations and listen to others’ stories with sincerity. 

·    Effective listening skills – This is the ability to make other people comfortable sharing things with you. this could be because of the trust people have in you that you have accumulated as a reputation through the years. So, make it a point to learn how to listen without judging or gossiping. Having an attitude that we all are in different stages in our lives and respecting that as a fact could help you understand people more. 

·    Knowledge in social rules and roles - If you are not sure what this means, then you could do your own research or have handy-dandy eBooks to make it easier. Social rules are often not written, but the impact it has on your life is big. The good thing here is that, there is always a choice to learn and improve. 

 

Happy socializing!