Ideate, Brainstorm, Create: Sharpen Your Creative Edge

In the book The Beautiful Mind, we read the story of John Nash, the mathematician who won the Nobel Prize for economics, some years ago. He suffered from schizophrenia for more than 30 years. The book is about the breakdown of his mental faculties, until he had a miraculously spontaneous remission; but not before suffering trauma and agonies too horrible to repeat.

The mind is so fragile; I have to treat it with great respect. Besides, it makes me aware of who and what I am; and gives me a reason for going about my business. I am careful not to take my mind for granted, because there is no guarantee that I shall keep it in the same condition, alwaysindeed, I know very little about my mind except that it is always awake and active, often against my willand I need to slow it down from time to time to keep from overheating!

When I see all the once-brilliant people struck down by Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease or some mental illnesses, it makes me thinkthere, but for the grace of God, go I. Poet laureate of India, the great Nissim Ezekiel, spent the last years of his life in a home for Alzheimer patients. The principal of our college, who was once provincial general of the Jesuits, a man renowned for his intellectual acumen and sophisticated charm, can now barely recognize his own family. He has Parkinson's disease. Iris Murdoch and Virginia Woolf took their own lives when they learned their minds were breaking down.

So, I guess the humility I am talking about is not taking our intellect for granted. Also to respect and trust the ideas we get as we go about our work and life. I think it also means realizing that sometimesperhaps, alwayswe need to turn to a higher power for our creative ideas, so we do not become intellectually arrogant. This awareness sharpens our observations and work. We put more of ourselves into our creative activities and call upon inner reserves to give our best efforts to the task at hand. Humility puts us in the right frame of mind to receive the best of what the universal consciousness wants to drop into it by way of ideas.

As a young copywriter, when I was stuck for a campaign idea, I had no qualms about sending a silent scream to heaven, Lord help me, for without you I cannot do this! And guess what? Heaven always came to my aid. I had stumbled on the first principle of ideation by sheer accident. Looking back, I believe I could have been a better copywriter, had I been more aware of the power of prayer.