According to research, the systems of the brain that communicate with each other effectively, sharing neural networks for exchanging information, have been identified as the “default mode network,” the “executive control network,” and the “salience network.”

Default mode network – We’re using our default mode network when we’re engaged in imagination or simply letting our mind wander — and this network is active when we’re retrieving memories.

Executive mode network – When we use our executive network, we’re making decisions and problem solving.

Salience network – The salience network is our inner editor. We use it when we decide what we’ll take note of and what we’ll ignore.

We need these three networks to function well and communicate with each other so that we can shift among daydreaming, analyzing our ideas, and discerning what is and isn’t important to explore further.

People who have weaker interconnectivity among these regions would get stuck overthinking things or imagining but not being able to build on the ideas.

Research also shows that the key brain difference between very creative people and others is having more neural connections among different systems within the brain. Highly creative people are able to activate and use these systems simultaneously, which contributes to their innovative abilities.

You can increase the brain function that will help you tap into your core creativity. Here are five strategies from my book Core Creativity: The Mindful Way to Unlock Your Creative Self to help you:

1. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness develops the area of the brain associated with self-awareness and reduces the density of the right amygdala — the part of the brain associated with immediate response to stimulation. As little as half an hour of mindfulness practice a day for eight weeks was found to measurably reduce amygdala density. Training your brain to quiet the chatter of the analytical brain and become less emotionally reactive allows a clear-headedness and an ability to steer the energy of strong emotions in a direction you choose. Anger, excitement, or despair can be transformed into a creative force.

2. Embrace a beginner’s mindset. Many highly creative artists recognize that, despite their expertise and mastery, they still have much to learn. They embrace what Buddhists call “beginner’s mind” — a willingness to approach what’s familiar with a fresh perspective, as if they knew nothing. That level of curiosity and willingness can inspire great success.

3. Promote the flow of ideas by doing nothing. Highly creative people often earn a reputation for being lazy. This can come from the times when they appear to be doing nothing. But on the contrary, they are actually doing something very important: working with the brain and their open mind state to prime themselves to experience creativity. In open mind, you enter into a space of not knowing and not doing. You experience an abiding appreciation of silence as you wait patiently for your inner wisdom and awareness to speak to you. James Taylor said in a 2015 Hemispheres magazine interview, “Given enough empty time, the songs show up… you have to be in a place where you can receive the song, more than generate it.”

4. Pay attention to dreams. Consider paying more attention to your nighttime dreams, and even priming yourself to have helpful ones. Dreams are portals into open mind and can offer ideas and insights once you’ve interpreted them. They can even lead you to achieve breakthroughs. The melody for the Beetles’ song “Yesterday” came to Paul McCartney in a dream.

5. Form a Creative Support Pod. With the rapid pace of change in the world, you are going to have to be a lifelong learner. You’ll be called on to build new skills and expand your knowledge base. If you find yourself with a problem to solve that needs a creative solution, form a Creative Support Pod. This is a group of people who want to support each other in developing new ideas, sharing resources, and overcoming challenges. Invite people with different strengths and perspectives who can help you consider ideas from other points of view as you work together to creatively solve a problem.

As you enhance your brain’s sharing of neural networks that exchange information and tap into creativity, you become better able to fire up your creative flow. With practice, you’ll continue to improve your ability to break through to your deepest state of core creativity.

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The world is changing rapidly and people and workplaces need true innovation ideas. Trying to “figure out” what to do can waste valuable time because in an ordinary state of consciousness, you end up relying on outdated formulas and patterns. When we’re in this state, it’s as if our mind’s Wi-Fi signal is too weak for the really big ideas to load. That’s when we need the strongest creative force there is, which is what I call core creativity.

Core creativity is the creativity that comes from the very center of your being – the unconscious mind. You are accessing this deep, core creativity when the ideas are flowing and you feel as if they aren’t even coming from you but from a source that is infinitely abundant. When your mind opens the portal, core creativity can download like the ultimate software program for achieving ground-breaking creative ideas.

I’ve been coaching clients and executives, treating individual patients in my Los Angeles institute, and doing workshops and presentations to the public and organizations for decades. Recently, I was speaking about mindfulness and creativity to a hundred staffers at a tech company, and I asked, “How many of you are here because you want to become more creative?” Almost everyone raised his or her hand. Then I asked, “How many of you are here so you can learn to concentrate and focus your mind?” About half raised their hand. What good is focus and concentration if you don’t know where to aim it—if you have no creative vision?

We were been taught to think that creativity is only for the chosen few—“creative types” with “an artistic temperament.” Well-meaning adults in our lives taught us to shut down our imagination and get serious about our futures very early on so we could conform to systems that were created long ago. Now those systems are changing dramatically. We’ve got people microdosing, taking very small doses of hallucinogenics to jumpstart their creativity at work.

The Beatles and Steve Jobs both took LSD, but they stopped after recognizing there were safer, more accessible pathways to the deepest creativity and this portal is within. One of those pathways is core creativity, which reconnects you with your creative self and can lead to profound, radical transformation.

The three-part core-creativity process is like an Internet connection far superior to any that has yet been experienced. Core creativity allows you to progress far beyond surface-level tinkering that comes from the limited resources of the everyday mind. The three states of this process are Open Mind, Absorbing Mind, and Generating Mind, and to access core creativity, you progress from one zone to the next.

We first access core creativity through Open Mind. This is a state of consciousness that can be thought of as the room where core creativity appears, and ideas and insights are downloaded into your consciousness. However, the big, breakthrough “aha!” doesn’t necessarily come to you the first few times you go into open mind consciousness and download core creativity. It takes a little practice and patience, but then a sense of expansiveness and vitality arises.

After entering the state of Open Mind consciousness you then transition into Absorbing Mind – a mind state of receptivity in which images, words, and ideas come to you. To be in a state of absorbing mind the self needs to be receptive to all the phenomena they are aware of during the day as well as to look, study, and analyze their dreams. For example Paul McCartney was asleep when his unconscious mind received the melody for the hit song “Yesterday” from his Absorbing Mind. To understand the creative messages from the dream state write down the dream and then free associate by journaling the feeling, texture, and/or color of it that immediately comes to your mind.

Once you have absorbed the ideas you then transition into Generating Mind. Here you’re not just “playing around with ideas” but instead enter a flow state of generating ideas and insights that seem to be channeled directly from a consciousness much wiser and a source more creative than your own. When we enter into Generating Mind we can access states of core creativity and bring forth new and original concepts or ideas.

All three of these states can be accessed through a mindfulness practice—sitting meditation and other forms of meditation such as walking meditation in nature, mantra meditation, chanting, and tai chi. They can all lead to a download, and in pouring of core creativity. For more strategies read my article 6 Steps to Ignite Your Core Creativity.

This formula for creative innovation can be adapted by anyone—whether or not they consider themselves “the creative type.” I have seen single mothers of limited means use the core creativity process to reinvent their lives. As well I’ve seen my clients through the core creativity process breathe new life into old ideas, renew success, and even go far beyond the original benchmarks that they figured could never be recreated much less surpassed.

Excerpt from “Core Creativity: The Mindful Path to Unlock Your Creative Self” by Ronald A Alexander, PhD (copyright 2022)

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As a psychotherapist in Los Angeles I see an overwhelming number of patients who are seeking to bring forth positive and wholesome actions and behaviors in this world. They desire to improve themselves, their relationships, and their businesses. They want to see a better world emerge from these troubling times. One way to achieve this is to set your intention to be a wise and mindful leader in all aspects of your life. Those whose actions come from integrity cause wonderful effects everywhere they go.

A mindful leader leads from a position of mindful awareness, or what I call mindstrength, by knowing how to respond with awareness instead of reaction and how to make everyone on their team feel recognized, affirmed and valued. Mindfulness provides you with clarity and calm in a crisis, protecting you from the temptation to panic and jump from one bad situation to another, or blame others for the crisis and avoid looking at your role in it; plus it gives you the power to change it.

A good leader has productive and respectful conversations. I call this wise speech. Often, I’ve counseled executives and other leaders who had no idea just how intimidating or disrespectful they were when speaking to employees. In a panic, they tended to respond with aggressive speech meant to frighten those around them into changing their behavior in order to placate the boss. This approach shuts down productive communication, reducing the leader’s ability to see the larger picture, make better decisions, and effectively influence his or her team. Good leaders carefully hone what they say, mindfully expressing themselves.

Mindful communication is also an extraordinary tool for problem solving. It allows you to tolerate the discomfort of confrontation with others and the embarrassment of discovering how you might have contributed to the problem. Mindfulness allows you to find your creativity and resourcefulness, so that you can approach the situation differently and perhaps transform it. It helps you to easily tap into your core creativity to solve problems and achieve goals. Effective leaders spend time daily meditating and using self-reflection to access creative mind.

So what are the differences between a wise and un-wise leader? Here are some points from the training I teach on The Art of Leadership, given by The OpenMind Training® Programe in Santa Monica, CA.

Qualities of a Wise Leader

Qualities of an Un-Wise Leader

• They can do things right but often do the wrong things right.
• They speak instead of listen.
• They operate out of fear, blame, manipulation, and intimidation.
• They over manage people with control, which leads to blockage through repetition of the same failure in conversations of action.
• They treat people as subjects vs. co-investigators.
• They need to be right and to make others wrong.
• They generate a culture of fear and anxiety.

If we were living in the time of the Buddha or Ghandi I believe they would suggest given the nature of discord, fear, and pain many are currently dealing with to take time out each and every day and to mindfully meditate on how we can actively be our own inner mindful leader. As we take time each day to become quiet and listen to the inner silence from this stillness evolves a deep and abiding wisdom. And yes, wisdom along with acceptance, grace and dignity are what we need to turn the tides of discord towards harmony and equanimity. Then and only then will we be able to rest knowing as we sit in mindful stillness when we change ourselves, we change our nation and then the planet. This is the work of the mindful leader. Are you ready to accept this task?

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A mindful leader leads from a position of mindful awareness, or what I call mindstrength, by knowing how to respond with awareness instead of reaction and how to make everyone on their team feel recognized, affirmed and valued.  Mindfulness provides you with clarity and calm in a crisis, protecting you from the temptation to panic and jump from one bad situation to another, or blame others for the crisis and avoid looking at your role in it; plus it gives you the power to change it. Mindful communication is an extraordinary tool for problem solving.  It allows you to tolerate the discomfort of confrontation with others and the embarrassment of discovering how you might have contributed to the problem. Mindfulness also allows you to find your creativity and resourcefulness, so that you can approach the situation differently and perhaps transform it. It helps you to easily tap into your core creativity to solve problems and achieve goals.

Most of us were taught that creativity comes from the thoughts and emotions of the mind. The greatest singers, dancers, painters, writers, and filmmakers recognize that the most original, and even transformative, ideas actually come from the core of our being. Core creativity emerges when we’re in a state of open-mind consciousness, which evolves from a state of consciousness called mindful inquiry.

It isn’t difficult to become a mindful leader if you are willing to make an effort to develop some type of mindfulness practice and be open to the process.  The ideal practice is to cultivate a mindfulness meditation that is done twenty minutes once or twice a day. But it’s better to start doing ten minutes once a day than aiming for the overall goal and then feeling overwhelmed by it and falling short.

Other ways to becoming a mindful leader is to develop your own type of meditation practice. Meditation allows us to listen and pay attention to what we might otherwise overlook—whether it’s a fresh idea or a new way of perceiving a situation—enhancing our creativity and letting go of our obstacles to innovation.  I encourage my clients to take a five to ten minute break in the middle of their day to mediate so they can clear their head and tap into their core creativity.  You can also access this creativity by exploring the arts, walking in nature and through mindful movement such as martial arts, tai chi and yoga.  Some of the most creative thinkers spent a great deal of unstructured time in nature in their formative years. It appears that many artists, philosophers, leaders, and thinkers throughout time have intuitively used mindful awareness to further their inner development.

As one learns to build their mindfulness practice, and applies the principal of developing a witnessing mind over time a more effective mindful leader.  A leader with strong mindstrength is one that can put into daily practice the principles of responsibility meaning the ability to respond with clarity and awareness and accountability, the capacity to take care of what needs to be done and to report to others with self Reflexivity.  With a little effort one can quickly learn to focus, harness and direct the unruly and untamed aspects of the mind and learn to direct them with clarity, order and positivity.

Excerpts from the Wise & Mindful Leader Presentation at Inside Edge Business Meeting

Ronald A. Alexander, PhD, MFT, SEP (Somatic Experiencing Practitioner) is a psychotherapist, leadership coach, and clinical trainer in the fields of Somatic Trauma Healing Therapies, Mindfulness Meditation, Transformational Leadership and Core Creativity. As the Executive Director of the OpenMind Training® Institute he draws upon his extensive, pioneering background in Holistic Health, Behavioral Medicine, Positive and Self Psychology, Gestalt Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Ericksonian Mind-Body Healing Therapies and Eastern Wisdom Traditions. He is the author of the widely acclaimed book Wise Mind, Open Mind that provides practical and innovative applications to help us through today’s challenging times plus two meditation CDs. Alexander has been conducting national & international workshops and professional clinical trainings that support strategies of personal, clinical and corporate excellence in the USA, Europe, Canada, Russia, Asia & Australia since 1972.

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I asked if I could interrupt and work with them for a few minutes. By taking 12 minutes to practice what was once an ancient meditation practice but is now very mainstream we applied the basic principles of intention setting the mind on a positive outcome coupled with focusing on the breath. After about fifteen minutes the group entered what I call in my book Wise Mind, Open Mind the practice of mindful meditative inquiry and it didn’t take long for the group to recognize that they were all experiencing similar fears and concerns. They realized that they all saw the core problem and wanted to solve it, whereas before, all they perceived was a power struggle—each one determined to win. Now the marketing team was able to find common ground and get to the heart of what had worked for this recording artist in the past. This time I noticed “no” was used approximately16 times and “YES” was the predominate word of choice. They finally worked out a solution that the star agreed to and soon after the new marketing push, the recording shot to the top of the charts.

Whenever we’re facing an unpleasant or alarming situation, we’re likely to become anxious and try to figure out what we can do instead of becoming quiet and seeking new ideas or revisiting what worked in the past. We quickly make a decision about our course and focus on getting others to agree to go along with the program. This desire to take control can lead to great suffering.

Twenty five hundred years ago the Buddha understood how to accept the impermanent nature of things, stop clinging and grasping, and let go of the need to control the situation that one can find themselves in. He developed an eightfold path of wise view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration to find balance between acceptance and doing what needs to be done to positively affect your circumstances. Here is a brief synopsis of these strategies from my book, Wise Mind, Open Mind where I give additional practical advice on accepting change.

The Eightfold Path to Letting Go of the Need to Control

First Path: Wise View

In wise view, you recognize that it’s not your job, nor is it in your power, to control what happens outside of you. You understand that instead, you can only control what happens within your own mind.

Second Path: Wise Intention

To exercise wise intention, you must be mindful of any propensity toward allowing your fear to rule you. When operating from a primitive, fearful state, everything seems to be a threat to survival, and the mind begins to justify actions it otherwise would recognize as domineering and manipulative.

Third Path: Wise Speech

The greater our facility with language, the more tempting it can be to try to control situations through our words. Insults and sarcasm can intimidate others. Gossip and left-handed compliments are also common weapons in the arsenal of one who doesn’t exercise wise speech.

Fourth Path: Wise Action

Wise action means not acting in controlling, manipulative, or coercive ways. It means not being vengeful, regardless of how badly you’ve been hurt. The thirst for revenge comes from clinging to the past and to the lost opportunity to prevent suffering. People can obsess over what they should’ve done differently, and sometimes that obsession turns into vengefulness as they try to “right” a wrong.

Fifth Path: Wise Livelihood

Livelihood refers not just to what you do for a living but your purpose, which weaves meaning into every action. Whatever you spend your time doing, whatever it is that gives you a sense of purpose, Buddhist tradition says that you must do it mindfully, giving it the focus and effort it deserves.

Sixth Path: Wise Effort

To exercise wise effort is to focus and discipline your mind to align it with your wise intention. It’s very easy to resort to controlling behavior in a difficult situation, even if you intend not to. Wise effort requires letting go of what no longer works and engaging in courageous new actions that leads to transformation.

Seventh Path: Wise Mindfulness

Mindfulness is what grounds you in the present so that when you start to drift off into obsessing about the past, or start making plans to wrest control of a situation, you instead stop and look deeply at your negative and controlling patterns. Being fully focused on what’s happening in the moment, experiencing your unwholesome and painful feelings, requires what I call “mindstrength,” the ability to very quickly and easily shift out of a reactive mode and become fully present in the moment.

Eighth Path: Wise Concentration

By exercising wise concentration, you remain present in your awareness of a situation exactly as it is, and instead of being reactive, you’ll find that you suddenly know how to respond to it in a wholesome, productive way. You’ll be able to focus on what’s going on inside you instead of what’s going on outside of you.

So take a deep breath inhale and exhale, set your mind on what you wish, and await a more positive outcome. Enjoy your day with mindfulness!

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The idea of cause and effect has been discussed and debated throughout the ages. Cause is an emanation point. It is the source. It is the point in space where something originates. Effect is the receipt point. It receives a flow of some kind and is affected by it. The mark of a wise and mindful leader is his or her ability to extend an intention into space and become CAUSE.

If one was to look back in history at all the truly great leaders that attempted in some way to improve conditions in their sector or zone of influence, they share this common quality of causation. George Washington was a cause point over the army of Lord Cornwallis. In the sixteenth century, Martin Luther was a cause point over the Catholic Church and its abuses at the time. Rosa Parks was a cause point over the discriminatory policies of the Montgomery bus system. Siddartha Gautama was a cause point over his own mind and became The Buddha. These individuals were great because they were not the effect of their environment but stepped outside it to be the cause of change.

An overwhelming majority of us are seeking to bring forth positive and wholesome actions and behaviors in this world. We desire to improve ourselves, our relationships and our businesses. We want to see a better world emerge from these troubling times. One way to achieve this is to set your intention to be a wise and mindful leader in all aspects of your life. Those whose actions come from integrity cause wonderful effects everywhere they go.

A mindful leader leads from a position of mindful awareness, or mindstrength, by knowing how to respond from awareness instead of reaction and how to make everyone on their team feel recognized, affirmed and valued. Mindfulness provides you with clarity and calm in a crisis, protecting you from the temptation to panic and jump from one bad situation to another or to blame others for the crisis and avoid looking at your role in it. Plus it gives you the power to change it.

Mindful communication is an extraordinary tool for problem solving. It allows you to tolerate the discomfort of confrontation with others and the embarrassment of discovering how you might have contributed to the problem. Mindfulness also allows you to find your creativity and resourcefulness, so that you can approach the situation differently and perhaps transform it. It helps you to easily tap into your core creativity to solve problems and achieve goals.

Most of us were taught that creativity comes from the thoughts and emotions of the mind. The greatest singers, dancers, painters, writers and filmmakers recognize that the most original, and even transformative, ideas actually come from the core of our being. Core creativity emerges when we’re in a state of open-mind consciousness, which evolves from a state of consciousness called mindful inquiry.

It isn’t difficult to become a mindful leader if you are willing to make an effort to develop some type of mindfulness practice and be open to the process. One very effective way is through meditation, as it allows us to listen and pay attention to what we might otherwise overlook–whether it’s a fresh idea or a new way of perceiving a situation, or enhancing our creativity and letting go of our obstacles to innovation. Just taking a five to ten minute break in the middle of your day to mediate can allow you to clear your head and tap into your core creativity. Many artists, philosophers, leaders and thinkers throughout time have intuitively used mindful awareness to further their inner development.

Through mindfulness you learn to have a more Zen way of looking at the world, knowing that anything you cause is an energy flow emanating from the core of your being. You realize what you are doing and take responsibility for the effects you create. If we all tried to be more mindful, the world will be a better place in short order. So set your mind on what you want and direct it with power and positive strength.

Ronald Alexander, Ph.D. is the author of the widely acclaimed book, Wise Mind, Open Mind: Finding Purpose and Meaning in Times of Crisis, Loss, and Change. He is the director of the OpenMind Training® Institute, practices mindfulness-based mind-body psychotherapy and leadership coaching in Santa Monica, CA, for individuals and corporate clients. He has taught personal and clinical training groups for professionals in Integral Psychotherapy, Ericksonian mind-body healing therapies, mindfulness meditation, and positive psychology nationally and internationally since 1970. (www.openmindtraining.com)

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