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Pattern Interruptions for Restoring Creative Flow
Doing the same thing the same way every day can stifle our creativity, but we can interrupt those repeated patterns.
“Creativity involves breaking out of expected patterns in order to look at things in a different way.” — Edward de Bono
A sure way to stifle creativity is doing things the same way repeatedly and closing our minds to new ideas and possibilities. And yet, as human beings, we are conditioned to repeat patterns similarly.
Repeating patterns in similar ways is an evolutionary tool that in many ways has served us through time. It allows our unconscious mind to run programs and patterns automatically, so our conscious mind is free to focus on more complex tasks.
As such, because we do the same thing the same way, throughout the day, our creative flow can stagnate.
A way to alleviate this stagnation is pattern interruption. Deconditioning or Pattern interruptions are a system for diminishing or eliminating the conditioned responses or behavior patterns that you assume over time.
Some pattern interruptions to spark creative flow are: