How do you do it? I'm not talking about everyday intuition, hunches etc. But situations where your intuition is pushed to its limits, as in coming up with an idea for a movie in 5 minutes, real-time strategy etc. I realized my intuition (or perhaps creativity) has been tanking. It's still there, but not so active and powerful as it used to be.
How to train one's intuition?
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meditation. . .clearing out teh clutter in your inner self. turning down the background noise in your being. .tha tiwll free your heart and soul to focus in on other things. . other energies. .
Develop your personal interests, embrace those areas in which you excel and challenge yourself to exceed your own knowledge, and depth of understanding in these areas, you'll find your creativity soaring in the wind. Acknowledge your self, the unique qualities of the self, your natural and/or special talents or abilities, and hone those talents. Make a deliberate effort to exercise those gifts everyday in some way, whether in art, reading, writing, conversation, study, or work.
Read more: How to Develop Intuition | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2060669_develop-intuition.html#ixzz1elTRqJ1r
Read more: How to Develop Intuition | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2060669_develop-intuition.html#ixzz1elTRqJ1r
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That is true. But I think there are different levels of intuition. There is what I call the "everyday intuition", as in knowing when somebody is lying, getting hunches to do option A rather than the rational B (and turning out to be the right option) etc. This kind of intuition, as you said, just happens.
And then I think there is a kind of intuition that is tied to creativity, e.g. "pulling out" a whole poem within a split of a second, writing a movie script in a few minutes, seeing a complete system (architecture, war strategy etc.) in a lightning-fast vision. This kind of intuition is some kind of grasping the whole thing with one single, split-second thought. And the greater and more complex the system you are able to see within that flashback-second the greater it feels somehow.
And this kind of intuition is currently deprecating within me. It certainly has to do with the environment I'm currently in which favors rational thinking to intuition. One year ago, it was the other way round. And it was so exhilarating!
That aspect with the "background noise" is something I also sensed. Less distractions. I'll try it out, thank you. I know that one year ago I usually exposed myself to situations where I had to think fast and quick, usually involving the arts. That was good exercise.
This also feels right. But isn't it about "how" you understand these areas rather than "depth"? Perhaps I should move out of the environment I'm currently in.
Yes, it's depth. Because if you're not aware or knowledgeable, you won't be able to give your imagination or creative juices enough to work with. Intuition needs material or information to make sense and to create. The more you know, which allows you to develop your intuitive intellect, the more you have to work with.
Coming up with an idea for a movie in five minutes isn't intuition so much as imagination. The easiest thing to do to excercise imagination is to read fiction. A lot. A step up is telling stories, because when you tell a story you always change it subtly. And of course the best thing is to create something, a poem, a picture, a song, a short story... My niece did her mom's fingernails and every finger looks like a different kind of holiday wrapping paper. My personal favorite imagination excercise is to close my eyes and relax and pretend I'm some other creature, like a hawk or a horse or a plant even. Play hypothetical games if you can't sleep, like "What if someone from 1825 were teleported through time to today? What would I show them? How might they react?" So you are driving on the freeway and bored half to death? Imagine what conversation might happen if the guy who painted the caves in france met Picasso, or how the world might be different if Christianity hadn't spread through the Roman empire, or design your perfect retirement home.
I don't think you can train it per se, but there are probably ways you can exercise it or enable your brain to function optimally for it.
- eat foods that will keep your mind sharp (fruit, fish), sleep enough, be healthy, etc
- spend some more time in your imagination
- read up often on abstract concepts that will stretch your mind to comprehend
- soak up the fine arts
- stay open to the small bits of information around you ... I really don't think intuition is something "supernatural" ... it's a reaction that comes to a person before they are able to realize their brains have processed the clues they have around them alluding to knowledge they've already stored but can't easily access except involuntarily.
- eat foods that will keep your mind sharp (fruit, fish), sleep enough, be healthy, etc
- spend some more time in your imagination
- read up often on abstract concepts that will stretch your mind to comprehend
- soak up the fine arts
- stay open to the small bits of information around you ... I really don't think intuition is something "supernatural" ... it's a reaction that comes to a person before they are able to realize their brains have processed the clues they have around them alluding to knowledge they've already stored but can't easily access except involuntarily.
i like Carrie's and Aneirin's suggestions. feeding our minds with information related to our individual interests gives it things that it is inclined towards to pick over, mix up, and recombine in unusual or novel formations. resolving personal issues liberates our mind of the distracting static that interferes in these processes. i think.
is this about moments of "inspiration"? inspiration is such a rush but it is just the beginning of an idea which may be very flawed and needs to be worked out completely through a longer creative process. the really great work that people do only starts with inspiration and they sweat over it for countless hours afterwards. no one composes greatness in a matter of minutes. but at least the good news is that one inspiration leads to another.
is this about moments of "inspiration"? inspiration is such a rush but it is just the beginning of an idea which may be very flawed and needs to be worked out completely through a longer creative process. the really great work that people do only starts with inspiration and they sweat over it for countless hours afterwards. no one composes greatness in a matter of minutes. but at least the good news is that one inspiration leads to another.
Thanks for your input, but I have to disagree with you. The fundaments are laid within those moments and no post-fine-tuning can move it a notch higher. You can make it more coherent, more polished, and in the end a polished "lower idea" ends up being better than an unpolished "higher idea", but it can not surpass a polished "higher idea".
(And to all who didn't reply with the intent to help: Let us please cut the crap about positioning yourself as the authority on intuition. It happens in all typology forums, usually along the lines of "I'm the only Ni-dominant" or "I know the true Ni-dominants in this forum", and is nothing but cheap and petty and you only disqualify yourself in my view. Either you make it in life or you don't. No MBTI posing will correct that.)
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Exactly this. I used to have this continuously. But after I finished the arts this creative intuition (imagining the non-existent) became an analytical intuition (how society works). Basically, I moved from a field of Intuition-Feeling to Intuition-Thinking, less room for imagination.
I understand this completely. I lost some of my creative intuition when I moved into the realm of the thinker (in college/university) because then everything seemed to be about seeing things only as they are rather than what they could be. The possibilities -only what is in existence was considered reasonable, relevant, or acceptable. Anything outside of current perspectives was dismissed as too unusual or not realistic.
Of course it is more than possible to use creative intuition to solve real world problems and situations but sometimes, creative intuition is seen as too far removed from actuality, what is or can be done.
well agree with you but guess what i was getting at is that inspiration is awesome it's not the be all and end all. sometimes a creative idea that seems great in the rush of inspiration does not turn out to be worthwhile following up, or sometimes an inspiration that starts small can snowball and lead to a whole range of interrelated inspirations and a very large creative project. and while a great idea might arrive in a short space of time might take much longer to properly implement in a framework for distribution which in a lot of cases can really make or break the ultimate outcome - one critic even suggested, "the medium is the message". but maybe these reflections were off topic from your op.
and, everyone posts with intent to help!
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Get to know a situation and learn to read the signs. Memorize them and then apply for future situations. Start placing yourself into the shoes of others, whether they be animate or inanimate. Work out different methods of doing things to get the same result as if you were doing it conventionally.
Here's what I do to exercise my intuition:
Strategy games are good for exercising intuition e.g. chess, connect four, mine sweeper, age of empires 3 etc. where you need to read your opponents next move before he, she or it commences it.
Martial arts which incorporate sparring e.g. Boxing, Muay Thai, MMA etc. where you are forced to read body language, read signs and outsmart your opponent (otherwise you get hit)
Watching films and paying attention to the plot. Try reading the situation to see what comes next, ask yourself if the screenplay writer could of changed or added anything to the plot.
Acting; join your local theater club or when you watch a film or read a book try acting out how you would respond to a certain situation that the character is in, try connecting with the character and becoming the character.
Listening to philosophical debates or conversations and ask yourself; does anyone contradict themselves? what do you disagree or agree with and why? determine if the side you agree with either makes logical sense or emotional sense, how and why?
Looking at artwork, asking yourself what the artists intention was behind the piece. If you like or dislike the artwork, try working out why.
Learn to ask the question why? and search for the answer.
Here's what I do to exercise my intuition:
Strategy games are good for exercising intuition e.g. chess, connect four, mine sweeper, age of empires 3 etc. where you need to read your opponents next move before he, she or it commences it.
Martial arts which incorporate sparring e.g. Boxing, Muay Thai, MMA etc. where you are forced to read body language, read signs and outsmart your opponent (otherwise you get hit)
Watching films and paying attention to the plot. Try reading the situation to see what comes next, ask yourself if the screenplay writer could of changed or added anything to the plot.
Acting; join your local theater club or when you watch a film or read a book try acting out how you would respond to a certain situation that the character is in, try connecting with the character and becoming the character.
Listening to philosophical debates or conversations and ask yourself; does anyone contradict themselves? what do you disagree or agree with and why? determine if the side you agree with either makes logical sense or emotional sense, how and why?
Looking at artwork, asking yourself what the artists intention was behind the piece. If you like or dislike the artwork, try working out why.
Learn to ask the question why? and search for the answer.
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Yes, creative intuition can be used to solve real-world problems, but somehow for me it's just not the same as using it for "art". And I'm not specifically talking about touchy-feely art as in poetry and drama, but more technical stuff like architecture and industrial design. I'm now in social science which is mainly "intuition" and "thinking", but I miss the "feeling" and "sensing" that design offers. That's probably why I like design, it's offers a "fuller" experience by engaging all four functions in a more balanced way.