Creativity Exercise: Take it from Martha Beck

As part of "My Year of Less," I've been getting rid of clutter, including old magazines, which I cut up for collage art. When I got to the November 2009 O magazine, I had to stop cutting to read a great article by Martha Beck, complete with a creativity exercise. So ... take out a clean sheet of paper and:

1. Write your name.
2. Do it in mirror writing -- make it look essentially the same, but write it from right to left, rather than left to right. (Oooh. I feel brain cells coming to life just trying to figure out that sentence.)
3. Write it upside down.
4. Write it backwards and upside down.
5. (Her exercise didn't include this, but: For good measure, write it with your non-dominant hand.)
   
6. Repeat daily.
   

Beck reminds us that using the right side of your brain on creative activities "thickens the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve fibers like the rubber coating on electrical wires. The thicker the myelin sheath around a neural pathway, the more easily and effectively we use it."

In other words, doodling your name can do more than amuse you.* It can strengthen your creative thought process. So do do doodle it today.

*Although, if all it did was amuse you, I'd be happy. Because I'm easily amused.