Can Too Much Information Stifle Our Gifts?

Can too much information stifle or alter your creative process? Can it negatively affect the way you work? Sometimes knowing the scientific or analytical breakdown of something that works doesn't work well for you. It all depends on what you do for work and how you access your creative process.

Some years ago I watched an interesting program on mating music and the brain. One of the participants in the research was singer-songwriter extraordinaire Sting. He agreed to an fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging).

Turns out that Sting uses both sides of his brain at the same time during his creative process. But even more impressive was that the researcher discovered a bridge of sorts existed for Sting, which allowed a back-and-forth transfer of data while he created his song in his mind.

When Sting learned of this during the after-interview, he admitted this was a tad unsettling to him. He worried that knowing this information might stifle, or at least alter the way his creative flow was always accessible to him.

Sting's response left an impression on me. And I've since questioned  my own quest for knowledge, wondering if in certain situations, we can know too much.

Walking with my friend last week left me with my own "Sting" moment.

Part of what I do for my work requires intuition of sorts. It involves dropping into my heart space and sensing from my core what is happening with the person or client I'm working with. I come from that heart-centered place because within that space there's an inner knowing.

Yes, some of what surfaces from that heart space comes from personal experience. But some of it is so much deeper than that. Not so easily explained.

It's not unusual for me to share something that not only hits the nail on the head, but hits it so strikingly that the person I'm working with has a profound physical reaction to what I'm sharing. We both do. Moments like this can be life-altering for someone. In a good way. My friend has been on the receiving end of such moments during our walks.

Last week she shared her marketing expertise with me, She cited a sales technique, analysis actually, that she teaches. The 3 P's of sales: Problem. Pain. Pleasure. Define the problem. Dig for and bring the pain to the surface. Bring pleasure to the client with your product or service.

Makes perfect sense and sounds harmless, right?

She told me that I use this scientifically proven technique when we "talk" about something she's having challenges with. Her matter-of-fact description of the 3 P's suddenly reduced my own process to something equivalent to diagnostic time and motion studies.

I now wonder if such mechanization of my process will be adversely affected as a result of having this logical information.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting I'm in the same league of creativity as Sting. I'm saying that the process I use taps into something that is greater than me individuated.

When I go deep, it's as though I have access to feelings, emotions and even information that are not mine. Sometimes it feels as though I've been downloaded with something that I absolutely must share with the person I'm talking to. The feeling is so strong within me that I feel as though my whole torso will explode if I don't share it.

It's in these moments when I do share that the profound physical reaction comes from the person or client I'm working with. We're both hit with a wave, more of a tsunami actually, that we both feel physically and emotionally.

Creativity. Intuition, Inner Knowing. When it's explained so scientifically, I wonder if we can get so stuck in our head space that it's at the expense of going into our heart space. Time will tell for me.