Are The People Who Get Distracted The Most Creative The Most?
” Birds in the head and fly … where the windows are always open ” says a beautiful song by Ismael Serrano.
Have they ever told you that you are always with your head in the clouds and not with your feet on the ground? Then it may be that one of your skills is creativity.
Usually people who are not careful or who wander with their imaginations are defined as unproductive, unintelligent or unable to achieve success.
Since we are children, we are required to stay focused on what the teacher or our parents says. When we grow up, we punish ourselves if we waste more than 5 minutes thinking about the future or our dreams.
Did you know that the most famous artists and scientists in history had “problems” with concentration? We are talking about renowned personalities such as Picasso, Monet, Darwin and Einstein. Indeed, it seems that distraction and creation go hand in hand.
This has been the subject of Harvard University study for a long time. The conclusion we have reached is that having more than one idea buzzing in our head helps us to understand certain phenomena more easily and quickly, as well as being able to find an immediate and valid answer to our questions.
The constant coming and going of information in the mind fosters creativity. Chances are you have the ability to solve problems more efficiently.
“Everything distracts me”
Perhaps it will seem like the confession of someone who goes to a psychologist or who is undergoing a treatment to try to abandon an addiction.
We usually think of being distracted as something negative, when in reality it is a reaction of the brain to rest, to stop doing something it does not like, to want to move forward in other aspects, etc.
Those who have the problem (or the ability) to get distracted even when a fly passes by, may blame the neurons in the brain’s superior parietal lobe. It seems in fact that the more distraction there is in our life, the more gray matter we have in the brain.
Researchers still don’t understand what happens in these cases; theories suggested that having more neurons could be helpful in maintaining concentration and attention, and not the other way around.
One of the hypotheses recently analyzed argues that, as the brain matures, some neurons and nerve connections are destroyed. This process helps control attention. Following this idea, those who have the most gray matter in their brains are the most distracted and “childish” people.
It is also worth pointing out that it is possible to go through periods of greater or less distraction as a result of new projects, anxiety, stress, fatigue or nervousness. However, when someone is naturally distracted, it is more than a temporary lack of concentration. Regardless of the circumstances, they will always be distracted.
The strange connection between distraction and creativity
While our culture and education urge us to always stay focused and alert, this is not always possible. We are neither robots nor machines. Creativity often goes hand in hand with distraction.
How is it possible?
According to a recent study, those who cannot stay focused on a task have more “escapes” of sensory filters, that is, the barriers that allow us to isolate ourselves from everything that happens around us when undertaking a certain task. They have the ability to detect nearby stimuli, but they discard them to help us not be distracted.
While it’s true that these escapes compromise your ability to concentrate, they also allow you to piece together ideas and apply them to a project, a key aspect of being a creative person.
Distractions can arise wherever we are and come into contact with each of our senses, especially hearing, sight and smell.
Have they ever told you that your head is in the clouds or that you live on the moon? Good for you then! This is a compliment and not a criticism, if you know how to take advantage of it.
