Two simple steps to creative solutions.

The other day I had the pleasure of teaching my Mom an Alexander Technique lesson. The way this lesson unfolded was such a great metaphor for how we can easily turn ourselves toward creative problem-solving in our lives.

 As we face more unexpected and uncertain circumstances, knowing how to engage our creativity and find unexpected solutions is becoming increasingly important.

 Mom wanted to work on a detail of her golf swing. She was moving at her hip joints in a way she did not want to on her backswing, but she could not work out how to change this pattern.

 The lesson I taught her consisted of two clear steps that you can apply to any sort of problem or circumstance in your life where you want to find a new way.

 It is important to mention that as an AT teacher I have great expertise in understanding human movement and how our thinking influences our movement patterns. However, my Mom is a very good golfer, and I am…not. I do not have the kind of deep technical knowledge that would have allowed me to give her any specific instructions about what was happening at her hip. In fact, as the lesson began, I did not understand the problem she was having with her hip. I posit that had I been able to give some sort of specific direction and done so, the lesson would not have gone as well.

 I did two things.

 First, I addressed her overall condition. I worked with her to help her improve her general flexibility and coordination. We started standing and then worked together to help her get into her starting stance and hold her club with efficiency, doing only what is necessary to do the task at hand and eliminating unnecessary tension.

 In life, more generally, we often forget when faced with trying circumstances that we can immediately improve our ability to respond well by addressing our overall condition.

 Are you tired? Hungry? Do you need to rest? How is your anxiety? Are you frustrated or angry? We often metaphorically “tense up” when faced with problems.

 It is counterintuitive, but tools that help us relax and stay open are vital to becoming skillful problem solvers (my emotional self-care course is full of tools to help with this step). We can start by meeting our needs in the moment. Self-awareness and an ability to tend to our emotions and manage our minds are incredibly valuable and often not considered. There is a tendency to want to launch ourselves into finding solutions “out there” before we start inside, taking care of what needs to be taken care of inside us.

 Creativity demands an open mind and heart: stress and trauma narrow our perspective. One amazing element of being human is the ability to heal our trauma and manage our stress with good tools.

 My Mom is an experienced AT teacher and student, so it did not take us long for her to improve her starting point considerably. However, she was still unhappy with how her right leg and pelvis were moving on the backswing.

 So I asked her a question. Now, as a caveat for my AT friends, in an AT lesson this question is only effective in very specific circumstances, but in life, this flavor of question is widely useful. This is step number two.

 I said: “Can you show me what it would look like if your pelvis moved the way you want to?”

 And. She. Did.

 Perfectly.

 By asking that question so simply (and with authenticity, because as a non-golfer I did not totally understand what she was aiming for) I “tricked” my Mom into focusing her mind on solving the puzzle.

 And she did. Within seconds.

 Because she had everything she needed to solve the issue. She had just spent all her time focusing on what was going wrong with her swing. All it took was a reframing of the task in a solution-oriented way. She was no longer trying to fix the problem she was having, she was trying to communicate to me what she wanted to do instead.

 Do you see how by doing this she took her mind, her focus in a totally different direction? Demonstrating to ME what she wanted to do is oh so very different from being focused on what is not working, over and over again.

 Her brilliant mind was able to come up with a solution instantly.

 Had I had enough expertise to give her a pre-determined instruction, there is no way she would have moved as well. Her solution came from the inside and was perfect for her.

 We can do this in life as well. Once we are in a better condition for creative thinking, we can drop in questions that send our minds in the direction of solutions. How might this work? What would it feel like if I succeeded? I wonder what a successful project might look like? You have unlimited creativity to put together helpful questions.

 The most important thing you want to do is ask questions that spark your curiosity. Make them fun. Make them light. Make them interesting to you.

 Hold them lightly. Get a friend or coach to ask you good questions and riff on the answers. Free write. Talk into your phone. Talk to your pet.

 And then just let them go. Drop in the question, muse on it a bit, and then let it go.

 Let your deep, brilliant unconscious mind stew on the issue while you enjoy your damn life.

 Stay open to pops of insight. Write them down. Be open to whatever you come up with, even if it is nothing at all.

 You see, your mind hates open questions. It LOVES answers. It loves solving problems. So give it what it needs to do the job it loves.

 1)    Good conditions 2) Good questions.