How you see the world affects how you shape it. Any original or imaginative thought and any creation starts with observing the world first. How we perceive the world and what we see around us is the raw material (or the fuel) for our creativity.
That is the idea at the basis of seempli. I wanted to start with practicing and improving the basic ability to observe the world, and then progress to seeing the world differently – with a twist. From that point, anything is possible.
Amazingly, this linkage between the ability to practice mindful observation and creativity has just recently started to show up in research. A research from 2014 led by Matthijs Baas in the University of Amsterdam examined the link between various aspects of mindfulness and creativity. The research showed that focus and full awareness might be surprisingly linked to poorer creativity and originality scores. At the same time, strong observation skills were linked to greater creativity, originality, and flexible thinking.
The implications of these two findings are profound. If you want to improve your creativity, one of the first steps should be to practice your observation skills, not your ability to focus. More than that, working on improving focus might have the opposite effect – a negative impact on creativity.
With seempli, improving your observation skills is both easy and fun. The ever-growing collection of seempli seeds will help you not just to look around you more often and with clearer intent, but will also trigger a different look at the world with each seed.
Try it and let me know what impact it has on how you approach challenges in your professional or your personal life. In any case, walking in the street with a smile is 100% guaranteed.
seempli you soon,
Lidor