STRETCH!!

Oh those wonderful screens! In an instant, click, and we open to the world. Facetime, Hangouts, Skype, Zoom … one minute we are virtually dining with family in Spain, the next learning guitar with a friend in Ohio, the next getting sexy with someone in Chicago. We can be everywhere! And yet, everywhere lives in a little rectangle.

That precious little square or rectangle that we crowd toward in order to reach out is registered by our brain as a little window. The crowding in and hunching over is registered by our bodies as small, diminished, confined. Our periphery is lost. The sounds and happenings in our own environment mute.

In short, we put ourselves in a box.

No matter how much the world opens to us via screen time, our emotional selves and physical selves are registering reduction, contraction. This is not only a big deal when most of us right now are meant to stay inside – a condition which already creates a feeling of small, bordered, space – it’s a big deal when it comes to creativity and problem solving.

One of the number one tips from social psychology and cognitive linguistics is that metaphor is an embodied experience. If I feel and say that I am “in a box” I literally assess myself as smaller than I actually am, register lower on problem solving tasks, and so on. If I STRETCH I assess my height as even taller than I physically am when measured, I am more willing to take risks, and I score higher on problem solving and creativity tasks. Borrowing from this, many corporate creativity retreats begin with an hour of simple stretches, as a yoga class.

STRETCHING puts our bodies into places previously unexplored. When we stretch we move beyond boundaries set for ourselves. Stretch and we explore, sending fingers and toes into new areas. Stretch and we become curious about what’s out there, what discovery lies ahead.

We are collectively living a great unknown. Collectively, we will build the new next. Old patterns are always there to collapse back into when stymied by a blank canvas. Instead of building the new next on crumbling blocks of old ideas, better to stretch ourselves into new ideas and creatively engage with envisioning the breaking of new ground.

So, in these moments of being inside, and feeling inside, close the computer from time to time and stretch instead. Try making a star with your body! Let your physical body be free to explore the space beyond the box and your ideas and imagination will follow.

photo credit, top: Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash
photo credit, bottom: Photo by Mor Shani on Unsplash