No, before you get out your pliers and wires, we're not talking about literally rewiring your brain. Yet it's often very true that we easily get into ruts with our thoughts and actions. We get comfortable with our approaches and opinions, and comfortable routines don't often yield flashes of brilliance or creativity.

One way to clear the path to a new insight or idea is to shake up our routines and patterns of thinking. Sort of hacking away a new trail through the jungle instead of taking the paved one, and seeing wonderfully new things because of it.

Tip
• Write with your non-dominant hand.
If you're right-handed, choose an affirmation or question pertaining to the subject requiring a fresh perspective or creative problem-solving approach, and write it ten to twenty-five times with your left hand. If you're left-handed, use your right hand.

• Draw something upside down.
Okay, so you don't have to be Rembrandt or Vermeer, but choose any simple scene or subject and sketch it out upside down, as if illustrating for a person sitting across from you. If you're really feeling creative, grab some crayons or markers and color it in or highlight your stick figures.

• Mind Map.
Based on Tony Buzan's work, and some wonderful books by him, grab a variety of colored markers or crayons and draw a circle in the middle of a blank piece of paper. Write your key topic or question in the circle. From the circle, sketch out a variety of lines radiating from the circle in various directions, and draw a series of new circles, squares, triangles or other shapes. In each, write whatever comes to your mind based on the middle circle. Continue for a bit, branching out from each new word or phrase to develop yet another series of lines and words. Use colors, shapes, words, drawings or symbols to create an artistic variety. What does your mind map reveal? (For more information, seek out Tony Buzan's terrific Mind-Mapping book.)

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