What are you thinking?
Imagine your mind thinking,
What will my next thought be?
Look inside your mind,
Into the space between asking the question and anticipating a response.
Notice if your eyes move up and to the right.
Next,
Explore any sensation you may associate with the anticipation of receiving an answer and the wonder of just,
For a moment,
Not knowing.
What was I thinking about?
My next thought will be a continuation of that or I need to think about what I will make for dinner or what restaurant to order.
Once you have interrupted your train of thought by asking the question,
What prompts the next thought?
Is it random like a bingo numbered ball popper?
Is it leftover intention to do something?
How long can you remain in the space,
The gap in between thoughts?
As you begin to investigate the gap,
It grows larger.
In one way,
Every new creative thought originates in the gap.
The gap is a resting place like a flat rock that you can stand on in the middle of a stream of flowing water.
When your mind is still,
Resting in the gap,
You can notice thoughts arising and falling around you without attaching to them.
When a creative thought comes into view,
You can feel it rising up in awareness.
First as an inkling,
A glimmering,
An impression,
And it blends with an intention and then pop,
An idea has formed.
Imagine this idea at its beginning,
To be like a ball of pizza dough that can be stretched out as a foundation that other thoughts can be built on.
One way to stretch out an idea is to bring it out of your mind and down onto a piece of paper.
Just as pizza dough can be imagined as an image in your mind,
So too your creative idea or thought.
Choose any aspect of your idea and imagine what it would look like.
What would its purpose be?
How would it be used?
Who would use it?
To begin,
Sketch any one of the images that has come into your mind.
It does not matter where you start,
You can add more later.
Just begin,
Even if the idea is represented only as a circle drawn on a piece of paper.
The important point is to begin.
Once you have that first sketch or circle,
Contemplate the idea and then add a few words about it.
Then,
As you continue to contemplate the idea and its formation and application,
Add to both the sketch and any more words that come into awareness.
You can imagine this as sketch stretching.
Do not hesitate to jot down whatever comes into mind.
Do not block the flow of creative thought coming out of the gap.
What guides the gap is to remain open,
To be free from self-commentary about any aspect of the idea or any aspect of the sketch or the words related to it.
Stay open,
Riding the wave emanating from the gap.
Allow it to complete itself.
