having an insight

Picked this up from Scamp, where a Brit planner wrote a post about having an insight, with some actual cognitive neuro science mixed in:

His observations include these:

1 Solving problems with insight uses a complete different part of the brain than solving problems with analysis

2 The sensory areas of the brain go quiet just before an insight, as the brain diverts its considerable computational powers to focusing on the problem

3 Insight nearly always follows a feeling of impasse, comes suddenly, and is preceded by a massive spike of electrical activity

Have you experienced this? Do you know when you have the most insights? Can you re-create those conditions so they happen consistently? :P

I thought about it, and my insights/"brilliant ideas" happen when I'm allowed to free flow my thought, like a mindmap without paper. It happens in the car a lot when I'm driving the 30 minutes to my boyfriend's house. It's a brain dump where I zenfully accept each idea that floats into my head, trying not to latch onto just one yet, but waiting for one to POP. For me, that's what an insight does, it POPS energetically into my life.

But as I write this, what I still struggle with is harnessing that energy, channeling the insight to its simplest form and having that drive creativity. Often, when I get a fragile insight back into the office, it seems to pale in comparison to brand management meetings, the brief format, numbers on Simmons/MRI, powerpoint, etc, and is lost to a slew of other "resources" that are lead by left brain enthusiasts, resources that are lost on the right brain who only wants to FEEL the idea.

With this whole dilemma in mind, I'm reminded of something Sarah Hall (Cutwater) said when she stopped by the agency: use the resources available to make a case for your idea.

Be motivated enough by your insight that you make a case for it. Write it down, put it in front of you, and tell the story of why it's true. Make people believe. :)