We all know the popular story that Newton was sitting under an apple tree, an apple fell on his head, and he suddenly thought of the universal law of gravity! Based on the story, it seems like he was sitting in a peaceful and quiet place. Maybe a park with trees and flowers and Newton sat under this beautiful tree when the magical realization about gravity happened.

Now, lets imagine Newton sitting in the middle of a busy office floor at his desk and around him there are a lot of conversations happening, phones ringing, printers making noise, people walking around, some one watching youtube in the background. Newton has an apple on his desk and it falls down, what are the chances that he would have thought of the law of gravity Vs. picking the apple up and returning to what he was doing? Higher probability of the later, right?

I am sure you have personally experienced the fact that your thought deepens when you are sitting by a beautiful lake during your vacation or walking through the woods during a break.  What is it about the location and creativity / innovation?

We all have the Newtons, the Edisons and the Einsetins in us and we don’t have to go finding an apple tree every time we want to be creative or to innovate. It’s actually not the location but its your state of mind that enables creativity (I bet you knew that). We can get the Newtons in us out if we know the brain waves better and enable / activate the true potential. The place where Newton was sitting probably helped him reach that state of mind for him to be creative and ideate.

The first step is to understand the brainwaves and their characteristics. There are 4 types of brainwaves. Beta, Alpha, Theta & Delta (There’s Gamma as well but for this conversation, lets talk about the 4)

Beta is the state our mind is in on a normal working day and is required to be that way. In beta state, our mind is active, alert and concentrating and is required to function normally. 90% of the time we are awake, our mind is in beta state. As much as beta is super critical, its the alpha state of mind which is the best state to innovate and be creative. I bet, some of the greatest inventors were in Alpha state of mind when they had the “Aha” moment.

So, the question is…how can you activate the alpha state of mind at will? How can you create a platform for your workforce to achieve the desired state of mind depending on the situation.  Amazingly, the answer is super simple but the one that we don’t normally care about & ignore. MEDITATION!

There have been hundreds and thousands of research cases that clearly indicate the increase in alpha state/waves with meditation. And the more experience in meditation, the more creative you and your workforce can be. I don’t want to make this  post into a sales pitch for meditation but rather create awareness on brainwave states of your workforce and how they can help the business get the competitive edge on innovation & creativity.

There are quite a few programs that are readily available to promote meditation to your workforce in a fun filled way. Organizations invest heavily in employee wellness programs knowing a healthy workforce means healthy business. Along the same lines, creating awareness of the brain waves and how it impacts innovation complimenting it with tools and resources to learn to meditate can be a strategic move long term for your organziation. And above all a happy, calm, relaxed & innovative workforce, who wouldn’t want that?

About the Author: For more information, contact Balakarthik Venkataramanan at vbkarthik123@yahoo.com. LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/balakarthikv