Tending Your Greenhouse

It’s well known that ideas can come to us at the strangest moments.  Taking a bath or shower, driving the car or in the gym seem to be favourites.  I'm fairly new to the Buddhist chanting meditation practice ‘Nam-myoho-renge-kyo’ butthis has become a favourite time for ideas to bubble up from my sub-conscious.  It’s generally agreed that it’s easier to ‘listen’ to your intuition when your conscious thoughts aren't competing too fiercely for your attention.

If you are doing something practical when an idea comes to you, it might not be convenient to give it much attention and sometimes ideas can be lost.  That’s where the metaphorical greenhouse comes in.  It’s a place to put and grow seedling ideas.  It could be a physical place like a file, book, vision board or jar or it could just be a place in your mind where you visualise the ideas growing.

I was introduced to the concept of the Greenhouse some years ago by the ‘What if?’ consultancy.  They made the point that, like oil and water, creativity and judgements don’t mix.  Have you ever tried brainstorming when someone in the meeting is criticising every contribution?  To be their most creative, our minds need freedom to roam, to make connections between seemingly random events, to go wildly out of boxes and be outrageous.  Rational evaluation and criticism during this process, limits and sometimes stifles our creativity.

This is partly due to the difference between the linear, rational, judgemental thought processes and the more chaotic creative ones and the impossibility of doing both simultaneously.  It is also because of the emotions most of us associate with criticism.  Criticism is often associated with lowering self-esteem and feeling not good enough or ‘small’.  The behaviour that goes with this is self-protection, holding back and not taking risks.  This doesn't help our creative thinking.  Enthusiasm is the energy that encourages us to develop ideas further. If we are encouraged to see problems with our idea too early, our enthusiasm is squashed and we may never give the idea the energy it needs to develop.

Often, the first idea that pops up isn't the one you eventually take forward.  There is a period of evolution during which the idea develops and grows and this is where your greenhouse comes in.  Protecting your ideas in a safe greenhouse means you keep them protected from criticism until they are robust enough to take it.  You nurture them, revisit them and consider their possibilities, you might share them with others who are in creative, non-judgemental mode.  When you feel they are strong and well formed, you will need to evaluate them and see if they will make it in the ‘real world’, until then, keep them cosy in your greenhouse.