Positive emotions low motivational intensity- e.g pleasant broadened the mind (measured by subjects making more holistic matches to a target stimulus)

The long-standing view in psychology is that positive emotions are conducive to creativity because they broaden the mind, whereas negative emotions are detrimental to creativity because they narrow one’s focus.

It’s true that attentional focus does have important effects on creative thinking

However, emerging research suggests that the positive vs. negative emotions distinction may not be the most important contrast for understanding attentional focus.

research conducted by psychologist Eddie Harmon-Jones and his colleagues suggests that the critical variable influencing one’s scope of attention is not emotional valence (positive vs. negative emotions) but motivational intensity, or how strongly you feel compelled to either approach or avoid something.

low motivational states facilitate the search for new goals to pursue, whereas high motivational states focus us on completing a specific goal.

high motivational intensity- e.g desire narrowed subjects’ scope of attention (subjects made more detail-oriented matches to a target stimulus)

negative emotions low motivational intensity- e.g sadness broadened attentional focus

high motivational intensity- e.g disgust a state of high motivational intensity for avoidance) narrowed focus.

If you want to keep an open mind and see the big picture, it’s probably best if you’re just in a pleasant (or even sad) mood.

If, however, you really need to buckle down and focus on making a new idea practical, high motivational intensity can be just the ticket.

Psychologists studying creativity have discovered that it is based on cognitive processes we all share. Creativity is not the result of some magic brain region that some people have and others don't.

creativity isn't limited to left-leaning designers, artists, and architects alone. Ideas and inspiration can (and should) come from everyone, regardless of their background.

Follow these steps and you'll find creativity can be achieved in just about any context.

Insights: defining the problem First, start by defining the problem at hand. Keep reframing the problem until it's clear to you and the others working on it. The problem and the path to resolution should be rooted in research and user-validation.

Saturation: getting in the mindset Immerse yourself in whatever information is available, then dig deeper for more.

Incubation: letting it all sink in "thinking aside", as you're essentially putting your brain on the shelf and stepping away. By turning off your mind this way, you're allowing the information to set in and that subsequent spark of creativity the necessary room to ignite.

Illumination: the notable 'aha!' moment We know this as the "Aha!" moment that hits when we least expect it. Whether in the shower or in line at the grocery store, it's the unforeseen moment during which that thousand watt light bulb suddenly turns on and the solution seems clear.

Verification: remove any biasOnce you've hooked that brilliant idea, it's time to reel it in and conduct a close-up examination.

If you watch the news, you see politicians use human vulnerabilities to get in and earn people's trust.

A cunning man overreaches no one half as much as himself.

I love doing comedy, and I don't get a chance to much. I get to play lots of serious people, and killers, and people with a lot of... sheriffs. Good people and bad people, but lots of drama, and to get a chance to be genuinely silly is a great treat for me.

I want to be free to be any version of me I feel like being. I don't want to be McDonald's that serves the same food every time.

Musicians are so well covered in the press, it would be great to see more outspoken practitioners of green life.

Death is not only an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain, in its finality and in its enormity, but is serves no penal purpose more effectively than a less severe punishment.

If you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't be putting it in your body or in your environment.

I am a very active audience member. I want to be moved. I want to be confronted. I want to feel.

Truth is the cry of all, but the game of few.

I had assumed that I would age with all my friends growing old around me, dying off very gradually one by one. And here was a plague that cut them off so early.

The only time to eat diet food is while youre waiting for the steak to cook.

Without coffee, nothing gets written. Period.

As far as trucks, the great thing about a Range Rover is if you're going out for a dinner, even a black tie event, you can take the Range Rover.

Back in East St. Louis, tennis wasn't the real thing. If you weren't playing baseball, basketball, football, you were kind of on the outside.

Panamanian boxing is unique - it's very musical. It's almost like a dance. It has a lot to do with being in the Caribbean and with salsa. When you see a Panamanian boxer, there's a style. There's a playfulness in the way you throw the punches.

I don't want to run for governor, but I don't think anyone should put public service out of the question because that's not what a good citizen does.

I feel upsettingly de-natured. If Penelope Cruz were one of my nurses, I wouldn't even notice.

A good editor understands what you're talking and writing about and doesn't meddle too much.

'The Voice' gave me the exposure that YouTube was never able to provide for me, just because I didn't have a label or that kind of opportunity before. It also kind of trained me as person and performer with an audience.

I think a lot of people want people who actually have qualities they don't find attractive as a way of being able to change them. It's fascinating, because people think if they can change the other person, they can change themselves. It's a complex phenomenon. It's a fantasy that's actually about being able to come to terms with ourselves.

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.

Ask me when your belly is full like the moon and our love has stretched your body with my child leaving your skin once flawless now silvered traced scarred I will worship you. My eyes will never stray. My heart will never wander gladly leashed to you all my days. I am fixed on you.

Motherhood is the strangest thing, it can be like being one's own Trojan horse.

If Moses had gone to Harvard Law School and spent three years working on the Hill, he would have written the Ten Commandments with three exceptions and a saving clause.