What is a Visual Journal
Why keep a visual journal
You can tap into the same benefits creative journalers have been experiencing for decades. Creating an image, even a simple one with colors, line and shapes, expresses in a tangible way what words cannot adequately communicate or explain in a logical, linear way.
It all starts with accessing your capability to think in images.
Visualisation is a universal language
Everyone uses their right brain and taps into their creative side at some level.We all have the ability to react to information if it’s presented in the right language. Visualisation is that language. It’s a universal one that everyone can relate to. It transcends culture and beliefs.
If you are in a foreign country and looking for a bathroom, the silhouette of a man or woman on the door needs no explanation. You understand immediately which door to enter.
Visualisation enables people to see the path and destination
The same idea could be applied to navigating an instruction manual – text with no images or visual of the finished product give you no idea what the different parts are. Visualisation enables people to see the path and destination.
Visualisation as metaphor
A metaphor is a powerful example of how visualisation can help us connect a new idea to something we already know. It is like picturing yourself in a role, feeling it, seeing it.
Everyone uses both sides of their brains to process information. While the right side of the brain remembers the gist of an experience or the big picture, the left side of the brain recalls the details.
Even though they process information differently, they actually complement each other — allowing us to think about our life and circumstances far more effectively when using our whole-brain thinking ability.
How visual journaling can result in insight
The aspect of visual journaling that I think is of particular interest to most people, is understanding how creativity can result in the phenomenon that researchers call insight.
We know that ideas can be created based on analytical thinking and logical resonance, but we also know that not all ideas are created this way. What happens in your brain, when the light bulb suddenly turns on and a brilliant idea comes out of nowhere?
Ideas are closely connected to creativity. Creativity is the ability to connect knowledge and experiences in your subconscious and draw the logical inference.
Make a cognitive switch
We can come up with significant solutions when we relax our minds and stop thinking methodologically. This is when we have flashes of insight. Studies have shown that the brain will be unable to solve insight puzzles if it tries solely with its left hemisphere.
You need to make a cognitive switch, to engage the right hemisphere of your brain. This enables more disconnected lateral thinking with a big picture approach to problem solving.
How can drawing help?
The very process of learning how to draw can help you to develop your powers of creative thought, even though you are engaged in a physical activity. When you draw something from your own perspective, you begin to develop a curiosity and become invested in the solution.
Some people think they are strictly left-brain thinkers and argue that they are not good at the visual process. Yet we were all infants at one time. We understood pictures way before the words and numbers. It is in your DNA. You may be excellent at writing or great at crunching numbers. But don’t deny your imaginative talents.
Create space for your creative process
There is an image in every imagination. There is imagination in every creative act. There is creativity in every innovation. Your right brain’s most impressive weapon is creativity, but you need to create space for your creative process to thrive. Take up a pencil or brush and give yourself a few moments everyday.
To receive regular updates and new art, subscribe here