In order to stretch ourselves we do need to experience the vulnerability of not knowing the outcome.

I think there is probably something evolutionary in that we are drawn to the easiest option. But in our age of convenience, cars, ready meals and off the peg mean that we are in danger of being mentally under stretched.

There are probably times where the creative process is not helped by collaboration.

The extreme of flexibility is chaos and the extreme of being structured is rigid and staying sane, or indeed using your creativity, is about being aware of these extremes and steering yourself to areas where you work best which usually tend to be more in the middle than at either extreme edge.

It seems whether we have a tendency towards being flexible or structured affects how we create, how we parent, how we work.

Meditation is focused attention and the more we practise focusing our brains the more connections we build up.

Whether you plan or whether you flow in order to be creative probably isn't the point. The point is to keep practicing to maintain neural pathways and to establish new ones by learning new skills.