Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You

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Activities which promote divergent thinking include creating lists of questions, setting aside time for thinking and meditation, brainstorming, subject mapping, bubble mapping, keeping a journal, playing tabletop role-playing games, [1] creating artwork, and free writing. In free writing, a person will focus on one particular topic and write non-stop about it for a short period of time, in a stream of consciousness fashion. While in many cases, this strategy is useful and necessary, we must admit that real life is complex, dynamic, and imprecise enough that it’s unrealistic to think that problems have only one solution. Therefore, we need to learn how to use true divergent thinking. Olteţeanu, Ana-Maria; Falomir, Zoe (December 2015). "comRAT-C: A computational compound Remote Associates Test solver based on language data and its comparison to human performance". Pattern Recognition Letters. 67: 81–90. doi: 10.1016/j.patrec.2015.05.015.

But let’s approach this same problem with our “convergent thinking cap.” Disney World? Way out of budget, and most of the guests won’t want to travel that far. The new hotel down the street? That’s closer to the budget and guests can easily travel there. A big outdoor party? This is an option too, but only if the cost for lights, heating, and the tents actually did fit in the budget. Would you need a permit to hold the party outside? Would you have to worry about noise complaints? Murray, Noel; Sujan, Harish; Hirt, Edward R.; Sujan, Mita (1990). "The influence of mood on categorization: A cognitive flexibility interpretation". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 59 (3): 411–425. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.59.3.411.FDM focuses on providing resources, education, and support to increase access within communities of all kinds. We believe that every individual deserves access to resources and education—and we strive to ensure that they get it.

Divergent thinking, or lateral thinking, is about generating multiple creative solutions to the same problem. It is a spontaneous, fluid, non-linear mental approach based on curiosity and nonconformity. In fact, it is also a type of thinking very common in children, where joy, imagination, and a fresh perspective make their reasoning more free.

López-Ortega, Omar (2013-07-01). "Computer-assisted creativity: Emulation of cognitive processes on a multi-agent system". Expert Systems with Applications. 40 (9): 3459–3470. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2012.12.054. ISSN 0957-4174. Veale, Tony; Li, Guofu (2016-04-01). "Distributed Divergent Creativity: Computational Creative Agents at Web Scale". Cognitive Computation. 8 (2): 175–186. doi: 10.1007/s12559-015-9337-9. ISSN 1866-9964. S2CID 255615490. In all areas of life, having a diagnosis can bring you a deeper sense of understanding about why you function the way you do and how to best work with that.

Psychologist Nina Lieberman’s research in the very interesting book Playfulness: Its Relationship to Imagination and Creativity has something very relevant to add to this discussion. Divergent thinking goes hand-in-hand with joy, optimism, and inner well-being. Having good relationships, being well-rested, and being free of pressure, anxiety, and stress puts you in an ideal position for divergent thinking. Many forms of neurodivergence are an innate part of how the brain develops and functions. While these differences may go unrecognized or undiagnosed in childhood, that doesn't mean they were not there and suddenly appeared in adulthood. What would happen if you chose six people on your team to wear these "hats?" Would they think about a solution in a new way? Would they come up with great, new ideas? There is only one way to find out!Like we said, all of us, regardless of age, can practice and improve our divergent thinking. To do so, we will focus on four areas in particular: When it comes to women, sensory processing differences are often overlooked, masked, or mistaken for something else entirely. Between a flawed system that focuses on diagnosing younger, male populations, and the fact that girls are conditioned from a young age to blend in and conform to gender expectations, women often don't learn about their neurological differences until they are adults, if at all. As a result, potentially millions live with undiagnosed or misdiagnosed neurodivergences, and the misidentification leads to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and shame. Meanwhile, we all miss out on the gifts their neurodivergent minds have to offer. Isen, Alice M.; Johnson, Mitzi M.; Mertz, Elizabeth; Robinson, Gregory F. (1985). "The influence of positive affect on the unusualness of word associations". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 48 (6): 1413–1426. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.48.6.1413. PMID 4020605. Foundations for Divergent Minds (FDM) is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization rooted in the principles of disability justice. Founded and led by a team of racially diverse multiply-neurodivergent autistic people of marginalized orientations and gender alignments, our mission is to ensure equity, access, and fulfilled lives through inclusive, practical, affirming neurodiversity based programming and education. FDM utilizes effective, innovative, digital, culturally-responsive methods to serve a broad range of individuals, families, organizations, and providers across the globe. Nerenberg also offers us a path forward, describing practical changes in how we communicate, how we design our surroundings, and how we can better support divergent minds. When we allow our wide variety of brain makeups to flourish, we create a better tomorrow for us all. Critical Praise