Growing up, my mom used to always tell me to think outside the box. As a kid I couldn’t really understand what it meant. What box? I was confused as to why some ideas are considered in the box but others are out of it, what criteria separates the ideas? she would tell me not to be scared to have crazy ideas because even if they’re wrong, it’s better than having nothing. I’m a very realistic person, I try to find the most realistic explanations. Everything has to make sense for me, so I was confused how having wrong ideas would lead to the right place at some point, it just seemed impossible. Now that I think about it, what my mom was trying to teach me is similar to lateral thinking. Having been introduced to lateral thinking, I understand that the point is in the process. It’s about losing those rigid patterns set by our minds. If we allow our minds to consider crazy cases, even if they seem impossible, we will reach the desirable solution. I see how this would also encourage and influence our creativity because I feel like our minds often suppress creative ideas by trying to be realistic and sticking to the familiar.