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Such comical posts instantly put a smile on our faces, but creating a meme is not an easy task. It’s a creative process. And while we often associate creativity with artists like writers, painters, and actors - known as "Big-C" creativity for their professional-level work - it's also part of our everyday lives.

Psychologists call this "little-c" creativity, and interestingly, it's something all of us possess. Whether it's cooking a new dish, building something from scratch, or telling jokes, it's all about being curious and inventive.

But how do we get innovative ideas? Despite the common belief that it happens spontaneously, results from psychology and neuroscience experiments indicate that it actually takes real mental work to be creative. This is mainly because our brains need to push the boundaries of what we already know and understand. It involves stretching our thinking and exploring new possibilities.

All the stored memories in our brain serve as building blocks, allowing us to draw inspiration from past knowledge to generate new ideas. However, creativity also requires the ability to control and manipulate our thoughts effectively.

For instance, when a writer is tasked with crafting a compelling story, they may be motivated from their own experiences, recalling events, emotions, or characters. But to create something original, they go beyond mere recollection and actively manipulate these memories. They might exaggerate certain aspects, add more drama or imagine alternative scenarios. This process of cognitive control helps them transform ordinary moments into extraordinary narratives.

In essence, memory helps by providing the knowledge and expertise we possess, while our mental control lets us think in new ways. But it’s not just our past. Our ability to imagine future scenarios also plays a vital role in the process. The hippocampus, a seahorse-shaped region in the temporal lobe, helps us piece together details from our past experiences while envisaging future scenarios, providing a rich base for generating new ideas.

Imagine you're planning a surprise party for a friend. You instantly think of all the celebrations you have attended, recalling what worked well and what didn't. You decide to include a particularly fun game from a previous party or a certain type of music that got everyone dancing.

By piecing together details from your past experiences, you create amazing ideas for the party. The process of drawing from the past to inform the future helps you generate creative concepts. This connection suggests that when we remember things vividly, we're able to focus on new possibilities. This is because both memory and imagination require us to combine details in a flexible way, which is the key to creative thinking.