5 ways to boost your creativity

Creativity.

It doesn't belong to artists exclusively. We need it pretty much in everything we do. Not only in studies or at work but also in mundane tasks of everyday life. But because we live in a very fast-paced hectic world, we tend to rush things which in turn blocks our creative minds. The worst enemy of creativity is being in a hurry.

On the other hand, a relaxed mind opens the door to real creativity. At present, it is believed that relaxation can shift logical reasoning and the control it requires for a moment. In a state of deep relaxation, ideas, and even ready-made solutions of the subconscious minds are best found in our consciousness. Sometimes, creativity also takes time and brewing. Have you noticed that when you are trying to find an answer to a problem, and maybe after a week you just wake up, and you finally have a solution? 

Time and rest are essential when we need to face challenges, to solve the problems or to come up with a new idea or a way of working.

Aside from time and rest, there are other ways to boost your creativity. These are five effective ways used by well-known people.

1. Go for a walk

As you walk, your blood circulation improves, so does your brain, your whole body, and of course, your mind gets oxygen, you feel better physically and mentally, and your creativity also increases. Walking is also suitable for meetings.

So, be like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg or LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner, they regularly have walking meetings.

2. Do something you love

Love and creativity go hand in hand, so do something you love, like playing the piano, painting, dancing, or cycling. It will help you relax and fight stress while giving your creativity a boost. Dive deep into doing something you're passionate about and forget everything else.

Be like Einstein, who wrote: "I am sometimes so wrapped up in my work that I forget about the noon meal."

3 Get the right state of mind

Try drawing, enjoy the silence if you like it, look out the window. Or listen to music like what Steve Job did to change his moods and keep him creative.

4 Meditate

Needless to say, meditation boosts creativity. Scientific interest in it has increased recently. If you're interested in what type of meditation effects which areas, you can find out from this study.

And you can easily exercise, for example, focus attention (FA) here.

5 Wear Bono’s hats

The idea is to use different 'hats' to learn different, agile, and creative ways of thinking. According to de Bono, the usual problem with thinking is that we try to overthink at once. All the information, emotions, logic, desires, and creativity are in our minds at the same time. The hat technique helps you to focus on one thing at a time. The idea behind it is to look at the problem from different angles while taking on different roles.

In short, it goes something like this, if you put a:

White hat: you start to think objectively, that is, you only think of the facts you have about this problem or issue. 

Red Hat: you bring your intuition and emotions without sensible explanations.

Black Hat: you think about the risks and weaknesses. A black hat is logical and businesslike, with no negative emotions. It is important but might destroy creative thinking if used too much.

Yellow hat: you think of all possible benefits about this thing, vision an optimistic future.

Green hat: you go crazy, use humor and wildest thoughts, exaggerate, and overlook traditional thinking, like in brainstorming.

Blue hat: you think about how you have progressed on this issue and how you can achieve the result you want. Draw conclusions and summaries.

Edward de Bono, a psychologist and a professor at Oxford University, the inventor of this method, said: “Thinking is by far the best human resource. Still, we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better.” Let this be your motto of the day.

So, take a break, walk, listen to music, meditate, wear hats, and enjoy your creativity-boosted life. 😊

Elena Popova