Boost your creativity
New article that spotlights the importance of creativity in doing work that matters. Learn how your creative brain works and invite more creative insights into your life.
Creativity helps you solve problems, weather uncertainty and even live longer*! As far as doing work that matters is concerned, creativity is your star ingredient — but how can you harness it, when the very word is shrouded in mystique and creative insights are notoriously elusive? Let’s find out!
Myth-buster
Sadly, many us of deny ourselves the opportunity to create because somewhere along the line we’ve received the message that spending time on creative endeavours is self-indulgent. But this couldn’t be further from the truth! Creativity comes from a place of openness and generosity. It is inspired by a belief in something greater than yourself and a yearning to share your insights with the world.
Creative individuals have gifted us discoveries as diverse as the style and structure of the modern novel, the expression of emotions in visual art, and the theory of radioactivity (from Jane Austen, Leonardo da Vinci and Marie Curie respectively). At a collective level, highly successful organisations are also rooted in creativity. Think Apple, Disney, Spotify, Snap, or not-for-profits like APOPO, charity: water or The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. So, next time you deny yourself permission to create, remember that your contributions are in service to humanity and making this world a better place — however you choose to define that.
It’s worth mentioning at this point that creativity and intellect are complimentary neurological processes. Neither is superior to the other; rather you get to be your best self when you combine the efficiency of intellectual processing with the slow, delicious and wondrous insights of creativity. With this in mind, here is my favourite definition of creativity, provided by Dr Rex Jung, neuropsychologist, brain imaging researcher and clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico.
Creativity is “novel and useful problem solving”.
Yup, it’s really that simple! When you create, you breathe life into new ideas that perfectly meet your needs and make the world more wonderful.
If you want to live more of your life at this intersection of novelty and meaning; if you want to make a positive difference in this world; then read on. We’ll take a look at the neurobiology of creative insights, how you can coax them into your life, and where your creative potential is at right now.
Blink, flash!
Creative insights happen when you encounter a problem that logic can’t solve. You may first try to solve this problem using analysis or you may go straight to creative-thinking. Either way, this is what happens leading up to and during a flash of creative insight…
Your brain relaxes
A relaxed state-of-mind is conducive to creative thinking. Research shows that when artists like jazz musicians are improvising, the activity in their prefrontal cortex is down-regulated to relax inhibitions. This frees up the musician from worries about how they may be perceived and allows new musical creations to emerge.
Your brain blinks
Prior to creative insight striking, a specific area of your brain de-activates. This occurs in the part of your cerebellum involved in visual perception, and is an involuntary inward movement akin to closing your eyes during deep thought to shut out distractions. This ‘blink’ allows you to connect disparate concepts from all over your brain, not just the neighbouring ones you would logically seek out.
Your brain lights up
As you make a novel combination of connections between ideas, your right superior temporal gyrus (part of your brain just above your right ear) lights up with neurological activity, bringing your solution into consciousness. This is your aha moment, your eureka, your burst of creative insight. (As an aside, this flurry of activity is also largely responsible for the myth about ‘creative people’ being right-brained, but more on that some other time…)
Feng shui for creativity
Now that you understand what happens in your brain when you experience creative insight, you might be wondering how to entice more frequent visits.
Here are three suggestions for styling your life to promote more creativity: subvert, daydream and chill!
Subvert
Since creativity is about what’s possible (rather than what is), it requires you to look at the world with curiosity and an open mind. To do this, you first need to bring attention to your assumptions about the way the world works. What do you take for granted? Gravity, night and day, the order in which you put your clothes on, the comfort of your favourite side of the bed? Assumptions are your sticking points. They reinforce a ‘fixededness’ of mind, as opposed to facilitating a more flexible, creative one.
Once you start to identify assumptions in your life, you can intentionally subvert them. A simple way to do this is to pick a handful of your usual routines and social norms, and intentionally disrupt them.
Ask yourself: What is the most efficient or socially accepted way to approach this situation? Then mess that up.
Possibilities for subversion are limitless (in fact, brainstorming them is a creative exercise in itself), but here are some simple suggestions to spark your imagination.
- Walk backwards around your home
- Paint with your mouth
- Swap roles with a child
- Prepare and eat a sandwich with the filling on the outside
- Try a new hobby like scuba diving, conscious dance, canyoning, singing in a choir or skateboarding
Any activities like these that invite you to look at the world with more flexibility are conducive to boosting your creative potential.
Daydream
While intellectual processing is all about speed, creative thinking is all about slow. When you are engaged in logical problem-solving, you consciously search for information using familiar neural pathways that are as slick and speedy as super highways. In contrast, when you solve problems with creative insight, your unconscious mind meanders along long, winding country backroads, pulling over at scenic lookouts and B&Bs that promise scones and tea. What this means is:
Creative insight requires time and space. This allows your brain to connect unrelated ideas that are located far apart in your brain.
To allow your brain to bridge these diverse ideas, you need to give your analytical mind a rest. The best way to do this is to engage in non-demanding activities that require a modicum of focus (so you don’t inadvertently revert back to analytical problem-solving) but mostly let your mind wander.
Studies show a wide range of improvement in standard creative thinking tests (between 10 and 60%**) when participants engage in non-demanding activities that allow the subconscious to daydream. Examples of activities you can experiment with to increase the probability of experiencing creative insights include taking a long walk or a shower (top picks) as well as gardening, dancing or hanging laundry. You might like to keep a recording device handy, such as a phone, pen and paper or even crayons and whiteboard in the shower, to capture any insights that bubble up. If carrying a recording device isn’t possible, brainstorming within the first 15 minutes of participating in a non-demanding activity also yields strong results.
Chill
Easier said than done, right?!
Seriously, though, feeling natural, relaxed and free from judgement is highly conducive to creativity.
While your ability to inhibit socially inappropriate behaviours helps you function as a healthy member of society, it can also make you hyper-aware of others’ opinions and therefore stifle your ability to create. So, when you wish to summon insight, think about how you might like to loosen your inhibitions.
There are many different ways to go about this, as you might imagine, but the key is for you to feel safe to express yourself. If this comes naturally to you, congratulations on reaching this level of authenticity! If you’re not quite there yet, your best bet is to gently work towards building your self-confidence. I appreciate that this is no small task, but feeling comfortable in your own shoes is at the heart of being able to let your creative sparks fly.
Believing in yourself and your worthiness to create can work miracles in your life, and the lives of those around you.
If you struggle with self-worth and it’s impacting your ability to create, you might like to seek support from an experienced professional. Get in touch to discuss this in more detail.
Test your creativity
If you’re curious to test your potential for creativity, here is a classic divergent thinking test.
How many uses can you come up with for a brick?
Allocate one minute to brainstorm as many uses as you can. The more unusual the better.
Next give yourself several minutes to engage in a new or non-demanding activity. Choose something really simple for the purposes of this exercise like drinking a glass of water upside down or stacking your dishwasher.
After that, allocate another minute to brainstorm new uses for the brick. How many more creative ideas did you come up with this time? If you experimented with both a new and non-demanding activity, which one yielded better results for you?
Bringing this back to reality, imagine what these creativity-enhancing strategies might look like in your everyday life… How would incorporating them into your daily rhythm change your ability to do work that matters?