Learn how to boost your creativity with these 7 simple tips. You’ll be surprised at the results!
You may not realize it, but creativity is a muscle and like any other muscle it can get stronger with time. Even if you think you don’t have a creative bone in your body, trust me you can improve your access to your imagination when you set yourself up to do some creativity boosters!
In this blog post, I will share 7 tips to help yourself Up Your Creative Genius. Early on in my career I was in a very competitive business meeting and a guy walked up to the whiteboard and started drawing a picture of the client work.
WOW!
My brain went crazy. I hated the boring business meetings that I often found myself in and I thought to myself, I am going to learn how to do that.
That is where it all started, but I had never drawn before other than bad drawings as a child. And when you draw live, you have to come up with images to draw to represent concepts.
That was crazy!
I needed to get my critic out of the way so I could just let the images that naturally dropped into my brain come out through my drawing hand. 20 years later, sometimes I still get stuck with a concept or idea, but I have learned to just stick with it, stay calm and use one of these 7 techniques to help reboot my idea generator!
If you find yourself struggling to be creative try one of these 7 tips:
1. Take time to explore your interests
Whether it’s art, science or video games you need to know what really excites you in order for that passion and creativity to translate into new ideas. If you want to expand your capacity to use your imagination, just know that your imagination is an innate part of you that is active 24/7.
2. Daydream
Just daydreaming something you love to do is just like actually doing it! Allow yourself some downtime every day so you can recharge from a stressful day at work. This will help loosen the mental grip your amygdala has on your brainpower. That pesky amygdala is the part of you that is locked into keeping you safe at all times and it does not like disruption, like new ideas or new things.
3. Take naps
Creating ideas require energy which can be depleted by stress and lack of sleep. A 20 minute power nap will help you hit the reset button, so that you can brainstorm more easily. A rested mind is more receptive to exploration, particularly following a short dream.
4. Get outside
Being in nature will help your brain function more efficiently as the natural world offers endless inspiration, AND walking in nature enhances your pheromones which will just put you into a more calm and connected state.
5. Draw something
Drawing helps stimulate creativity because we are creating something from nothing, while also engaging our hands which stimulates parts of the brain that need to be used for processing information.
6. Do something different
Do things that are new and challenging for you so that your brain has to think in ways it doesn’t always have to. Even changing up your regular habits, like what you drink in the morning or the routes you take to get to the grocery store or workplace will help you boot up and build new neural pathways.
7. Include your senses
Engage all your senses when you are trying to be creative. I like to think of a specific scene that makes me feel calm and then imagine what it would sound, smell, taste and look like for example. You can also close your eyes or wear earplugs so the world doesn’t distract you from focusing.
Tune in to what you are working on, and write down a question you may have. Then, open yourself up and let yourself listen to whatever drops in.
I hope you found these creativity boosters helpful. Don’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas and ask for feedback from others when necessary!
Remember that even if you think you don’t have a creative bone in your body, it’s never too late to start cultivating some of the genius inside of yourself by implementing one or more of these 7 tips into your daily routine.
If any of them worked particularly well for you let me know so we can discuss how they might work best for other clients as well.
Have any questions about Up Your Creative Genius? We’re happy to answer anything!
Big love,
Patti
