How to be more creative
Creativity may be the ultimate competitive advantage in an increasingly AI-influenced world. A creative mindset has been found to help us generate fresh ideas, solve complex problems, engage in high-quality conversations, adapt to adversity – and even live longer due to a more appropriate stress response (Rodriguez, T. 2012).
In this article, we’ll take a look at how you can tap into the benefits of creativity, but first let’s check our understanding of this frequently misunderstood construct.
What is creativity?
According to Dr Rex Jung, neuropsychologist and clinical professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico, creativity is “novel and useful problem solving”. Drawing on this definition, 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, Spotify, Snap, or not-for-profits like APOPO or The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Each of these people and organisations have generated original, meaningful ideas with profound positive effects for individuals, organisations, and society as a whole.
So, what does creativity look like in your brain?
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. This helps to explain why some of the best ideas come once someone has relaxed and unhooked from their conscious, logical mind.
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…)
How can you make space 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. Try these three suggestions to promote more creativity:
Challenge your assumptions
Allow yourself to daydream
Relax into your true self.
Challenge your assumptions
Since creativity is concerned with possibilities, it requires you to look at the world with a curious and 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? 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.
Allow yourself to 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. 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.
“Big ideas come from the unconscious. This is true in art, in science and in advertising. But your unconscious has to be well informed, or your idea will be irrelevant. Stuff your conscious mind with information, then unhook your rational thought process.”
― David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising
Studies show a wide range of improvement in standard creative thinking tests 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 (Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L., 2014) as well as showering, 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.
Relax into your true self
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 can help 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 loosen your inhibitions and drop any masks.
There are many different ways to go about this, but the key is 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 self-acceptance. 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.
If you struggle with self-acceptance and it’s impacting your ability to create, you may like to explore coaching as an evidence-based approach to relaxing into your authentic self. Please free to get in touch if you’re keen to tap into your innate creativity.
How can you (playfully) explore your own creativity?
If you’re curious to explore your current creativity, here is a classic divergent thinking test discussed by Ritter, S. M. & Mostert, N. (2017).
How many uses can you come up with for this brick?
Allocate one minute to brainstorm as many uses as you can.
Next give yourself several minutes to engage in a non-demanding activity like having a shower or stacking the dishwasher.
Allocate another minute to brainstorm new uses for the brick. How many more ideas did you come up with? Were your ideas both novel and useful, as per the definition of creativity offered above?
Bringing this back to reality, imagine how might incorporate creativity-enhancing strategies into your daily rhythm… How might this shift the possibilities available to you?
Next steps
If you’d like hands-on support to explore and enhance your creativity, please check out my business coaching, leadership coaching or life coaching services or simply get in touch.
References
Jung, R. E., Segall, J. M., Jeremy Bockholt, H., Flores, R. A., Smith, S. M., Chavez, R. S., & Haier, R. J. (2010). Neuroanatomy of creativity. Human brain mapping, 31(3), 398-409.
Oppezzo, M., & Schwartz, D. L. (2014). Give your ideas some legs: the positive effect of walking on creative thinking. Journal of experimental psychology: learning, memory, and cognition, 40(4), 1142.
Ritter, S. M., & Mostert, N. (2017). Enhancement of creative thinking skills using a cognitive-based creativity training. Journal of Cognitive enhancement, 1, 243-253.
Rodriguez, T. (2012) Creativity Predicts a Longer Life, Scientific America: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/open-mind-longer-life/.