How to be more creative: 7 cool tips to find inspiration everywhere

Being creative is good or bad?

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Creativity is generally considered something good for various reasons, including:

• Improving mental health: Creativity has been found to reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, and can also help people process trauma.
• Increasing productivity: Creativity gives people the space to work smarter instead of harder, which can increase productivity, combat stagnation in the workplace by facilitating innovation.
• Providing a sense of self-expression and awareness: Creativity can help people express themselves and become more self-aware.
• Enabling alternative ways of thinking: Creativity unlocks old patterns or habits of thinking and allows for non-linear thinking, which can lead to new ideas and solutions

How to be more creative?

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Firstly, creativity is a skill that can be developed and improved with practice and the right mindset. Here are some science-based and practical tips to increase creativity:

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1. Befriend your ACC: When researchers talk about creativity, a frequent topic of conversation in the phenomena is known as insight. We’ve all felt it — it’s that experience of sudden comprehension, that aha moment when we get a joke, solve a puzzle or resolve an ambiguous situation. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is the part of the brain that helps us recognize when we’ve found a solution. To befriend your ACC, try to start your day with 90 to 120 minutes of uninterrupted concentration. It’s a high-flow bit time that pays significant long-term dividends.
2. Take a break: Solitude matters. Certainly, a great deal of creativity requires collaboration, but the incubation phase demands the opposite. Taking a break from the sensory bombardment of the world gives your brain even more reason to wander into far-flung corners. A 2012 study run by psychologists at the University of Utah, for example, found that after four days alone in nature, subjects scored 50 percent better on standard tests of creativity.
3. Practice: Practice is essential for creativity. The more you practice, the more you develop your creative skills. You can practice by doing creative exercises, taking courses, or simply making an effort to read more in your spare time.
4. Go for a walk or exercise: Going on a walk or exercising outside can get you out into a new environment. Not only can this help you relax, but you may also find new inspiration while out and about.
5. Seek out new experiences: Trying new things can help you gain new perspectives and ideas. This can be as simple as trying a new food or taking a different route to work, even if it means to get a bit lost, (trust Teacher Guil, being lost without trying to get back on track with a GPS is a great exercise to reconnect with yourself);
6. Take a break: Taking a break can help you recharge and come back to your creative work with fresh eyes. This can be as simple as taking a break or reading a book.
7. Find the conditions that make you most creative: Everyone has different conditions that help them be creative. Some people may need complete silence, while others may need background noise. Experiment with different conditions to find what works best for you, never stop trying new approaches ;)

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Overall, creativity is a skill that can be developed and improved with practice and the right mindset. By trying out different strategies and finding what works best for you, you can increase your creativity and come up with new and innovative ideas.

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