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How to boost your creativity

A lady painting a picturePaul Cezanne, French painter and founder of the Post-Impressionism movement, once said, "It is so fine, and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas." Anyone who has ever tried to create something can relate to this. The blank canvas is so inviting -- the starting point for an infinite number of creations. Yet at the same time, if a starting point does not come to mind, the blank canvas can taunt you to the point of anguish. If you're feeling that way yourself, one of these remedies may help you break through the creative block.

Embrace Novelty
The brain, in trying to help us survive, is hypersensitive to novelty because what we are unfamiliar with might be dangerous. So when faced with novelty, brain activity increases as it starts trying to make sense of the new environment by digging into the old memory banks. Specifically, neuroscience research has demonstrated that novel experiences activate brain areas associated with memory and learning.

So if you're facing the blank page, change your environment. Go somewhere completely different to where you normally work. Go to a place that's "not your scene," talk to people you wouldn't normally speak to, and eat food you've never tried. If you can't physically do this for some reason, do it mentally -- imagine yourself in a different place, or time. Make use of novelty and new ideas will start to arise.

Connect with Your Work
This method applies to any piece of work that's based on something specific - an experience in your life, and emotion, a historical event - anything. First, use props to elicit an appropriate emotion. If you're writing a song about a breakup, you might read through old texts, or look at old photographs. Inspect any items you have that remind you of what you're creation is about, or listen to music that evokes the feelings you want to convey in your work.

Next, get a pen and paper, or use your computer, and start free-writing on the topic. This is not limited to writers -- you can do this whatever your medium. Continue for 20 minutes, without editing yourself or worrying about the quality of what you're writing. You're not actually working here, you're just getting your brain focused on the topic at hand to get ideas flowing.

Warm Up
When people play sports, they don't switch immediately from sitting on the couch to doing intense exercise. They ease into it slowly with some warm-up exercises first. This is not just for safety -- it activates neurons in the nervous system so the body can send signals to the relevant muscles more efficiently. Since the brain is made up of neurons too, why would creativity be any different?

Approach your blank canvas, be it a Word document, a guitar, or perhaps literally a canvas. Set a timer for 20 minutes and start. The key is to get into a non-judgmental state, where you're just allowing yourself to create without any care for whether it's good or bad. It's just a warm up, remember? You don't have to show this to anyone. After the 20 minutes are up, if you have some good ideas you can start editing, refining and developing them to see where they lead. If not, you can set the timer for 20 minutes once more, and start again.

Exercise
As well as keeping your body in good condition, physical exercise also benefits the brain. Exercise increases brain activity in areas related to memory, learning, and concentration, and also increases levels of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which helps the brain grow new neurons and maintain old ones. Furthermore, the mind wanders during aerobic exercise, which can lead to new ideas. Most of the research on exercise and mental function has focused on aerobic exercise, so if you're feeling stuck, go for a jog, and pick up your work when you get back.

Work through it
Creative blocks are never permanent, and as Cezanne's quote illustrates, even celebrated masters suffer them at some point. So if this is what you are experiencing, don't judge yourself for it; it's part of the process. Even when you're not actively creating, ideas are still stewing in the background. Just use one or more of the suggestions above, keep working, and the "Aha!" moment will come.

Copyright © Warren on NiceAnswers.com 2017

Editor's Note: Find below more information on some of the topics discussed in Warren's post;
Some ideas for doing something new
Some writing exercises for creative writing
An article on overcoming writers block
Tags: lifestyle

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