Keys to increase creativity

Creativity is that fantastic faculty that allows us to produce new and original ideas. As well as, obtaining different answers, through which our brain can better solve the problems that arise.

Being creative is a magnificent characteristic that makes us more receptive in our relationships, because, in some way, it is also associated with a more open and receptive mind. Let’s think, for example, of those people with a closed vision about things who are incapable of admitting other points of view; They tend to be personalities focused on their own vision of the world, where creativity is very limited.

Practical strategies to increase creativity

Creativity can be exercised every day. Although it is often associated with a certain type of personality, we must be clear that it can be trained.

Believe it or not, being creative is also a way of approaching the world, where you suddenly acquire several points of view, a multitude of paths to take into account and a universe of possibilities at your fingertips. Let’s see how you can increase it.

1. Increase your flexibility

To increase creativity, it is essential that you promote your cognitive flexibility. This will allow you to avoid the rigidity of your thoughts and will also help you consider different options when trying to solve a problem.

Now, how can you nurture your ability to be flexible? Through living atypical moments. Exposure to diversified experiences, that is, those that alter conventional or fixed thought patterns, allowing us to see the world in multiple ways, are linked to greater creativity. This according to the book The Wiley handbook of genius.

2. Record your ideas (capture)

In a popular article, Robert Epstein, author of The big book of creativity games and pioneer of the Theory of Generativity, exposes four techniques to promote creativity: Capturing (Capture), Challenging (Challenge), Broadening (Enlargement) and Surrounding (Around).

Capturing is about catching creative ideas before they are forgotten. To achieve this, you need to carry a notebook or a mobile device that allows you to write down whatever comes to mind at the moment. Try to have a digital or physical folder where you can archive everything.

3. Perform challenging tasks (challenge)

Another strategy you can use to increase creativity is challenge yourself by participating in complicated situations. On many of these occasions you will fail, which will be useful to enhance your creative processes.

Robert Epstein points out that when faced with unsuccessful circumstances, we begin to resort to previous behaviors that were effective in similar situations. This competition between different actions intensifies and optimizes the generative process.

4. Acquire new knowledge (expansion)

To increase creativity, it is essential that you expand your knowledge. Having a deep knowledge of a topic facilitates the association of ideas, concepts and notions, which will allow you to develop new understandings and creative products.

To increase what you know, go deeper into what you already know, open yourself to new knowledge, experiences and cultures. By broadening your perspective you will be able to find various ways to generate creative ideas.

5. Create a creative atmosphere (environment)

Another key to increasing creativity is to design an environment that encourages it. Have an inspiring workspace that exposes stimuli and creative people. All this will facilitate your creation processes.

Try not to be inflexible with your environment, but rather, generate constant changes where you alternate stimulation. Epstein claims that varied and frequent stimuli foster creativity by provoking competition between various behaviors.

6. Walk in the middle of nature

Spending more time surrounded by trees and disconnected from technology can help you increase creativity and to relieve attentional fatigue. This fact was supported by PloS one research in which it was revealed that after spending four days immersed in natural environments and away from technological devices, a group of hikers improved their ability to solve creative problems by 50%.

These effects can be understood thanks to the Attention Restoration Theory. It proposes that nature offers restorative benefits to the executive attention system, which is influenced by the prefrontal cortex and can become worn out due to constant use.

“When you use your cell phone to talk, text, take pictures, or anything else you can do with your cell phone, you are using the prefrontal cortex and causing reductions in cognitive resources,” says David Strayer, a student of the brain effect. nature in the restoration of exhausted attention circuits, cited in a publication in the Greater Good Magazine.

7. Practice mindfulness

The scientific literature has begun to collect results that show that the mindfulness can improve skills that promote creativity. So, for the moment, the relationship between mindfulness and creative processes is positive.

8. Move day by day

Moving can increase creativity. This is shown by a study by Scientific Reports whose objectives were, first, to explore the relationship between daily movement of the body and creative capacity. Second, investigate the possible mediating role of positive affect in said relationship.

To carry out the research, the authors monitored the daily movement of 79 individuals for five days using accelerometers. Additionally, they assessed their creative abilities in figurative and verbal areas, and collected information on their levels of positive affect.

The results showed that There is a connection between creativity, positive affect and daily movement of the body. In support of this finding, a 2022 meta-analysis found that physical activity improves creative ideation.

These results highlight that people who move more, whether by walking, exercising, or simply being more active in their daily routine, are more likely to achieve superior creative performance than those who are more sedentary.

9. Walk

We have already said that moving promotes creativity, but we want to dedicate a special space to the activity of walking. Creating this habit is beneficial for your creativity. To test the positive effect of walking on creative thinking, several experiments have been carried out.

In a first experimental analysis, several adults performed the Guilford Alternative Uses Test (GAU) and the Composite Remote Associates Test (CRA) of Convergent Thinking. First they filled them while sitting and then while walking on a treadmill. When walking, creativity in the GAU test increased by 81%while in the CRA only an increase of 23% was observed.

In a second experiment, participants performed the GAU under three conditions: sitting after walking, walking after sitting, and remaining seated on both occasions. The findings showed that walking raised scores on the GAU. Additionally, a residual creative boost was noted in those who sat down after they had been walking.

10. Take a short nap

To increase creativity in decisive moments, try to sleep for a while, take a short nap. According to information from National Institutes of Health These small periods of sleep can spark your creativity: “Researchers found evidence that the brief period, when you fall asleep, may be a sweet spot for dreams that facilitate creative thinking and problem solving.”

Besides that, Naps improve cognitive performance, executive function, memory, creativity. Remember that every creative process is a mental process, therefore, if you optimize your cognitive performance, you will have better bases to enhance your creativity.

11. Read and write

Reading opens you to real and imaginary worlds and new perspectives. It is a guaranteed alarm clock for your mind and imagination. Ultimately it helps you make connections and deduce things more fluidly and generally opens you up to possibilities you once thought were impossible.

The advantage is that the options of what you can read are endless, not only the classics of literature will open the doors to creativity, but science books, nature books and all kinds of readings, even the news are excellent so that your creativity is enhanced.

The benefits of reading for creativity have been proven by science. A study with students, presented at the 3rd International Conference on Learning Innovation and Quality Education, concluded that continuous pre-lesson reading activities have an impact on creative thinking skills, especially fluency.

Although the mechanisms are not clear, it is proposed that reading and writing often recruit other capacities that enhance creative processes, such as critical, analytical and self-expression skills, as well as self-discovery. This, when faced with a situation or problem, would give us more resources to manage to find a solution, making it easier to give a more creative response.

12. Take a vacation trip

Discovering new places can be a 180-degree turn in your imagination and the way you see reality. It is also a way to find, on your own, a way to live away from home and be surprised again by the novelty and beauty of things.

So, Breaking away from the routine will encourage your creativity. And you don’t have to go far to exotic and unknown countries, you can travel in your own city to places where you have never been or revisit places from your childhood, any change of perspective is a great help.

Science supports these claims about the usefulness of travel to improve creative processes. In research in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, a creativity task was applied to workers before and after vacations and This was found to improve after the trip..

13. Brainstorm

In an article on how to improve creativity in students, in Computers & Education, four strategies are presented that have been used over the years to increase this ability: brainstorming, divergent thinking, analogies and the method SCAMPER. In this and the following sections we will explain them in detail.

One of the most used strategies to generate original ideas is brainstorming. To apply it you must:

Produce as many ideas as possible.Create new ideas from the ones you have thought of.Avoid criticizing or judging the…