Are you feeling less creative than usual?
Creativity blockage can make you feel frustrated and powerless and it really takes a toll on your self-esteem.
If you are feeling stuck, follow our list of 8 tips and tricks to stimulate your creativity:
1.disconnect
It’s not easy to take a break nowadays: we spend almost 4 hours on our smartphones or other devices connected to the internet.
Most of our time connected to the internet is spent browsing on social media, watching YouTube videos or following the latest news and gossip. We are totally hooked!
If you feel your creativity has dried up, you need to cut yourself from all sources of noise and mind clutter. You need to push the stop button and allow your mind to relax and unwind.
Disconnect your smartphone from the internet and put it away.
Take a break from your busy life and go away for a few days.
Book a short vacation over the weekend.
Allow your mind and soul to breathe in with no pressure.
2. indulge in your hobby
What’s your passion? Do you like handcrafting? Or do you like to cook for your friends and family?
Find time to dedicate yourself to whatever activity makes you feel good and relaxed. Hobbies bring a sense of fun and freedom to life that can help minimize the impact of stress or pressure. Hobbies can enhance your creativity, help you think more clearly and sharpen your focus.
Psychiatrists say that making time for enjoyable activities stimulates parts of the brain associated with creative and positive thinking and we become emotionally and intellectually more motivated.
3. allow yourself to sleep
Do you get enough night’s rest?
The recommended amount of sleep is eight hours a day. But sometimes we cannot get enough sleep because we work late at night to meet deadlines, or we stay awake because we worry about our future etc. Sleep is overrated!, you might say. But you couldn’t be more wrong!
Scientists have discovered why sleep is so important for us – it helps clear the mind of the day’s chemical clutter. Latest research found that unlike the rest of the body, which depends on the lymphatic system to drain away toxins, the brain has its own separate method of rubbish removal – sleep.
So allow yourself to sleep and get your creativity juices flowing.
4. expose yourself to art
Art – in its many forms and expressions, is the ultimate representation of man’s creativity. From classical to contemporary, art is about life, beauty and truth.
Expose yourself to art and let your mind wander in front of a painting, sculpture or an intriguing photo. There is a well-known saying: “good artists copy, great artists steal”.
If you like what an artist is talking about in his work, take his idea and make it your own by adding value and your personal perspective.
5. exercise your body to relax your mind
Physical activity can help lower your overall stress levels and improve your quality of life, both mentally and physically. Physical activity improves your body’s ability to use oxygen and also improves blood flow. Both of these changes have a direct effect on your brain.
A study published in 2013 in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience shows that regular exercisers do better on tests of creativity than their more sedentary peers.
You can start with something easy as biking or running around the block.
You can try yoga or kangoo jumps.
Just get off the couch and work up a sweat!
6. meet over a cup of coffee with colleagues you’ve never talked to
Ryan Holmes, CEO at Hootsuite wrote an article on LinkedIn about #randomcoffee, an employer program that the company has been experimenting with in the past year.
#randomcoffee allowed 2000 of Hootsuite employers to be paired up blind-date style and invited to get to know one another over a cup of coffee. People loved it and the program was a big success! The participants talked about themselves and the projects they were working on. They connected and they exchanged ideas. Many felt inspired to do new things or found solutions to their problems.
7. browse Quora
Quora is a Q&A site where anyone can ask a question and get answers.
You can use Quora to drive traffic to your site, build your authority on topics and get SEO benefits. This makes Quora a great source of information and inspiration.
You can follow topics relevant to your niche or domain of activity. You can search for specific keywords and find the conversations around them.
Here are a few examples of popular topics: Growth Hacking Tools, Search Engine Optimization, Link Building, Startup Strategy.
Become member of Quora and get creative by browsing the site’s amazing richness of content.
8. say Yes
In the movie Yes Man, Jim Carrey’s character, Carl enrolls into a personal development program based on a very simple idea: say yes to everything! Carl discovers with amazement the magical power of “Yes” and sees his professional and romantic life turned upside down overnight: an unexpected promotion and a new girlfriend.
I’m not suggesting you do the same (in the movie, Carl answered Yes to every question he was asked for an entire year), but you should take into consideration the movie’s main idea: open up to new experiences, allow yourself to be surprised, meet and talk to people outside your usual circle of friends and acquaintances, say Yes for a change.
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