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Writer's pictureMelissa Hughes

Brainy Secrets to Boost Creativity

Updated: Nov 18

Have you ever looked at a piece of art and thought to yourself, “I wish I could do that”?

Or maybe you've wondered how authors are able to conjure up such impactful stories.

Or it's possible that you've even said, "I don't have a creative bone in my body!"


Whether it’s of a famous artist in any number of disciplines or something closer to home such as a fellow student or co-worker, we've all experienced creativity envy at some point. Contrary to popular belief, creativity is hardwired into each of us. Creativity is the analytical brain collaborating with the imaginative brain.


Think about the smartphone. Thousands of people with expertise in different areas - coders, app developers, marketers, etc - collaborated on an idea that was once considered impossible. Art and science, innovation and logic.


Psychologists define creativity as “the ability to produce or develop original work, theories, techniques, or thoughts.” It’s also often defined as thinking "outside the box." Simply stated, creativity is the ability to see things - situations, problems and opportunities - differently and construct new ideas. 


Psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, first explored the mental state of flow in his book “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention.” A leading theorist in the positive mental state, he describes creativity as both artistic and analytical and maintains that creativity needs to be cultivated and is necessary for the future of our country, if not the world.

“Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives … most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity … when we are involved in the creative process, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life.” -Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,


Developmental psychologists maintain that our world view and our ability to think creatively begins to change about the time we leave elementary school.  A landmark longitudinal study conducted between 1959 and 1964 involving 350 children found that around 4th grade the freedom to wonder declines sharply.


Since then, other researchers have explored this idea of nurturing creative thought.  In a 2010 study at North Dakota State University, psychologists divided a large group of undergraduate students into two groups. The first group was given the following prompt:


You are 7 years old.

School is canceled, and you have the entire day to yourself.

What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you see?


The second group was given the same prompt but instead of considering it from the perspective of a 7 year old – they remained in their adult mindset.


You have the entire day to yourself.

What would you do? Where would you go? Who would you see?


The researchers found that the students who were given the first prompt – think like a 7 year old - exhibited higher levels of creativity and originality than did those in the second group. Perhaps even more significant was that the effect was especially pronounced with subjects who identify themselves as introverts.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

What’s the science behind it? 

The emotional brain is fully functional by about age 12. But the prefrontal cortex (the region that controls executive functions such as complex cognitive behavior, decision making, and social control) doesn’t fully mature until the mid-twenties. So, in the early grades, students create with relative freedom. The purple cow is deemed creative and imaginative. By fifth grade, the prefrontal cortex is showing signs of development specifically in the form of inhibitions. Students begin to moderate their behavior based upon judgment from others.


By high school, students are very much aware of how others view their work and most of their academic experiences have centered around “the right answer” rather than innovative thinking. Purple cows no longer exist and we begin to associate being "wrong" with a penalty or consequence. Our prefrontal cortex trumps creativity.


Some people are gifted with the knack for creativity. If you feel like you aren’t one of those insanely lucky people, it doesn’t mean you're doomed. Much like a muscle, creativity is something you can nurture and cultivate.


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Creativity is so easy to cultivate, you can do it in your sleep!

Simple strategies like listening to unfamiliar ambient music and the practice of meditation can open neural pathways and create the conditions for you to think see a different perspective. It’s been proven that spending time in nature makes us more creative. Instead of looking at our electronic devices, nature reduces anxiety, lowers heart rate, and allows the brains to make connections more easily.


The most basic way to boost your creativity is getting enough quality sleep. Rapid Eye Movement, or REM sleep (the “dream phase”), promotes creative problem-solving. Researchers found that for new problems, only REM sleep enhances creativity because of the way sleep fosters the formation of associative networks in the brain.


In a few cases, dreams themselves have led to scientific breakthroughs. For example, the shape and structure of DNA eluded scientists until 1953, when Dr. James Watson had a dream that made him consider the double helix. According to Watson’s 2005 TED Talk, the dream was of two intertwined serpents with heads at opposite ends.


Paul McCartney was just 22 when he “woke up with a lovely tune in my head." He got up and easily picked the tune out on the piano, but was convinced that it must have been something he heard years ago and subconsciously remembered. After further investigation revealed that it was a McCartney original, he jotted down some lyrics: “Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs.” The real words to "Yesterday" came later.


Jack Nicklaus figured out why his game was off after he dreamed that he was the G.O.A.T on the links in a way he hadn’t for a while. After analyzing the dream, the golf master realized he was gripping the club differently in the dream than he did in real life. “I tried it the way I did in my dream and it worked. I feel kind of foolish admitting it, but it really happened in a dream.”


 


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Fire up your ACC to inspire "AHA" moments.


The brain’s anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) plays a role in salience and executive attention, and handles error correction by detecting conflicting signals in the brain - including alternative strategies for solving a problem. However, the brain can’t use two different strategies at the same time.


Some are strongly activated, because they’re the most obvious. And some are weak and only remotely associated to the problem. These ideas are the creative ones. When the ACC is activated, it can detect these non-obvious, weakly activated ideas and signal the brain to switch attention to them. Cue the "AHA" moment.


So, how do we fire up the ACC?


Check your mood. When we’re in a good mood, the ACC is more sensitive to new insights, odd thoughts and strange hunches. The opposite is also true. While a good mood increases creativity, a bad mood amplifies analytical thought. The brain plays it safe with tried and true options — the logical, the obvious, the sure thing — rather than taking the risk thinking "outside the box."


Increase exercise to decrease stress. Physical activity that elevates your heart rate also lowers stress levels by flushing cortisol out. This lowers anxiety, augments our good mood and amps up the ACC’s ability to detect more remote possibilities. Exercising releases endorphins and a chemical like Miracle-Gro that facilitates the growth of new brain cells and connections between them.”


Connect with different people. Remember the brain and its predisposition to take the lazy way out? Get out of your comfort zone. Diversity makes the brain work harder by challenging stereotypes. In addition, researchers at Johns Hopkins University foundthat exposure to diverse people and experiences can foster the development of more complex forms of thought, including the ability to think critically.


Nurture curiosity. When our curiosity is triggered, we are more open minded and we make fewer decision-making errors that result from confirmation bias, stereotyping and flawed assumptions. Curiosity reframes problems as challenges and enables flow which encourages creativity and strategic problem solving. Curiosity also counters anxiety and depression which significantly limit cognition and mental acuity.



We all need to be creative in our daily lives, whether it’s developing a marketing campaign for a new product, planning a surprise birthday party for a family member or making a Halloween costume out of trash bags and balloons. Nurturing creativity in all aspects of your life—from the professional to the personal—can impact you in a number of positive ways.


The enemy of creativity isn’t a lack of imagination; it’s a commitment to the status quo. 

The next time you want to tap into your creative brain, think of it as a muscle that you can strengthen and grow with intention.


 

Dr. Melissa Hughes - Book Store

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