At times
the healthiest thing we can do to help our creativity is to just walk away from
a project for a little while.
The most
creative discoveries usually don’t happen when trying to tackle a project
directly through logic or reason or planning. We can’t force creativity to
happen.
Instead,
creativity often comes serendipitously. The best we can do is give ourselves
the right environment and the right space to experience those insights and
“aha!” moments.
Sometimes
the more time we spend thinking about creativity and planning for it, the more
difficult it is to have a genuine creative discovery. That’s why
taking breaks can be so important to our work.
Psychologists
have done a lot of research into how creativity works in our minds. Here are the
main reasons why taking breaks can be so beneficial.
It replenishes your mental
resources.
Being
creative takes energy and hard work. We can’t expect to do it for hours upon
hours and not get fatigued.
At the very
least this is one good reason why we need to take a break from creativity every
now and then. It gives our mind a chance to replenish its resources.
Breaks keep
our mind sharp and help to restore stamina. If you keep trying to work while
tired, you’re mind isn’t going to be working at it’s full capacity. This is
going to lead to less-than-your-best quality work.
Therefore,
when you notice yourself getting tired, then go for a walk, take a nap, play a
video game, or take part in some other stress relievers to give your mind a
rest.
It gives your unconscious a chance
to do some work.
Giving our
minds a break allows our ideas to go through an incubation period. This is when
we don’t try to be creative consciously, but instead allow our unconscious to
do some work.
When we
take our mind off of our work, that doesn’t necessarily mean these ideas aren’t
being processed behind the scenes.
Dreams are
one manifestation of unconscious ideas. Keeping a dream diary is a great way to
keep track of what your mind is doing while it’s running wild.
Another
great thing to do is to do “boring” but restful activities that elicit
daydreaming, which has also shown to improve creativity and problem-solving.
It frees up time to expose you to new things.
Spending
less time focused on your creative work also gives you more time to expose
yourself to new things.
This is
good for creativity because it gives you a chance to be inspired by other
things in your environment that you otherwise wouldn’t have the time for.
It gives
you an opportunity to go to new places, try new things, and have new
experiences. You can then integrate these experiences into your creative
projects.Actively seeking new things gives us a way to escape the curse of familiarity.
Creative people are able to take inspiration from anything, even when they aren’t focused on their work directly.
A photographer can get inspiration while listening to music. A musician can get inspiration while watching a movie. And a filmmaker can get inspiration while reading a book. A writer can get inspiration while walking.
This is
just the tip of the iceberg of ways we can get inspired when we spend our time
doing things we don’t normally do.
Source:
Emotion Machine
