Creativity boost - 10 ways to find your creative inspiration

inspiration

In Medieval times, creative inspiration was regarded as a gift of God – a breath of the divine. Today, we know that our immense creative abilities stem from our marvellous brains. Yet, the creative fire emanating in our brains needs fuel, and especially when you get stuck in your creative endeavours it is good to know there are ways to clear your mind and find new inspiration.

Follow the path of the famous author Jack London, who said: “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.”

Find out what others are doing. The Internet is a marvellous place for picking ideas. Creativity is combining existing concepts into something new and useful – and the exiting concepts have never been easier to find.
Go outside your comfort zones. Listen to new music genres. Travel to places where you have never been before. Talk to strangers.
Surround yourself with things that provokes your fantasy. Get a set of postcards with surrealistic paintings. Find some odd-shaped objects from nature.
Listen to jazz or classical music. You may have heard of elevator music (or muzak), the kind of background music used in stores and public places that blends into the background. Classical music and jazz is the opposite, while at the same time relaxing the complexity of this music is also stimulating the brain and helps putting you in a creative state.
Read books. Books (both fiction and non-fiction) give new knowledge and new insights that can help you with your creative endeavour.
Teach or write. Teaching or writing about something is the best way to learn, as these activities force you to be clear and encourage you to learn a little extra. The clarity needed to formulate in an exact way could be your missing key.
Think “What if…”. We are often stuck in our pre-conceived thoughts of how things and should be. “What if…” could be the key to exploring alternative paths and consequences.
Clear your mind. When you get stuck in the same thoughts and can’t move forward, empty your mind through a walk in the nature, a gym session or some meditation. This will allow your brain to re-wire and your subconscious brain areas to do the work.
Be crazy. We are hardwired to think the ways we have previously been thinking, and creativity seldom comes from conventional thoughts. Try instead to be as odd, crazy and unconventional as possible. Break limits and taboos in your mind. It is outside your normal thinking you have the greatest chances to find the seeds to something really new and creative.
Live a life that inspires you. Try to take out as much grey routine from your life as possible. Focus on the things that make your heart sing. If something or someone is draining your energy, try to get that out of your life. Surround you with beautiful things and people that make you happy.