Your Brain and Creativity- How to Engage Your Brain to Be More Creative
Have you ever desired to be more creative? Can you train your brain to be more creative? What can help us tap into our creativity? Whether we are naturally creative or desire to be more creative, creativity is something to be treasured! Let us look at creativity on a different level and use our natural brain wiring to create dynamic wiring within our brain to tap into our own personal creativity- we all have it! Julie will be sharing the answers to these questions, some of which you may find surprising!
TIME magazine did an amazing article about The Science Of Creativity. One of the books the articles shared was by Agustin Fuentes called “The Creative Spark: How Imagination Made Humans Possible” . Most people tend to agree that being creative is unique to humans. A lot of people look at Leonardo Da Vinci and others who think “out of the box” and conclude that they are the only ones who have creativity. Truly each one of our brains has creativity, the world may just not look at it that way. Julie teaches about the Brain Personality Connection Assessment also known as the BPCA. A person and their personality are so multi-faceted, and you cannot write that personality with just one of those 5 facets. The brain wiring creates who you are as an individual- either a Boss, Master Coordinator, Nurturer, or Innovator. Whichever side of your brain you use with the least amount of energy will be reflected in your personality. Many think that just the right side of the brain is creative. It is true, those who mostly use their right-side of their brain will appear to have much more creativity. Innovators and Nurturers are typically musically gifted and inclined to painting and bringing aspects of nature into things. What about those left brainers out there? Are they creative? They have a natural creativity that just is not what people label as creativity. Master Coordinators are organized and sequential. They are creative in the way they do these processes, such as organizational processes. Other portions of the brain would be challenged with that. They are creative in a left-brained fashion. Bosses, on the other hand are incredibly gifted in taking the lead and taking charge and delegating authority. Maybe you feel you are not a naturally creative person, but you do have your own natural creative gifts. You may just not be viewing them as a gift since it may not fit into societal norm of what creativity is- remember that! Click here for one of Julie’s several podcasts that discuss the BPCA.
If you are not one to think “out of the box”, what can you do to help? You can tap into the portions of the brain that help with that. In the end, we are all born with the relatively same brain and use it in more or less of the same way. We can learn to tap into and utilize our brain. Keep in mind that the creative sections of your brain, such as the “out of the box” thinking is natural to those Innovators. If that is not your wheelhouse, we will discuss how to tap into that, that natural brain creativity that every brain has. Try to not overuse energy in your brain and exhaust yourself though it is great to learn how to tap into it!
What can we do that hinders our ability to tap into this process? TIME magazine did a beautiful article about “The Power of Sleep”. Sleep is so important, for all types of brain health! There is Non-REM sleep and REM sleep, the REM sleep is what is so important for our brain health. It deciphers the information you took in during the day, what information it should keep and what information to eject. Many studies have shown just how helpful getting some rest can be to solve problems or math equations. Sleeping on a problem can be so incredible to get better results! The brain far surpasses any computer system, but what is similar is it can focus on many things at the same time. Our brain constantly focuses on our body systems and runs problem solving programs on things you may not be focusing on at the moment. That is a lot of what goes on while you are sleeping, and it can help you come up with solutions to different problems but normally we forget what happens when we sleep. A study at the University of Rome done on dopamine and cortisol researched what goes on in the brain while sleeping. Cortisol was shown to rise during REM sleep and helps form new and imaginative ideas! “Your Creative Brain” is a lovely book about dopamine. David Watson of Notre Dam wrote that those who were creative remembered their dreams more.
What can we do from day to day to help? How can we tap in and become more creative? Engaging these different techniques will truly help. First, get good sleep! This will help tap into your brain being creative during REM sleep. Put a notebook next to your bed so when you wake up you can share and record your dream with any good ideas or solved problems you found in it. Especially if you are busy person with many tasks or an entrepreneur, before you go to bed, try to write down what you need to accomplish the next day or the following week to help your brain focus on that while you sleep on it. The last thing you think about is what your brain will meditate on before you go to sleep. If you are having a challenge, write it down before you go to sleep and while asleep, your brain might just make great connections during the night since it will focus on that. If you have a problem, try to walk away from it and let your mind wander on something completely different. Doing something different for a period of time will allow your brain’s natural process to run in the background which is very helpful! Allow your brain to daydream or simply take breaks.
Second, walk outside and get some fresh air. Outside movement and fresh air will help you get more oxygen into your brain and help stimulate your brains thinking process as a whole. There are so many benefits to getting some fresh air!
Third, try not to stifle your own creativity by comparing it to someone else’s. You are as unique as your thumbprint, own your own natural gifts!
Fourth, simply move around where you are. Any movement stimulates oxygen to the brain. A large portion of your brain is activated by muscle movement and can help it process information.
Fifth, create a creative space for yourself if you can! This space can be indoors or outdoors. This creative space can be for when you want to think “out of the box” or problem solve. That space can have abstract art or things that inspire you. A colorful space stimulates creativity in your brain. This helps your brain be happy. Do brain games! These help your brain take a break from problem solving. Do mind mapping to help your brain visually walk its way through the problem. It is an excellent way to organize creative thoughts in your brain. Connect to a teammate or friend and talk things out. Your brain reacts differently when you hear yourself talk versus hearing yourself think. It is important to say things out loud to help you conclude. In the end, we are all creative in our own ways, so own it!
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