One of the greatest myths about creativity is that you either have it or you don’t. 

But that’s simply not true. 

Everyone is capable of creative thought, and everyone can learn to harness their creativity. 

Here are three of our top tips for tapping into your creative mind. 

1. Take a walk. 

A 2014 study from Stanford University in the US has shown that people are much more creative when they are walking around as opposed to when they are sitting still. 

Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz, who both authored the paper, studied 176 college students as they completed certain creative thinking tasks. 

They found that when people were walking, either on the treadmill or outdoors, they were 60% more creative than when sitting around. 

2. Take your time. 

There’s a myth that creativity thrives under pressure. 

But ‘incubation time’—where you allow your mind to wander after you’ve taken new information in—will allow your mind to rest, assimilate the information, and come up with new and better ideas.

3. Rethink the problem. 

Creativity is a kind of problem-solving. And creative thought often results from rethinking the problem. 

A group led by Keith Markman from Ohio University found that people could double their creativity by thinking about ‘what could have been’. 

This viewpoint made them come up with even better ideas, and more creative thinking for future problems.

 

By Michelle from the software I love: Canva