Five Ways to Create New Ideas and Boost Creativity

Sometimes it can feel like our creative process is being stifled by the world around us. But creative thinking can flourish when we come up with creative solutions to our lack of inspiration.

Here are five ways to encourage your own creative thoughts.

If you’re feeling uninspired, sometimes you need to get yourself in a positive mood to be able to get creative thought processes going.

If you love going out to dinner with friends, send them a quick message! If you find that having a bath is the best bit of your week, then turn the taps on and light a candle or two.

If you do something you love, you’re likely to relax and let the best ideas come to you naturally.

It can be tempting to see self care as a selfish act, but actually it’s one of the best ways of creating an environment where inspiration and new ideas thrive.

Sometimes, the best way to come up with creative ideas is to work with someone else. Find creative people who can up with problem-solving solutions or help you come up with novel ideas.

It could be someone from work who you’ve always admired or someone completely unrelated to whatever it is you’re trying to problem solve – but talking to someone can help integrate new thought processes that can encourage genius!

Sometimes the best way to come up with new ideas is not to think about them at all. If you’ve been struggling to find inspiration and pushing yourself to get off social media and do your best work, it might be time to get out of the work zone and escape for a while.

• Go for a day trip
• Go on a hike
• Read a book

Exercising helping to encourage creative ideas is a popular belief – and for good reason. Increasing blood flow to your brain through exercise can help you complete creative tasks by helping to inspire new ideas.

Consider going to a gym class or getting out and doing something you wouldn’t normally do in the outdoors, like hiking, rock climbing or horse riding.

Do something that takes you completely away from the task at hand for more than an hours lunch break. This will give your brain distance from the creative problem and help you sit down fresh the next time you go back to work.

Plus, giving yourself psychological distance also gives your brain time to process all the information and ideas you’ve already had or received and sometimes giving your mind space to do that will help solutions come to you naturally, rather than pushing for them.

Sometimes, the best way to inspire creative ideas is to push yourself outside of your comfort zone. This can be something small, like working on your creative project somewhere that you don’t usually, or it can be something huge like going to New York and working with American professionals in your industry.

Maybe you’ll take yourself out of your comfort zone, get some exercise and give yourself psychological distance by going on a two-day camping and hiking weekend. There are heaps of novel ideas that can help you get out of your own head and into a creative mindset.

It can be hard when we compare ourselves to people like Steve Jobs or Albert Einstein to feel like we’re capable of anything other than mediocrity.

But we’re all capable of coming up with creative ideas and new concepts if we just take the time to encourage them by living a life that inspires innovation.