By Jackie Bland
Are you one of those people who has their most creative ideas in the bath?
Or perhaps you’ll find yourself in the middle of a conversation about something else completely and the solution to a longstanding problem pops into your head.
Why is this?
The simple answer is that while concentration and focus are great for some types of activity (adding rows of figures, for example, or editing a text); to be creative, brains need to relax.
Unfortunately, most people don’t know this and beat their brains up trying harder and harder to ‘be creative’ and not getting the result they want. Later, when all focus and concentration have been abandoned and they’ve given up trying – zap- into their heads, swiftly and easily, slide the brilliant ideas, or the amazing solutions.
It’s not so much the bath, the shower, or the particular conversation you might be having that
triggers the result; it’s just the fact that you’ve given your creative brain processes the space they need to work at their best. You’ve taken your highly conscious, analytical, logical brain off the task, and given the more creative, imaginative functions of the brain a chance to work at a deeper, less conscious level of awareness.
This knowledge is used by businesses that rely on a high level of creative input from their staff. Companies like Google and Apple, for example, have created some work spaces and working regimes which allow creative brains to work at their best. They offer environments which promote calm, relaxation and aesthetically pleasing spaces, and time restrictions and requirements are reduced to a minimum.
So, if your brain seems empty of new ideas and just won’t play, or you’re eating away at the same old problem with no result, just stop trying. Take yourself off and do something that is relaxing or enjoyable – or both- and hand over complete responsibility to your creative, inner brain.
It will deliver the goods when you least expect it.