5 Tips for Increasing CREATIVITY

How Cannabis, Writing, Chaos, Exercise and Naps Feed the Creative Mind

Very often we hear about creativity as a natural gift. Artists get showered with praise and proclamations of “you’re so talented,” but truthfully, talent has little to do with it.

Creativity is a skill to be learned, practiced, and honed, just like any other. Juggling takes practice, as does surfing, coding, and driving a car. Creativity is no different. The more you make creativity part of your daily life, the more it will grow.

So how do you make creativity part of your daily life? Here are 9 suggestions-and guess what? You can get started on them all in the next 10 minutes.

1. PUT PEN TO PAPER

Author Jack London said every writer should keep a notebook. “Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.” Although technology has improved since London penned Call of the Wild, it still hurts the eyes to look at it for too long and disconnects you from yourself. The process of writing on paper improves the use of the brain, focusing on areas used for thinking and language. On a keyboard, a tap creates a letter, making the relationship superficial.

 Creativity is about coming up with new ideas, a new combination of old elements and it depends on the ability to see unusual relationships. However, you cannot make those connections until the pieces exist. This is where the notebook comes in— a repository for an inventory of raw material, information and observations. Write it all down– the good, the bad and the ugly. Studies out of MIT and the University of California, Davis, establish that more bad ideas means you will be likely to have good ideas. Simply put, says biochemist Linus Pauling, “the best way to have good ideas is to have a lot of ideas.”

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2. MY LOVELY MESS

A 2013 study published in the Psychological Science journal found that physical order produces healthy choices, generosity, and conventionality (all good), BUT disorder produces creativity. While order and disorder are prevalent in nature and culture, orderly environments lead people toward tradition and convention, while disorderly environments encourage breaking with tradition and convention —and both settings can alter preferences, choices and behaviors. By removing any semblance of self from your working environment, you are stopping your brain from wandering and making creative connections. So, keep your desk messy, like Mark Twain, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein and Steve Jobs and don’t judge…but maybe keep it at just enough mess to engage your brain, but not too much so that you spend five minutes looking for your pen and forget your genius moment.

3. EXERCISE SPARKS DIVERGENT THINKING

For ages, it has been accepted that physical exercise enhances positive moods and positive moods favor creative thinking. Anecdotal evidence suggests that creative people use movement to help overcome blocks. Henry James and Thomas Mann used to walk before starting to write. Wallace Stevens wrote poetry on his way to the office.

 Physical exercise trains your brain to become more flexible in finding creative solutions. Exercise stimulates the Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which encourages the growth of new brain cells in the hippocampus, the region where the ability to imagine the future and to think creatively lies. It plays a big role in long term memory, but it also plays a role in helping imagine new situations.

 4. BRIEF NAPS WILL INSPIRE YOU

Great ideas are sometimes manifested in that moment when you accidentally nod off and then shake awake, better known as the hypnopompic state. As you come out of the dream state, REM, where there are vivid images to access, quickly document them (in your notebook!). 

Salvador Dali used this technique to help generate creative ideas. He would place a tin plate on the floor and then sit, holding a spoon over the plate. He would relax his body; sometimes falling asleep. The moment he dozed, the spoon would fall on the plate, immediately waking him to capture the images, ideas and thoughts of Surrealism.

 5. CANNABIS AND CREATIVITY

A 2015 study conducted by University College London found that cannabis was associated with improved divergent thinking. However, high doses may impair divergent thinking. Too much THC inhibits the ability to brainstorm new ideas and innovative solutions to problems. The study found that people who occasionally used cannabis had greater divergent thinking ability than those who regularly consumed .

Find that fine line between the amount of cannabis needed to focus on the creative output and too much that produces anxiety. Find your perfect dose and unlock your potential, the ability to be more introspective, improve pattern recognition and enhance cerebral blood flow, all leading to a more creative experience. (P.S. Avoid too much use/the wrong strain/the wrong mood or surrounded by the wrong people or your creative output will go down.)

To take advantage of cannabis’ creative powers, do what works for you. Play with different dosages, strains and creative activities to see how cannabis can tap into your inner artist. And it goes without being said, create an experience that provides you with stamina and clear-headedness to get the work done.