Ideas can pop up anywhere, in the most unexpected of places, that’s the easy part for some people, but what if you struggling to get into a creative mindset? Well, if that’s the case, this blog post is for you.
The brain needs rest because creativity is work, and work is tiring. You’re going to have all of your best ideas when you’ve had a really good night’s sleep.
Doing some simple, singular tasks, rests and relaxes your brain so that creative ideas can more easily float to the surface. This is why a lot of people have their best ideas while they are showering or running. In these mind spaces, you’re not thinking about past or future, you’re just living in the present, and that means ideas will suddenly arrive.
Cycling can be really meditative. You’re not huffing and puffing, you’re spinning, and you’re in this place where you’re putting in a bit of effort but still allowing yourself some mental space to do some thinking. This is a great place to let the ideas come thick and fast, but be sure to capture them! If you have your phone handy, be sure to make voice notes or written notes.
If you’ve ever tried meditating, you’ll know how hard it is to keep focused on the task of meditating. Your mind flows to all sorts of weird and wonderful places.
Here’s what Daniel says about meditating:
I’ve tried to get into the habit of meditating for the last two years, with varying degrees of success. Something I realised recently is that I have two types of meditation. I’ve got the times when I’m in the zone and I’m not thinking about anything from the past or present, and I’m in the place where the meditation teacher says you should be. That’s fine, it feels good there. But the second type of meditation is when I’m just daydreaming about things, and in this space, I get loads of ideas. I’ve learned to recognise when I’m in that meditative space, and so I try to write the ideas down on a notepad, then let them flow and develop in my mind.
Before you go to bed, pose yourself a question, like an intention for your sleep. Many of us do this subconsciously anyway for our real-life issues. Before you hit the hay, give your mind a problem to solve, and ask it how it would go about fixing it. While you sleep, your brain gets to work.
When you wake up, you have some nice clear thoughts about the problems with some solutions for fixing it.
Generating ideas requires giving yourself some space, being good to yourself, removing distractions, getting outside, and even doing meditative exercises. For some, it’s sports, like running, cycling, or surfing. For others, it could be drawing, sketching, painting, or reading. It might be punching and kicking a bag. For others, it might be taking a walk or playing in the park with your kids.
Find that place that lets your mind wander, but give it an idea to wander with.