3 Science-Based Steps to Boost Your Creativity

Most people associate creativity with artists and writers, but chemistry, biology, or even rocket science couldn't exist without creativity and imagination. It's not a talent that some of us are born with. It's a skill we can learn and nurture. It's a complex process happening all over our brains, but there are a few things we can do that will vastly improve our creative ability over time.

For an idea to be considered creative, it must be novel and also add value. You might come up with thirty different uses of a paperclip, but only few of these ideas will be worth developing.

Does it mean it was a waste of time? No. Because if you hadn't come up with those thirty, you wouldn't have found the one that was good.

Dr. Alice Flaherty, a neurologist who has done a lot of research on creativity, spoke about it in her TEDx talk, calling it the "Darwinian aspect to creativity".

"If you produce enough - just like a bug that has a lot of babies - by chance you're going to produce some good ideas." (TEDx, 2019)

Today we'll look at how to enhance our ability to produce as much as possible to hopefully stumble upon a creative idea or solution.

Step 1 - Get into the Alpha state of mind

First, we need to know when we are most likely to be creative. Our neurones communicate with each other through electrical pulses. This activity appears in repetitive patterns. There are five different brainwave frequencies, which we can now measure thanks to a german scientist, Dr. Hans Berger, who invented the EEG machine.

Types of brainwaves

Delta waves - the slowest waves, happen during deep sleep

Theta waves - light sleep, dreaming

Alpha waves - right after we wake up or during relaxation and meditation. In this state, our mind is most able to be creative and generate new ideas.

Beta waves - we are fully awake, alert and focused. We won't come up with many ideas during this period, but we will be capable of developing those we've already got.

Gamma waves - intense focus, engagement in problem solving

We need to set the scene for our baby ideas. The alpha state of mind is where you want to be if you want to create. Alpha and beta states are the two that happen when we are awake. Nick Skillicorn, the author of the book 30 Days of Creativity Training: 150 Exercises to Enhance Your Creativity in One Month, spoke about this in his TEDx talk.

"Different aspects of creativity require a different brain activity, and they cancel each other out. When you are relaxed (alpha state), you can make new subconscious connections and have these inspiration moments. But if you want to extend on them, analyse them, and turn them into something valuable, you need the focusing ability of the beta level." (Nick Skillicorn, 2014)

This means there are two different processes we go through during the day, and each is important for producing creative ideas, however, they cannot occur at the same time. The best way to enter the alpha state of mind is through relaxation, meditation, or yoga.

Step 2 - Train your brain to make new connections

When we are relaxed, neurones form new connections using the information they already have and it happens in our subconscious. Being in the alpha state is the time when our so-called default mode network is at its best to produce new ideas, but we still need the neurones doing their job better and faster.

Here is how: Seek novelty and improvise.

Novelty  creates more dopamine, and dopamine helps our creative drive and motivation. Our brains love the "shiny new thing" and will reward you for it. Having a routine is good, but also makes our creative thinking stagnate. Including change into our everyday lives will ensure that our brain is kept awake and stays on a look out for the new information that can lead to new ideas.

"Improvisation is something you can do if you want to get your brain actually structured to change in a way that it becomes easier and faster for you to become creative on command." (Nick Skillicorn, 2014).

Step 3 - Keep learning

You can build a house out of a few lego pieces, but when you get another two boxes full of bricks, you can build a castle. We need to fill our brain with information to give our neurones more pieces to play with and connect.

Finishing school doesn't mean we should stop learning. In fact, it's even better now, because no one will tell you what to learn. You're free to follow your interest and immerse yourself in whatever grabs your attention.

There is no need to become an expert. It's ok to go back and forth from one area to another. Don't learn something because you should, but because you want to. Don't learn to memorise, learn to understand. It's easy to get information on any area of study in today's world. Read, watch Youtube, attend courses, get into online classes or, if you can't afford them, there are sites where you can get at least a free trial.

Brilliant

Skillshare

FutureLearn

Stanford Online

Coursera

Edx

Khan Academy

Libraries are always a great source of information. There are university lectures on the Internet available to watch for free. No matter what you choose, the main goal is: keep learning.

All three of these steps are important aspects of creative thinking. It will be very tough to generate new ideas without relaxation and feeding your brain new knowledge. Doing creative challenges, improvising, and seeking novelty will help you get faster. But don't forget that no matter how many ideas you come up with, you need to dig through them, find the good ones, and get focused in order to analyse and develop them into something better.