4 Ways to Train Your Brain for Creativity

Are you an inventor, entrepreneur or writer? Or other creative type who makes his or her living at your craft? No matter your field of expertise, you may need to generate new material on a daily basis. You could blithely glide along in the hopes that creativity will come to you, but did you know there are ways to actively train your brain toward creativity? Here are four:

1. Make Use of Both Sides of Your Brain

Don’t fall for the popular myth that right-brained individuals are the only ones gifted in creative fields. True creativity emerges from both sides of your brain. A Dartmouth team found that creativity is the product of the whole brain at work. If a left-brain person is more analytical, that can actually be a boon to devising new solutions and to see new pathways to solving problems. So this exercise is about engaging both sides regardless of which half is dominant in your life. If you’re a right-brain person, open up an Excel sheet and work with numbers, or play a game that requires strategy. If you tend to be left-brained, sit down and write a creative description of an imaginary place with imaginary characters, or use that same pen to freely draw and sketch. You’ll be purposefully engaging that other half of your brain that might normally be under-utilized.

2. Explain Things Back to Yourself

You can boost your brain power and therefore your creativity with the simple practice of explaining things back to yourself. It's one thing to read or even study a book, and it’s another thing entirely to be able to teach a friend the key takeaways from the book. Assuming you don’t want to monopolize the time of your friends, practice on your own. Dig into a topic that excites you – and read and explain those research materials back to yourself. Your ability to explain, define and demonstrate new knowledge correlates to enhanced brain power. 

3. Take Frequent Breaks

Have you ever worked so hard you get on a roll, only to discover that you’ve been nurturing redundant ideas the whole time? When working on tasks that require creativity, you often reach a dead end without even realizing. So, whenever you feel tired at anything, take breaks at regular intervals. This practice will refresh your brain and open up room for creativity. 

4. Be a Kid

One of the most effective ways of honing your creativity is to tap into the ingenuity and imagination you had when you were a child. Children love to play. Children love to create. Children love to imagine. Go out of your way to look at your life through the lens of a child. Learn a new board game. Toss some hoops. Draw something with chalk on a sidewalk. Be a kid again! And give yourself enough time kicking around in that child’s world for your mind to wander, explore, daydream and then make use of these ideas as part of your brainstorming. 

If you cultivate creativity mindfully, your brain will be open to all the creative concepts knocking on its door waiting to be discovered. Just watch how your creativity will start to flourish.