Many people work in creative jobs, but it can be hard to keep the creativity flowing at times and the process can be frustrating. Sitting at a desk desperately trying to do a creative job can be bad for your mental health, and new research has shown that in actual fact it is not the most helpful way to go about firing up your creativity either. Instead of sitting down and engaging your brain, you should stand up, engage your legs and go for a nice long walk.
Psychologists have shown that modern environments, such as offices and city settings, can actually stifle creativity. The best environment for releasing creativity is the natural environment, and people who are trying to fire up their brains and increase their wellbeing should make it a priority to get back to natural surroundings.
Shocking new research shows that children only spend 15 – 25 minutes outside every day, and there has also been a 20 percent decrease in visits to national parks. On top of this, children aged 8 to 18 spend an average of eight hours per day using at least one type of media such as computers, televisions or mobile phones.
The effect of this constantly ‘switched on’ nature of our lives can have a detrimental effect on our wellness, as we are constantly trying to multitask and always feeling distracted by the various intrusions into our lives.
In order to test the effects of getting back to nature, the study did creativity tests on the 56 participants, who had just spent four to six days taking part in a long hike, with no electronic devices. Half of the participants did the test before the hike and half did the test after. The results showed that those who had just been hiking were far more creative than those who had not yet started their hike.
This seems to show that creativity can be given a tremendous boost by getting back to nature and that the best thing that you can do to get over a problem with creative flow is to get outdoors into a natural environment and go for a nice, long hike.
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