How to Be More Creative
Posted August 15th, 2016
When do you come up with your best ideas, your most creative insights? Is it while you are intently focusing on a problem, or when you are doing something less mentally taxing, like taking a walk, taking a shower, or just lying in your hammock in the back yard?
It’s probably when you are relaxing, allowing your mind to wander. And that’s no accident, according to psychologists. The fact is that we may think nothing is going on in our brains when we are just taking a stroll, but in reality there is a lot going on. In fact, more areas of our brain are working than when we are intently focused on something.
Neural Networks
When we let our minds wander, relaxing our focus, our brains start making connections among the many things that it had not been aware of before. And it is also at this time when the parts of our brain that we use for creativity function as well.
All of this happens because we have two neural networks that operate in our brains, but only one can be turned on at any one time. One network is called the task positive network, and other is the task negative.
The task positive network is active when we are focusing on something. It’s active when we are doing things like writing a presentation, working on a project, or solving some problem. At this time, our task negative network is off.
The task negative network is only active when we are not focusing, when we let our minds wander. It’s when our minds are working, usually on the subconscious level, making all of those connections we had not seen before. And it’s where our creative insights come from.
So, contrary to popular opinion, which generally looks with disapproval on daydreaming and letting your mind wander as just a waste of time, it is really anything but. In fact, it is absolutely essential if we are to do our best work.
We actually need to make time during the day to allow our minds to relax, to give it that downtime that it needs to begin making those connections that it otherwise could not.
If you need to be more creative in finding a job, Bayside Solutions can help you. Bayside specializes in technology related careers. We have the expertise to match you with the right job. Give Bayside a call today.
