1. The Natural World
Who’s the greatest creator of all? Mother nature of course. From the lakes, oceans and trees to the wildlife and the tiniest living organisms. Nature is forever busy making and breaking things, and we can learn a lot from it.
Many great inventions have been inspired by observing nature. The Kingfisher bill inspired the design of the Japanese bullet train, burdock inspired the invention of velcro and termites helped develop ventilation systems.
Right now you might be sitting in your office, at home on a couch, in a local cafe or maybe travelling somewhere. Everyday spaces share one thing in common, they’re all made by humans for humans.
Unless you live outdoors, most people spend very little time in environments which aren’t human-made. Thinking out of the box begins with freeing yourself from boxed spaces and getting into an open natural environment.
Brainstorming in the park can really be a breath of fresh ideas.
Here are a few things you can ask yourself to inspire your creativity when you’re in nature:
- Try zooming in by observing an insect, plant or a tree close up. What things do you notice that you’ve never seen before? Is there anything that inspires you? What ideas can you get?
- What ideas do you get from the textures, shapes and colours around you? What would happen if you combined them all together?
- What do you notice about how nature moves? Describe the mood and sounds around you. What ideas come to mind?
2. Dreams
How often do you remember your dreams when you wake up
in the morning? Have you ever had a dream that sparked an
idea?
Some of the world’s greatest discoveries have come from
dreams. Extraordinary discoveries like the structure of the
atom, and ideas like the world’s first science fiction novel.
I’ve had a few inspirations and ideas come to me directly
through dreams which I wouldn’t have thought of consciously.
This made me curious and I realised the vast potential of
dreams.
Some of the greatest inventors of all time spent most of their
day thinking with intensity about solving a problem. It’s also
why they were much more likely to dream about possible
solutions. Because we use a different part of our brain when
we’re dreaming, the solutions are more likely to be abstract,
interesting and creative.
Here are a few suggestions of how to tap into this never-
ending, incredible source of creativity:
- Get into the practice of journaling your dreams. Keep a
notepad and pen near your bed, or some way of noting down
your dreams when you wake up.
- Encourage pondering new ideas during the daytime. We
tend to dream about what we spend most of our day doing.
For example, if we’ve spent our day gardening, we’re more
likely to have dreams about gardening too. If you spend more
time during the day thinking of new ideas, you’re much more
likely to dream about new ideas too.
- Sometimes we dream about the last thoughts we have
before falling asleep. So if we intend or affirm to ourselves
that we want to have creative ideas in our dreams, it will
increase your likelihood of having an inspired dream.
