One important thing to remember is that creativity is not a passive process. Simply sitting back and waiting for inspiration to find you is a recipe for losing your motivation and becoming discouraged. Instead, focus on looking for ways to boost your own creativity. Seek out the things that inspire you and that helps you focus your attention and mental energy on the task at hand. Check out some of these fascinating and often unusual tricks that might help spark your creativity. Yet research has found that when rewards are offered explicitly for producing creative works, creativity actually increases. Researchers found that when participants imagined that a problem originated from a far location versus a close one, they solved more problems and came up with more creative solutions. One way to overcome this is to place some restrictions or resistance on your thinking can actually lead to more creative solutions. In one study, bored participants performed better on creativity tests than those who were elated, relaxed or distressed. In another study, researchers found that boredom gives people time to daydream, which then leads to greater creativity. Revisit the problem from the very beginning. Is there a different way to think about the problem? Can you look at the issue from a different angle? This doesn’t mean you should rush out and put yourself in a bad mood just to gain some inspiration. But the next time you do find yourself in a negative emotional state, try applying some of that energy towards solving a problem or accomplishing a task rather than just sitting around fuming. According to the researchers, the color blue helps encourage people to think outside the box. Since blue is heavily associated with nature, peace, and tranquility, the color tends to help people feel safe to explore and be creative. One study found that using something known as open-monitoring meditation in which the individual is receptive to any and all thoughts and sensations without focusing on any particular object or idea, can increase divergent thinking and the generation of new ideas.
