These 5 Locations Can Help You Restore The Creative Ideation

For creativity to happen, something within us must be brought to life in something outside of us. 

- Paul Kaufman

To begin with the above quote by Paul Kaufman, Creativity is about the inner light which has the ability to illuminate the outer circumstances. That something within us is at times asleep due to the unending rush of acquiring the materialistic gains.

There are times when you run short of creative ideas for your business, art, or a new fiction novel. You feel like you have lost that Midas touch. You keep waiting for that “aha moment.” Thinking for hours about a new idea doesn't work each time. At times, it's just counter-intuitive. 

All you have to do is not to think about the idea. Don't stress out too much. Taking a walk is one of the best solutions recommended by artists and scientists. With this reference, I kept exploring exactly what is causing the roadblocks. 

Moreover, I went on self-exploring what will work for me to get back on track with the creative flow. The following five activities paved a way for striking me up with some creative eureka moments.

1. Roof Time

This is something very recent. I went to my friend's apartment to have some leisure talks. We decided to walk up to the roof. All of a sudden we found ourselves talking about something unusual. Instead of casual talks and exchanging some bad words with each other which we usually do just for fun, we were engaged in deeper conversations.

We began discussing the galaxy, the universe, the struggles that the great artists went through, introverts, extroverts, and so on. Furthermore, the topic of discussion smoothly shifted to the Big Bang Theory. I waved at my friend and came back home. From that day, I got habitual to step upstairs either on my apartment's terrace or on the terrace of my friend's apartment to talk with him.

As I used to go up, my mind started to come up with blog writing ideas, new quotes, and stories. Since then, I have consistently spent my evenings at the top of the building.

I recommend you to try this. May me just like me, ideas or innovations may not hit you right away for the very first time. But gradually they will. 

The scene of the mountain ranges, the flying birds, the sunrise and the sunset will refresh you and you will get filled with enthusiasm to work on the new idea that sparked your mind. Nature can offer abundant knowledge if we are aware and keep the eyes of our hearts wide open to receive it.

2. Mountains

Imagine, if looking at the mountains from a distance does wonders, then how about climbing the mountains?

Along with the health benefits of trekking, there is a range of optimistic results you can achieve by climbing these enormous triangles on the outskirts of your town.

There was a time when I was feeling depressed. My friend who is a Yoga teacher was trying to help me. Once, we went to a mountain peak. That day was one of my worst days, full of regrets and a lack of hope. We started climbing and took a halt by a rock where the region surrounding the rock was densely covered by trees.

My friend told me that he will be back in 10 minutes. Till then, I was supposed to listen to the chirping of birds, the blowing wind, and observe nature keenly without giving a damn about my life problems. It was a splendid experience. I felt amused and the bliss I experienced was so overwhelming that I began giving frequent visits to this place.

Today, the mountains not only tranquilize my mind but also help me to come up with better ideas for my writing projects.

I would like to suggest a trek on weekends by keeping away all the electronic devices as much as possible. You will be surprised by the innovative and creative solutions popping up in your head that otherwise seemed to be out of reach. Again, it may not happen for the first time but it will for sure.

3. Water Bodies

Just like the Mountains can lay a magical spell and get rid of roadblocks towards creativity, the same goes with the Waterbodies. In fact, all aspects and forms of Nature are a remedy to various kinds of miseries. 

Here's another example of my friend and myself this time sitting on the riverbank of a holy river. While rattling on various topics, a story of a temple and water was abruptly born inside my friend's mind. There were a temple and a river in front of us. He immediately came up with an imaginative conversation between a temple and water. Both of us jotted down the story.

You never know what, when, and how the surrounding nature can make your day. Any water body, that can be a river, a lake, a pond, dam, or sea calms your mind. Due to this, you escape the mundane thoughts and your mind gets attuned to the nearby waves of water. This is the point where the wheels of creativity just speed up as a result of the inspiration you receive from the tides, waves, and reflections in the water.

This may sound difficult to digest at times, but you can always give it a try. It has worked for me a lotta times and I'm thankful for the river and the lake near my hometown.

4. Cafés

The ambiance plays a major role in making up your mood. A dull black and white surrounding can indirectly make you feel bored. That's the reason why I found myself more creative and inspired at cafés and not at my job desk. The majority of the artists will agree with me on this.

The creative vision is more about an inside-out than an outside-in effect. You must feel enthusiastic and inspired by within but also up to a certain extent the external environment should be artistic. For instance, the mind of young kids is rich in imagination. Kids are surrounded by a varied range of colors whether they are in their classroom, bedroom, or in nature which naturally is rich in colors.

As the young adults find a decent 9 to 5 job, the early days of passion for the work get replaced by the monotonous feeling rising out of the same repeated work. Moreover, the lame ambiance of the workplace sucks the leftover zest from the body of the employee.

That's the reason why working remotely is a trending style of modern-day work. You can find many youngsters resting their laptops on the tables in the cafés and working on their projects. Each café offers a unique and decorative interior that can be healthy for new ideas to emerge.

While in Cafés, you can either sit ideal with a cup of coffee or talk with your friend and find an excellent idea hitting your mind. Then you can go home and start implementing it. Or, you can just bring your work material to the cafe that may be a lappy, and work as well as imagine at the same time which is a good blend of emerging ideas and executing them immediately. 

5. A Creative Room

The place which is very close to you which can be your bedroom or the room where you work most of the time can itself inspire you to come up with creative solutions. You don't have to buy or rent a new room. All you have to do is renovate it a bit. You can do it by painting the walls or printing some of your artwork and hanging them against the walls.

You will feel motivated by your own past works. This will re-inspire you to find the missing thing that keeps the engine of imagination running. Nowadays, the work-from-home culture is springing up rapidly. How about making your home an ideal place to work ingeniously?

All the self-employed artists in the world don't necessarily need to break their comfort zones to achieve something extraordinary. At the comfort of their room or a barn at the backside of their house, they can accomplish wonderful outcomes. They know exactly how their space should be like to help them boost their creativity. You can also refer to a café and make your room somewhat decorative like that café.

You must have heard people say that something just came out of the blue and everything changed thereafter. This generally happened at the times when they were walking on the beach, silently sipping a cup of coffee in a café, or watching the cityscape by standing at the top of a mountain.

The frequent changes in your surroundings either by escaping into nature, a nearby café, or changing your room's look can turn the tables for you. Try it and you will be able to design an innovative product, paint a masterpiece, find an incredible and captivating climax to your novel or come up with a solution to fix the problems of the people close to you. 

Besides the above 5 ways to deal with the shortage of creative ideas, you can discover your own ways too.

(Note: The images in this post are downloaded from royalty-free image sites)