Channel More Creativity in Nature

I have always considered myself a creative person. I love creativity and being in a flow state with whatever creative task is at hand from collaging to cooking. But admittedly, sometimes creativity can feel forced. There might feel like a block in the way of getting to the real juicy creative flow. Everything I do can feel contrived. I might not be able to do anything at all because no good ideas are coming to me. I feel like a dried up well without inspiration. Do you ever feel like this?

Okay, how about this scenario? You’ve been struggling to solve a problem and it’s been on your mind practically non-stop all day. You’re exhausted from playing with the same ideas in your head over and over. You decide to take a break, go for a walk outside and clear your mind. As you’re meandering through the park, gazing in wonder at the beauty of the crowns of the trees blowing in the breeze, the answer you were looking for suddenly comes to you as if out of nowhere.

A multitude of scientific studies have demonstrated that nature can boost focus, problem-solving and creativity. This is in part due to nature’s ability to restore our attention. The Attention Restoration Theory proposes that nature effortlessly engages our awareness and gives us a sense of leaving our concerns behind. In doing so, we can clear our mind and have room for new creative ideas to sprout. Other analyses have shown that nature’s aesthetic and sensory appeal also boost creativity. Studies have even shown that people who view images of spacious wilderness environments were more creative. Also, people showed enhanced creativity when spending time in urban parks in city centers.

When I am in a green space, I often feel a weight lifted from my body. My breathing slows down as my nervous system relaxes. It often feels like I am coming home to my body, to my self. When I pause to take in my environment fully through all my senses, I feel a sparkle over my skin, like regenerative fairy dust. This sense of freedom, embodiment and connection is what I crave most and what draws me to wild spaces. When I am in this state, my worries disappear and the thought onr my mind float away. Then, the words come.

For me, it’s words. For you, it may be images, songs, movement, ideas or wherever your creativity takes you. They may arrive as if channeled from a mysterious source. The great mystery. The muse, the divine, the great creator. Some people call it a download because it feels like you just downloaded information from the cloud. Not the digital cloud but the actual cloud overhead shaped like a bunny bouncing across the sky and about to downpour or else beam you a rainbow.

Nature allows us to channel our most authentic creativity because we are nature. We evolved from the natural world, and it is where we most belong. Reconnecting again and again to the source of our creation connects us to our own source of creation. That is the beauty of it all.

Nature is in a constant state of creation. As you are reading this, a bird is born, a flower is blooming, a maggot is digesting, a seed is sprouting, a bird is singing, a gopher is mating, a rock wall is tumbling, a fish is spawning, a leaf is turning colors. Creation is infinite and all around us. Our physical reality is a constant state of creation. So why should we ever feel bored, stuck, blocked or uncreative? We only need to spend ten minutes gazing at the clouds or stars or tree branches or listening to the waves or bees or crickets or feeling the water or breeze or rain to reconnect to our infinite creative source.