When you’re overwhelmed and feeling stymied and blocked, making yourself work harder is usually counterproductive. Your inspiration dries up; the numbers you’re trying to crunch swim before your eyes. The creative ideas you need just aren’t coming to you. The solution? You need an insight break! Here are six ideas to jump start your creative inspiration! Which one makes you say, “Yes!”?
Take a Hike — Is there a place near your office or home that makes you feel calm? Go there the next time you need insight. The answers you receive during those few minutes will be more than equal to the hours of statistics and analysis you had planned.
Try Meditation — Five to ten minutes is all you need. Simply close your door, turn off the phone and shut your eyes. Focus on your breathing or on a comforting word or phrase. You’ll come back feeling centered and relaxed. The answers to issues you were struggling with will often be resolved during that brief time for contemplation.
Switch Your Thinking — Sometimes you’re simply too focused on the problem to be solved to come up with an inspired solution. Change your inner dialog from “What’s wrong with me?” “I’m stuck.” Or, “I don’t know what to do.” Choose more self-empowered phrases such as, “I know I’ll come up with a great solution. I always do.” Or, “What’s my right next step?” Or, “What would __X__ do?” (Fill in the blank with someone you admire.
Change Your Location — If you can’t actually get away from the office, try changing your location. It can often be as simple as moving to an unused conference room or the company cafeteria. The minor change will help you maintain your mental alertness and increase your productivity. If you can, bring your laptop to the park. Nothing like a change of scenery to fire up your creative juices.
Go to the Gym — Exercise gets the cobwebs out of your brain and allows you to come up with successful ideas while running on the treadmill or lifting weights. Begin your activity with the belief that at the end of your workout you’ll have a great solution to the issue you’ve been struggling with. Allow your subconscious mind to work on the answer as you work out.
— It’s a time-honored tradition among some of the most creative people from inventors to politicians to successful entrepreneurs and executives. Take a brief “power” nap. Famous “nappers” include Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein and Brahms. The latter reportedly napped at his piano while he composed his famous lullaby. Many people confess that napping was one of the quickest ways they found to make a decision or come up with a solution. Just don’t snore and wake everyone else up!
Which one of the six ideas resonated with you the most? That’s your intuition giving you the go ahead. Now take action on it. Intuition is your inner guide to a successful, happy and inspired life.
