Pauses & Creativity

As you might know, I love taking walks by the sea, and one of the top reasons for this is increased creativity.

Like all my pursuits in the well-being world, this also started with the question:

'Why does this work?'

For the past year, I’ve looked into the connection between stress and creativity, and one of the key insights has been the importance of taking regular breaks.

And this is why:

- Brief pauses, especially those spent in nature, facilitate cognitive and neurological recovery. This, in turn, prevents cognitive stress, as creativity is very sensitive to it.

- The Default Mode Network (DMN), associated with creative thinking, is most active during periods of rest. Pauses help the brain engage in spontaneous and unconstrained thinking, necessary for innovation and creativity.

- Taking a pause allows our subconscious mind to work on complex problems, leading to creative ideas and sudden insights.

- Mind-wandering, associated with creativity, allows the brain to make connections with unrelated subjects, which, in turn, aids the creative process.

In a world that overemphasises productivity, performance, and focused work, perhaps sometimes the most productive thing to do would be to do nothing at all, at least when it comes to creativity.