Growing up in Colorado, I always turned to nature for inspiration. Taking in a beautiful sunset walk, a breezy bike ride, or a mountain hike always put me in a great mood. At the time, I didn’t know that spending time in nature was not only good for my physical and mental health, but also had a direct impact on my creativity. Researchers discovered that creativity thrives when our brains our freed from distraction.
Think about the constant onslaught of emails, texts, social media alerts, and phone calls that demand your attention every minute of the day. This stream of digital interruption exhausts your prefrontal cortex, the region of your brain involved in multitasking and higher-order thinking. This causes cognitive fatigue, that unsettling feeling you get when you can’t focus, solve problems, think deeply, or come up with new ideas.
Here’s the exciting news, when you step into nature you give your prefrontal cortex a break. Creativity starts simmering when your prefrontal cortex quiets down and your brain’s default mode network, DFN for short, can take over.
The DFN is a connection of brain regions that light up when your attention relaxes. The DFN is responsible for that delightful feeling you get when you’re day dreaming and your thoughts glide through memories, ideas, emotions, and visions for the future. I can feel when this part of my brain takes over because my energy changes.
For example, I feel lighter and experience a shift in how I view time. I think visually and images of ideas, solutions, and emotions process non-linearly as I move back and forth through different perspectives. Then, a bigger picture comes together and I feel a different type of clarity. In these times, I feel positive, capable, and open to possibilities.
Isn’t is spectacular that walking in nature helps to activate your DFN and get your creative juices flowing? According to the Journal of Environmental Psychology, a twenty minute walk outside can help refresh your brain, inviting the default mode network to take over and boost your creativity. So, next time you’re feeling out of alignment with your own creativity, step into nature to be inspired and open your mind to creative possibilities. ❤️