Sage Bray Varon

Let’s talk physiology. Yes, I know that sounds weird for blog on creativity, but I’ve been doing a bit of research about what affects our creative minds and there is a ton of evidence, both scientific and anecdotal, that the state of our physical being has a serious effect on the state of our imagination and creative abilities. That may not be so surprising, but I bet some of the suggested approaches will be.

So, over the next couple months, while we’re busily getting ready for the holidays, I’m going to do a series of short posts on ways you can support your creativity through supporting your physical self or using physical actions. Most are easy, quick things you can readily add to your repertoire of creativity boosting tricks. I think they could be especially useful in times like these when your energy can be so quickly drained.

Okay, let’s start with the simplest idea I read about and, quite likely, the silliest sounding one.

Raising Your Eyebrows

I have to say that the idea of raising your eyebrows to increase your creative performance raised my own eyebrows when I first read this. But, upon digging deeper, I found that this theory is backed up by research performed at the University of Maryland. They found that study participants that raised their eyebrows generated more original ideas, and a significantly greater quantity of them, over the other participants who were asked to furrow their brows during a creative brainstorming session.

What?!

The idea behind this is that raising your eyebrows broadens your visual field, increasing the activity in your brain by triggering more thoughts. Alternately, furrowing the brows narrows your visual field reducing the number of thoughts triggered.

I tried this the other day when I was attempting to solve a plot issue in one of my novels. Although I felt rather silly, it did seem to help, or at least I saw a great improvement in my work over the tired and half lidded attempt at a writing session I had earlier that day. Maybe it just made me feel more awake and alert, but that in itself would be very helpful.

I will conduct further studies of this creativity boosting approach. But I’m not taking any selfies during those sessions!

If you try this, let me know what you think of the results.

Going Forward

Sorry about missing you last week. I got my COVID booster shot, and it kicked my butt. There was no eyebrow raising for me that weekend.

I’m not getting much of a break this coming week either. I’ll be doing a little hopping across the states. I’m not thrilled about all the people I will be in contact with on various flights, but I have family and friends that need my assistance.

My reward, at the end, is that I get to bring one of my granddaughters back with me for a little while. Haven’t seen her since before the pandemic started, so I am over the moon about it. Talk about a creative boost! Young minds are so inspiring.

For those that have been following along with the monthly challenges, my apologies. I did not put together a challenge for this month and I probably won’t for next month either. It’s just getting too busy all the way around to add something else to the list. Let’s just make an effort to ensure that some part of our day, every day, is spent creating.

So, raise those eyebrows and get those synapses snapping. Let’s see what creative genius we can bring about this coming week!