After a few hours of staring at the blank Word document on my screen, I had had enough. My creative writing was hardly that. I was starting to surf the Internet for Real Housewives gossip and knew I needed an intervention. The creative juices weren’t flowing and frustration was darkening my brain. In fact the only thing that I managed to write was this:
“The blank page stares back and taunts me. ‘I dare you to write something,’ it seems to say. My words slowly creep out one at a time meandering across the page attached to no particular thought. Writing is so painful.“
It was time for an intervention and I found it with a good brisk walk. Donning my sneakers, a light jacket, and headphones blasting some upbeat music, out the door I went. And it worked.
Suddenly my mind opened up and ideas started flowing. I was able to finish the speech I was working on. Fascinated by the surge of creativity brought on by my walk, I did a little research.
A Stanford University study a few years ago revealed that walking whether indoors or outside does, in fact, boost creative thinking. While it still isn’t clear exactly why, the study showed that participants who walked had higher levels of creativity than those who sat.
So the next time you find yourself sitting at the computer and stuck in your thoughts, get up and walk around.
