When you find yourself in a creative rut, how do you usually get past it? You might read a book, play a game, work out, talk to a friend, or grab a coffee at a local cafe. These are great ways to step away from your problems and hectic schedule to let your brain have a bit of a break. Removing yourself from your problem is one of the most significant ways to relieve your creative block and get a better understanding of that problem.
However, there’s another way to distance yourself from your problems that is scientifically proven to boost your creativity and cognitive abilities, and that’s by actually going away from your problems and traveling abroad to another country!
What pops into your head when you hear the word “traveling”? Do you think to yourself, “going on vacation,” “luxury hotels,” “way too expensive,” or even “absolutely not”? Traveling can be a very polarizing topic for many people. Some love it and will travel anywhere in the world no matter what, and some only want to take a week off at a resort in Fiji if they can get the time off. Then some have no interest whatsoever in going abroad or leaving the country. While all of those are entirely valid, it’s hard to deny that traveling and going abroad can jumpstart your creative thinking skills!
Now before you go, “oh great, I have to spend thousands of dollars to go on vacation just to be more creative, yeah, no thank you.” that’s not the type of traveling we’re talking about at all. You don’t have to go to some luxury resort that costs a thousand dollars a night. You can simply stay in the cheapest place possible (as long as it’s somewhere culturally different than where you live now). As a result, your creativity begins to bloom again, and that creative block will be kicked to the curb.