We’ve all been there…
Those times when a huge invisible wall keeps us from finishing that song we so badly want to record. When that last line just won’t come. When our muse is AWOL. When we’ve got, alas, the one thing every writer fears most…writer’s block.
The internet is awash with all kinds of remedies for this age-old curse, but did you know that one of the most effective is simply going on a hike? Many famous literary and musical geniuses have found their creative muse in nature. Maybe a wander in the wilds will do the same for you!
Below, here are 6 scientifically-backed reasons why a brush with nature can help you overcome your brain’s creativity boycotts.
Curiosity Cures Creative Cramp
Research suggests that we should spend more time in natural environments to increase our creativity. This is because the more time we spend in nature, “the more time we actually get”.
Let’s unpack that a little…
According to a University of Utah study, exposure to nature promotes feelings of awe and curiosity. In three experiments, the study showed that these emotions expand our perception of time. This, in turn, heightens attention to stimuli and improves cognitive exploration.
This means you’ll be more attuned to and appreciative of things that you may ordinarily push aside, letting in what regular thinking patterns keep out, and oiling the cogs that get your creative wheel turning.
The Woods Will Improve Your Moods
According to this study, spending time in nature can greatly enhance sensory experience.
The benefits of this phenomenon for writers and artists are numerous.
Firstly, the study revealed that two of the colors predominantly found in nature—green and blue—can reduce anxiety and stress. It also demonstrated that sounds heard in nature—birdsong, the rush of a river, the humming of the wind—have restorative qualities that help to soothe our technology-troubled and generally overloaded brains. Lastly, the smells of nature can have pronounced effects on your mood, cognition, and behavior, triggering feelings of nostalgia and connection that help put us in a more positive mood.
Positive thinking alone won’t write your next magnum opus, granted. However, negative minds are risk-averse and apprehensive minds. Positive ones, on the other hand, are disinhibited and more likely to explore novel ideas and find creative solutions.
Nature: One Giant Resource of Inspirational Wonders
A Japanese engineer once saw a kingfisher dive into a lake while out on a hike. Fast forward a few years, and Japan unveiled the world’s first “bullet train”, a locomotive capable of traveling at higher speeds and with minimal noise all thanks to a pilot end shaped like a Kingfisher’s beak.
Plenty of other artists, designers, and innovators have taken inspiration from nature, too.
Some of the most notable include engineer George de Mestral, who created something called “Velcro” after seeing burrs of burdock stuck to his dog; Sir Issac Newton, who discovered the Law of Gravitational Force after watching an apple fall from its tree; Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi, whose collection “Seven Days Walking” speaks for itself; and a guy called Beethoven, who loved the countryside and headed out on hikes in all weather to kindle his creative fires.
A New Environment Will Give Your Brain a Boost
One of the leading causes of writer’s block is fatigue and stress, both of which find an antidote in the form of time spent in nature.
In a study by the University of Michigan, spending time in nature was revealed to promote a healthier mind by reducing mental fatigue and symptoms of stress. This, in turn, helps to sharpen your focus, improve your memory, and create a less inhibited, more productive state of mind.
Hiking Broadens Your Horizons
One of the main benefits of hiking is getting to experience new things and meet new people.
Humans are walking, talking, breathing stories. Interacting with ones outside your usual social circle is a sure way to garner new ideas, insights, and an even better understanding of humanity. New places, likewise, promote a conceptual break from the ordinary. By freeing your mind from its habituated MO, this allows it to wander in entirely new directions.
Broadening your perspective this way encourages loose and lateral thinking, which we all know is the key to getting creative.
If our studies and studios are the proverbial “box”, where could be more “outside the box” than a hiking trail? And if your usual confreres are fellow musicians and artists, who more likely to shake up the status quo of your social circles and everyday cerebral content than peeps from an entirely new and refreshingly heterogenous demographic?
Variety isn’t just the spice of life, it’s the enabler of uncommon experience. Uncommon experience isn’t just fun, it’s the midwife to all creative endeavor.
Healthy Body, Healthy Mind
Hiking provides a low-intensity cardio workout that brings many health benefits. It reduces your risk of heart disease, improves blood circulation, and increases lung capacity. It also helps your body regulate serotonin and melatonin levels, gives you a healthy intake of vitamin D, and triggers the production of endorphins, aka “the happy hormones”.
Super, we hear you say, but how the heck’s all that supposed to help me write?
Well, a healthier respiratory and circulatory system brings more oxygen to the brain. A bonus for humaning in general, this is especially important to keeping our gray matter sharp, more active, and resilient.
Serotonin and melatonin also fall into the decidedly “not-bad-to-have” category. While the former stabilizes your moods, the latter helps you get adequate Type 2 Beauty Sleep, i.e. the kind that lets you wake up feeling fresh and ready to pen a beautiful pièce de résistance instead of encountering resistance from your pen.
And Vitamin D? The “sunshine vitamin” not only wards off depression, but also promotes “general brain health,” which makes it sound less like an optional supplement and more like the oil in your car or even the blood in your veins, i.e. kinda necessary!
Lastly, like the oft-quoted “runner’s high”, hiking also stimulates endorphin production. In addition to relieving pain and stress, these hormones sharpen focus, improve concentration, and also stimulate the development of new brain cells.
But couldn’t I just get all this goodness on a treadmill? You may ask.
Some of it, yeah. We’d reply. But in lower doses and without the synergistic effect that sees both the physical and mental benefits of exercise multiply when undertaken outdoors.
Sometimes, You Just Need a Well-Deserved Break
Several recent studies have shown that taking a step back and resting is conducive to better productivity and more innovative thinking.
But is hiking really a form of resting?
Sadly, many of the activities considered “restive” in the modern world are far from it. Spending time on our phones and laptops might feel a less egregious source of fatigue and irritation than the day job, but all are, in psychological parlance, stressors.
Going on a hike allows you to disconnect from stressors and take a break from technology. Doing so, in essence, hits a big reset button in your brain, leaving you refreshed and ready to face up to your inbox, unfinished chores, and, importantly, your compositions when you get back to civilization.
Just don’t leave it so long next time, you hear? We know those lyrics and notes won’t write themselves, but breaking up the routine with a regular wander in the wilds might just let them come a little easier when you get back to business.
