Wiggle Room: How a little movement can spark big ideas
A simple move to help unleash creativity
Want to get your creative juices flowing? Try moving.
Science has offered up plenty of evidence that physical activity impacts our brains and how we think; research shows exercise tends to improve our mood, our ability to reason, and our ability to think creatively.
Scientists have yet to tease apart exactly how exercise works its magic on the brain. And, different impacts likely have different effects. For example, regular, aerobic activity can trigger structural changes, such as increased brain volume, particularly in the hippocampus, which improves aspects of cognition and memory. As in this case, when talking about exercise and the brain, researchers are typically talking about regular, consistent movement.
Creativity, however, appears to get a boost by simply moving the body. According to a review of studies from the Department of Neuroscience at Yamaguchi University in Japan, even a single, brief walk or climbing a few flights of stairs can boost creative thinking. 1
Fun fact: The whole left-brain/right-brain personality thing is a myth; the human brain doesn’t favor one side over the other.2 The two hemispheres work differently, but they work together, connected by a super highway of nerves. And, one theory as to why a single bout of movement can boost creativity is that cross-body movement in which opposite sides of the body work together strengthens the connection between the left and right hemispheres. That cross-body movement—think right arm and left leg, then left arm and right leg like when we crawl, walk, or swim—essentially creates an EZ Pass along the brain’s inter-hemisphere highway and lets information pass more freely between the two.
An easy way to do this is to focus on crossing the midline of your body, like in an exercise called the cross-crawl, which you can do right at your desk for both a little break from too much sitting and as a brain boost all at once.
How to:
Stand with your feet apart and your arms extended parallel to the ground.
Shift your weight to your left foot, lift your right knee, and touch it with your left hand.
Set your right foot down and immediately switch sides.
Keep going for one to two minutes.
Moving into high gear,
Kelly
Reclaiming Creativity
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Love this one! I have used this as a warm-up for my movement+journaling class offerings. I find it (and other bilateral stimulatory movements) are really helpful.
Must be in the air! I’ve been working on and talking about cross-lateral movement all week!