I would say I’m a creative person. I like art – in fact I like art so much I did a degree in it – but since finishing my degree and landing a full-time job, I have found I am less creative on the artistic front. Now, my creativity is displayed in my writing. One of the reasons I started this blog was as a creative outlet. I love to write and I love travel, so it seemed to make sense.

Since I now do the same job from nine to five every day, I have been finding it difficult to stay creative; I often find I’m lacking in inspiration and have little to no motivation to carry out great (or not so great) ideas that I have. However, I find that my creativity peaks when I’m travelling or when I return from travelling, and this is not unique. Many people find that travel boosts their creativity in a number or ways and for a number of reasons.

When I get back from a trip away, I always have shed-loads of new ideas, whether they are arty ones or writing ones. In fact, I’m always inspired to create a piece of art from my travels like the ones below; it is a great way to employ my creative side (and keep in the loop with Photoshop), but they also act as great quirky reminders of my time away.

So, yes I have created one of those numbered lists that everyone seems to hate, but I hope it is useful as a tool to generate creativity from your travels. It doesn’t matter how long you are travelling for, you can always find inspiration somewhere (you can even find it at home – you just have to know where to look!)

Do Something Different

When we are at home or not travelling, we tend to fall into a routine. This can be good or bad, depending on how much you savour security, but it can often turn our creativity into a stale, shrivelled up mess. I can’t count the number of times I have got back from work determined to follow up some ideas I’d had during the day, only to completely flop after dinner and end up watching TV all evening.

Changing our routine or even doing a tiny aspect of it in a different way can improve creativity instantly. When you’re away, you tend to take things as they come as opposed to stick to a set routine that you might have at home. This immediately opens up doors for inspiration, not least because we are actually more aware of our surroundings – ever get that thing when you’re walking or driving somewhere familiar and realise that you don’t remember the journey at all because you know it so well and could do it in your sleep? If you’re at home, even taking a route that you usually don’t take could help inspire you.

Learn Something New

The world is a big place and that means that there is a lot to learn. There are so many places home to different cultures, climates, landscapes, foods, and arts that it’s hard not to learn anything when you’re away. Placing yourself in surroundings that are completely different from home can instantly give you new perspectives on old ways of thinking; seeing a group or community of people do something differently to how you would normally do it can inspire us and loosen up our lacking creativity. In addition, our brain makes new connections when we are learning which in turn creates new connections for a more creative way of thinking. The brain needs exercising too, ya know!

Interact and Engage

In an age where technology is the new god, it’s often easy to forget the inspiration that can develop from interacting face-to-face with real life human beings. Ever heard the phrase two minds are better than one? If you have an idea, discuss it with someone! It can be a huge eye opener getting someone else’s opinion and it can, in turn, give you new ideas. Even better – try interacting with people from completely different cultures to your own and see things as they see them; get chatting to the locals while you are travelling and listen to their stories and ideas.

An open mind is instantly more welcoming for creative thoughts and, whilst we might not always agree with everything someone says or thinks, a debate or discussion can be a great way to throw around new ideas and spark inspiration.

It’s easy to get stuck in your own bubble when you are at home in your routine, but we forget that other people can be the greatest providers of inspiration out there – get chatting!

Just Do It

It is almost a definite that travel makes us act more spontaneously. Being in a new place tends to have us throwing caution to the wind and delve right into stuff we wouldn’t even consider doing back at home. What’s the point of going away if you’re just going to do the same things you would do at home? Not least, this won’t inspire any creativity! Doing something new and exciting is a great feeling that brings with it the sweet spell of inspiration and we are more likely to try something different whilst travelling.

Why should we strive to be creative?

It’s all very well me sitting here writing about the ways you can increase your creativity without mentioning why it is important.

It has been proven that on an individual level, creativity improves our quality of life. When we are doing something creative or working towards something creative, we feel as if we are living our lives more fully than if we weren’t.

Community-wise creativity is, at its most basic level, a problem solving tool which can help develop business ideas in less-developed countries who can then work towards supporting themselves. Essentially, it is helping the human race to evolve.

We share a large proportion of our genetic make-up with chimpanzees, but what makes us different as a species is our ability to think in a creative manner and to then go on and learn from these pursuits.  This has resulted in the world we have around us today – both the good and the bad which we can then learn from and improve upon if we need to.

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About the author: Lizzie is a full time marketing assistant and part-time travel blogger promoting the ways to get the most out of grab-it-when-you-can travel. She spends her time creatively thinking of ways to plan trips around her job and advocating the idea that you don’t have to be ‘homeless’ to enjoy the perks of frequent travel. Aside from this, Lizzie likes questioning why people travel and the psychology behind it, watching crap American TV programmes, and drinking too much tea (cider). You can find out more about Lizzie here (go on – I know you want to see what’s behind the melon…)