Have you ever found yourself desperately trying to solve a problem? Or maybe you’ve felt pressure to come up with a new idea or create something innovative? For most of us, this sort of situation pops up frequently.

Maybe we start by researching the situation, gathering information and talking to a few people to get to the heart of the problem we’re facing. But what do we do next?

At this point we can often feel stuck, staring at all the information but without any inspiration. A sense of dread and anxiety can set in, particularly when there’s a deadline hanging over us and the clock is ticking. We keep at it by analysing, mulling it over, going back through the information and desperately trying to find the solution.

So how does this anxiety fuelled behaviour impact our performance and our ability to find a solution? Brain scans show us that when we are anxious, our brains create a tight loop of activity considering the same things over and over again. We think we are working hard but our options are massively limited as the brain becomes more logical and linear sensing it’s in danger and it won’t back down until the danger is gone.

As the Harvard Business Review reported, in this state we experience;

Reduced focus
A decline in our mood
A decrease in flexibility
Increased sense of urgency
A loss of big picture goals and values
A decrease in creativity
An increase in conflict and anger
A drop in confidence

Put simply, anxiety blocks our performance and takes us further away from an innovative breakthrough.

So, what should we do? If we are going to access our creative mind, we need to quieten the mind down and let it know it is safe. When we do this, the information that we have gathered can be stored, processed and then ideas, insights and clarity can come.

In reality, there’s lots of different options available to us but ultimately whatever takes your mind off of the problem and quietens it down will move you in the right direction.

Have you ever been to work, been struggling with a problem, gone home and taken a shower to find the mind quieten down and, as if by magic an idea popped into your mind? This is the power of taking your mind off of the problem, quietening down the pre-frontal cortex and creating the conditions for ideas to come.

How about creating a list of two or three things you can do to take your mind off of the problem at hand when you are starting to feel tired, desperate and lacking in creativity? For Albert Einstein it was sailing a sailboat but if that’s not very practical for you, how about a walk, some gardening, some yoga or a few gentle stretches. And before you think about it, television and internet scrolling are not the solutions you’re looking for as they stimulate the brain and speed up our brainwaves moving in the opposite direction to where we want to go.

If you really want to explore maximise the impact of these release activities, before you step away write down a specific question that gets to the heart of the problem you face. Go away, engage in an activity to release your mind and then, when you come back, write unfiltered for four or five minutes without stopping and you might just be amazed at what pops up.

Next time you’re struggling, feeling like you are going nowhere fast with the problem in front of you, think about releasing the brain and letting it do the hard work for you!

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