Want to be more creative? Try going for a walk. Researchers say that a short walk directly affects the creativity part, while long walks act as real therapy. But how?
Christian Rominger is a psychology researcher at "Graz University". He and his colleagues published a study last year they called: "Stepping for more creativity: The number of steps in daily life is related to creative performance." This study examined the relationship between walking, overall physical and mental health, and creativity.
The study prompted participants at random times of the day using a smartphone app to measure steps while they were asked to complete a half-left drawing as creatively as possible.
The study found that taking 500 steps within five minutes directly affects an increase in creativity. "People who walk more in general were better at the task of creative ideas and drawing completion," Rominger told Euronews Culture. It seems that even a short walk can help improve creative thinking.
This means that even people who took fewer steps overall during their day performed better on creative tasks than people who didn't walk at all. Researchers say that even just 15 minutes a day, a short walk affects your mental health and your creative work.
Walking long distances serves as therapy
Walks in nature, even alone, have often been healing for people going through difficult chapters in life. These types of long walks can help a person's self-development, according to researcher Martin Mau, University of Southern Denmark, who has published several papers on walking and personal growth.
“Long-distance walking, for me, is about mental openness. It's a way, where what happens mentally along the way, you don't know in advance," says Mau. One of the main characteristics of the long-distance hiking experience is nature, which he calls "a silent partner." Nature reflects our opinion.
Furthermore, walking is a rare opportunity to disconnect from an increasingly busy world, a noisy and hectic place where things move quickly and there is rarely time for reflection.
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Source: Euronews Culture
