The Science of Inspiration (and How to Make It Work for You)

Inspiration is fickle and difficult. We all strive for those bright "Aha!" moments, whether we work in a creative or logical field. While it's not a process you can control entirely, there are ways to enable and encourage your brain to have more of those epiphanies when you understand how they work.

How Neuroplasticity, Brain Waves, and Sleep Affect Inspiration

We've talked before about how creativity works, and we established that some of the best times for being creative and finding your muse aren't actually when you're at your best. They're when you're relaxed, groggy, or perhaps even a little drunk. The primary reason for this is due to a concept called neuroplasticity.

To oversimplify it, neuroplasticity simply means that your brain can continue to form new connections and neural pathways even into adulthood (which, prior to around the 1970s was not thought possible). When you make a new connection between two ideas, it's not just a metaphor. Your brain is literally restructuring itself to accommodate new processes. Because our memory is associative (meaning we sort and connect pieces of information based on their relationship with each other), the more "plastic" your brain is, the more you're able to form creative or inspirational thoughts.