We all know that combining the three elements in the right place — the right thing — at the right time can spark the deepest ideas. But when this combination doesn’t appear, we often let ourselves lose inspiration.

Whether you’re an artist who has lost his muse, an idea-stuck author, or an entrepreneur struggling to find a way to do business, you may be the next person to run out of creative resources. How to remove barriers on your creative path? Here are 14 simple ways to do it.

Take a stroll

Walking in nature is an adult recess, and in the same way that children experience their most creative moments at a playground or sandbar, adults can use physical space to wander around and stumble upon an idea. In one study, Stanford University showed that walking gives us a 60% increase in creative inspiration compared to sitting still.

Experience from the kitchen

Put the recipes aside and see what you can combine from what’s available in your food pantry and refrigerator. Cooking new dishes for meals during the day or on occasion can broaden your view of the limitless possibilities of the culinary world and beyond.

“Like playing music or writing poetry, cooking requires connection and harmony,” says Faisal Hoque, author of Everything Connects, in an article in Business Insider. “Understanding the connection between ingredients and their interoperability is key to creating delicious dishes. This conscious openness is at the heart of every creative process, no matter what we do or what means we use.”

Read books for fun

Let your soul sink into the book that has been waiting for you on the bookshelf for months. Immersing yourself in the story requires focus, moving yourself away from the frustration of creative gridlock. When the story engages your entire mind, you’ll visualize the plot, pick up the messages from the book, and develop your own ideas, which will help you realize what you’re looking for.

Advocacy

One of the best methods to inspire creativity is to get blood flowing. When moving our bodies, our souls naturally relax, stress decreases, and imagination increases. A new study has shown that people who are physically active are more successful, thanks to their ability to solve problems and propose new ideas.

Think about fun things

The best ideas often arise when we’re in a good mood. A study published on the website of the American Academy of Sciences, happy moods can help people free their minds, thus stimulating our imaginations.

“Positive mood affects your ability to pay attention — it can cause you to broaden your horizons,” says lead researcher Dr. Adam Anderson, “The result of negative mood is narrow vision, which only makes you focus on the things that make you anxious — all that’s left is out of sight and doesn’t matter.”

Ask yourself “What if?”

If you want to develop your creativity in the short term, asking problems that require reverse hypotheses can help you come up with new perspectives. Just take the events that happened in the past and imagine the endings differently, removing the existing details and adding some of your own ideas. Redrawing this mental picture can erase the thoughts that are preventing you from going where you want to go.

It’s okay to daydream a little.

Don’t try to force yourself to solve the problem, because sometimes this can take the solution away from us. Instead, let the soul wander. Studies show that even when we are not focused, the brain continues to work in search of solutions, not only that, creative ideas can be detected from unconscious thoughts. So, get rid of the heavy questions that are lurking in your mind – the answer will come to you soon.

Practice being alone

Psychologist Rollo May said: “To spark creativity, people must be able to use loneliness in a constructive way.”

Often, it is not the lack of inspiration but the overstimulation that causes us to be stuck. Separating yourself from your thoughts can create a sense of purification as well as a dose of creativity. Appreciating loneliness and focusing on thoughts, you can hear the solution from silence.

Write your thoughts on paper

Sometimes, one of the best solutions to organize messy thoughts in your head is to put pen to paper and write them down. Writing not only relieves you, but it also allows you to clearly see your thoughts in tangible space and understand them from a new angle. Freeing up thoughts in your head is also a way to pave the way for new ideas to enter and fill in the gaps.

Get out of a safe area

For creative people, they must continue to challenge themselves with new tasks to develop. Novelty is one of the greatest creative motivations, whether it’s just experiencing new hobbies or refusing to use past solutions. Embrace new days and new projects by looking new and don’t hesitate to push boundaries and see what happens.

Meditating

The benefits of meditating don’t stop at relaxation and stress relief. A study published in Frontier in Cognition found that indulgence meditation (in which meditators take in all ideas but do not focus on any of them) increases participants’ ability to think diversely, a key element of the creative process. Not only do students use meditation to inspire creativity, but many entrepreneurs also join this movement and encourage employees to apply this solution to find new ideas.

Use blue power

Why we love watching the blue sky and the sea – it’s because this beautiful blue color makes us feel relaxed and takes our minds to creative horizons. The University of British Columbia has shown that red helps develop memory while blue is the key to imagination.

Vacation

From time to time, it is necessary to completely change the landscape and rhythm in order to re-ascend the mental cord. Whether it’s just taking a few days off or simply enjoying the weekend, open your mind. The journal Applied Cognitive Psychology says cross-cultural experiences are directly linked to intellectual creativity. So explore another country, a different land or a new neighborhood to open your eyes and soul.

Sitting in the middle of a noisy space

You may think noisy coffee shops are distracting, but this distraction may be just what you need to free yourself from the nagging mental stalemate. A new study published in the journal Jof Consumer Research shows that moderate noise can enhance creative efficiency at work. So sit down with a cup of coffee and let yourself forget about everything. You’ll never know where that might lead you.