Researchers Find Walking In A Forest Really Can Ease Creative Block

We all get brain fatigue, creative block, writer’s block or brain fuzziness every once in a while. Whatever you want to call it, sometimes our brains get stumped for new ideas, and it doesn’t seem to be able to keep up with the rest of our bodies. You’ve probably read posts in the past that have suggested taking a walk to relieve this. In a recent study, researchers were able to back that theory up with science. It turns out, taking a walk in a forest really can ease your mind.

When our brain isn’t functioning freely because of our hectic lives and the constant noise around us, we can get distracted, flighty and forgetful. New ideas are hard to come by, and we can feel the creative block. When that happens, we need a way to reboot ourselves. According to the New York Times, researchers at Heriot-Wyatt University and the University of Edinburgh used portable EEGs to monitor the brain activity of twelve people.

That is not a big sample size by any means, but the results still pointed to an interesting discovery. People who were able to spend a little time in a green forest were able to engage their brains while effortlessly engaging with nature at the same time. Think of it as taking a deep breath of fresh air while a creative idea comes to mind. Many of us have had that experience.

If you are suffering from a creative block, taking a walk in a park could literally be like rebooting your brain. According to Fast Company, doctors in Japan already know the effects of this, and they even “prescribe” walks in woods to assist with some mental health problems associated with information overload. You can read all the nitty-gritty specifics of this study in this research paper called Urban Brain: Analyzing Outdoor Physical Activity With Mobile EEG.