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Need a new muse? Switch up your routine.

Yesterday, when I decided it was time to leave the house and head into the office, I just started walking. I knew I was off-schedule for the bus anyway, but I just figured I’d walk a ways and then pick up the bus somewhere along the way.

I never did, and that’s because I just kept walking. I took turns down streets I had never noticed before, saw apartment buildings and shops I didn’t even know existed, and felt a heightened sense of awareness, just taking in surroundings I’d never seen before.

Observation is one thing; I remember when I first moved to Boulder, I decided to walk downtown from my place and I made a million mental lists of shops, bars, restaurants, cafes, salons, and bookstores to pop into sometime.

Introspection is another thing. There’s something about being solo, even for a two and a half mile walk, that incites my inner monologue. And there’s something about being solo and being active that makes it work overtime. During a run, a walk, a flight, a shower – anywhere I’m alert and disconnected, really – I’m constantly feeding the hamster on my own mental wheel.

Poor little guy.

But the most fun part isn’t the observation that comes with being aware of your surroundings, and it’s not the introspection that happens when you allow yourself to simply be present with your thoughts. For me, it was the fact that changing my routine, walking a new route, and challenging my sense of familiar and comfortable, sparked some really brilliant ideas in my head. Insight for a column I’m working on. Wild thoughts around a project I’ve been considering. The right words to say to that person who needs to hear them.

New ideas, lightbulb moments. Next time I need a creative jumpstart or to just get out of the current cycles of thought I can find myself caught up in, I’m finding a new walking route.

Where do you do your best creative thinking? When do your best ideas hit you?

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