A trick to trigger an 'aha' moment of creativity

Although ‘eureka’ moments seem to come from the blue, there are actually ways to spark your creative idea flow.

A bolt from the blue, a shock of inspiration, a shout of ‘eureka!’ – it’s the kind of sudden epiphany we all yearn for as we brew up creative solutions to a hard problem.

That’s just it, though – it’s sudden. You can’t rush this kind of epic creative epiphany, and you can’t force it. This kind of ‘aha!’ moment is elusive, and feels like something that finds you, not the other way around.

But what if you need to get your creative juices flowing? Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist in psychology and brain sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara has some tips for becoming an ‘aha’ moment magnet to help you break through to the other side of a problem.