30 Everyday Things With ‘Hidden’ Features You Probably Didn’t Know About

To learn why it pays off to look at the world from different angles, we contacted the author of Lazy Creativity and creator of an online community for anyone looking for resources to become a more creative person, Kyle Bernier.

"At its core, creativity is problem-solving," he told Bored Panda. "No matter what job you have, problem solving is a big part of the work."

"If you search 'creativity' online you’ll get different definitions, but you’ll often receive information about how creativity isn’t necessarily about creating something or forming new ideas, but is instead a process of drawing new conclusions by putting together pieces in a novel way. That's what problem-solving is and it is a universal tool."

Bernier also said that creativity allows us to escape the monotony of everyday life.

"It's a change from the same old routine: some days it can be really hard to think about anything other than work, family, money, and all the miscellaneous stuff that needs to be done to keep things afloat. By choosing creativity and making space for it, we have moments where we're free to think about something else," the writer, designer, and all-around creative explained.

"We're free to feel something else, and that’s reward enough many days. Once you choose to accept creativity as an intentional part of your routine, you begin to think about everything differently. Suddenly, things aren’t quite as black and white. You discover new ways of looking at problems, scenarios, and relationships. It can bleed into your work and your relationships, for the better."

Psychologist Robert Epstein, Ph.D., highlighted that stress is a well-known creativity killer and time constraints are another. But he also said there's no real evidence that one person is inherently more creative than another, and that creativity is something anyone can cultivate. If it's something you want to try out, Epstein recommends that you:

• Capture your new ideas. Keep an idea notebook or voice recorder with you, type in new thoughts on your laptop or write ideas down on a napkin;
• Seek out challenging tasks. Take on projects that don't necessarily have a solution—such as trying to figure out how to make your dog fly or how to build a perfect model of the brain. This causes old ideas to compete, which helps generate new ones;
• Broaden your knowledge. Take a class outside psychology or read journals in unrelated fields, suggests Epstein. This makes more diverse knowledge available for interconnection, he says, which is the basis for all creative thought. "Ask for permission to sit in on lectures for a class on 12th century architecture and take notes," he suggests. "You'll do better in psychology and life if you broaden your knowledge."
• Surround yourself with interesting things and people. Regular dinners with diverse and interesting friends and a work space festooned with out-of-the-ordinary objects will help you develop more original ideas, Epstein says. You can also keep your thoughts lively by taking a trip to an art museum or attending an opera—anything that stimulates new thinking.

A lot of good can come out from fostering your creativity. "Most people use their words to describe how they feel," Kyle Bernier said. "Most greetings have a 'How are you?' attached to them. We're asked, 'How was your day?' or 'What’s new with you?' Creativity is a way to express how we’re feeling without having to verbalize anything or use any words."

Bernier deeply believes that the art of creating is a therapeutic act in and of itself. "It's growth through creation," he said. "If you’ve ever gone onto a self-help website, you know that exercise is recommended to maintain a healthy state of mind and that even ten minutes of walking per day can have incredible impacts. Creativity is the same way. Find your creative equivalent to ten minutes of walking and make time for it each day. You’ll find that the benefits of doing so are almost immediately noticeable."