Celebrate International Creativity Month!
Did you know that you can train your brain to be creative? It's no surprise that encouraging creativity will make you more creative. So ... start encouraging! In honor of International Creativity Month this month, encourages your student to think in different ways and to tap into new areas of her brain! Some tips you can offer include:

• Remember that creativity comes in many forms, whether it's identifying a quicker route to take to class, figuring out how to combine foods in the dining hall to eat healthier or developing a new song on Garage Band. It's all creative thinking in action!
  
• Pay attention to your creative thoughts. The subconscious mind tends to give you more of what you pay attention to. So, if you ignore the creative aspects of your life, you're actually telling your mind that you don't think they are important.
  
• Consciously note when you are creative. Look for opportunities to be creative and you'll notice that you are more creative than you think you are.
  
• Challenge assumptions. Who says things have to be a certain way? Find ways to come up with creative solutions and ideas when you can.
  
• Use the "random presentation" technique, where you randomly choose anything around you and ask yourself how it is connected to a problem you are trying to solve.
  
• Come up with creative solutions by asking yourself and others, "What if it was...?" The "it" is the problem in this case. Insert any idea generating words (which are usually adjectives) into the "..." and see what you can come up with!
  
• Emphasize process rather than product. When you do this, you often end up somewhere you didn't expect!
  
• Post inspirational messages and images all around your workspace. If you feel good, you'll be more likely to give your mind permission to think in new ways.

It's so much easier to be creative than most people think. Get your student's creative juices flowing with these tips.