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Through time and space many of us have followed our curiosity with a fiery passion even when our logical minds might tell us we are breaking the “rules”. In moments where we perhaps turn left instead of right for no logical reason, this playful act can be a form of surrender that wakes up the color palette of our prime human emotions. In these moments, we somehow realize that a “choice” has opened up for us.

Sometimes, through inspiration or courage or both, we find the strength to transgress the stories we have around what is possible for ourselves. When we wake up to and we experience the movement of our emotions inside us, we are rewarded with life-force energy. The act of acknowledging and being present with these felt senses inside our bodies is our consciousness. It is our life.

Going further, what I mean is that when we are in playful states of consciousness, we’ve perhaps let our curiosity lead us to physically rewarding moments of increased life force energy that are physically felt and experienced in our bodies through our nerve activity.

Through real, tangible and measurable nervous system activation we consequently experience greater feelings of aliveness. By facing the unknown, by risking facing ruin head on, by staying present with all of the prime human emotions, we consciously experience a new dimension of our realities that before may have just hummed in the background as noise. All of a sudden this noise now has a chance to become our signal.  

Turning towards the light

Some spiritual communities or people I have happened upon with curiosity have referred to this physical nervous system experience within the flesh of our bodies as “turning towards the light”. Through my own life’s journey, I know now that “light” is the word used for nervous system activity or life force energy moving through our bodies. I know now what it means to feel instead of to be numb. To have a felt sense is to have a felt physiological experience.  

When light or life force energy moves through our nerves, when we start to feel in areas that may have been physically numb, areas we didn’t even know nervous system sensation was possible, we become more physically embodied.  When we are physically embodied, the more expanded our consciousness is, the more lit-up we are - the more enlightened.  

On the contrary, the more collapsed we are, the less of our body and our lives and experiences we have access to. When we are in collapsed physiological states of consciousness we are protected or defended somatically through physical bodily nervous system numbness in our tangible body parts. Or we are in offensive physiological stances and ready to fight - or to flee when we are afraid. We are more unconscious.   

But what if the social and psychological structures that are the backbone of our political, economic and social relations are now embedded in how our bodies undergo human development? What if our own developmental psychological structures are physically blocking our individual bodies from turning towards the light or life force, even if we are starving for it? How do we know if our own bodies have developed locked in various collapsed states or masked from the process of civilization? 

Neurogenesis: The Quiet Engine Behind Creativity

What if the opposite of collapse - expansion - is available to the masses? What if we all have the capacity to expand, even if only a little at first, to be playful together, to be creative together, to innovate? Perhaps now is the moment where we come together with what we have gathered through our senses as we have turned left and right throughout our lives. What will happen when we inspire each other to create the new with the knowledge from our bodies’ experiences and perceptions gathered through the diversity of who we are, the lives we have lived, and where we’ve each been in time and space? 

A few years ago, during a period of deep transition, I remember feeling like my mind had gone dim. I wasn’t burned out exactly. I just couldn’t think in the expansive, multidimensional way I was used to. My ideas felt flat. My imagination felt slow. One morning, after a long walk in nature, something softened. I could feel a widening in my awareness, a kind of gentle return of inner space. Later I learned that aerobic movement, novelty, and time in nature are all triggers for neurogenesis. I had accidentally supported the biology that helps my creativity reemerge.

That moment has stayed with me, because it mirrors what I see in emergent teams and in innovation work everywhere. When systems get rigid, creativity collapses. When systems gain freedom to reorganize, new intelligence comes online. Our biology works the same way. We often talk about creativity as something mystical. A spark, a flash of insight, a moment of inspiration that arrives out of nowhere. But beneath that mystery is something deeply biological.

Neurogenesis, the birth of new neurons, is one of the quiet forces shaping how we think, feel, imagine, and create. For a long time scientists believed that once the brain matured, no new neurons formed. That idea turned out to be wrong. Adult neurogenesis happens primarily in the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in learning, memory, emotional regulation, and imagining future scenarios.¹

This has implications not only for individual creativity but for how we design environments where new intelligence can emerge across people and across group boundaries. 

New Neurons Create New Possibility

Freshly born neurons are more plastic than mature ones. They form connections more easily and make it possible to see subtle differences between ideas or experiences. This is known as pattern separation.

Pattern separation supports:

• breaking repetitive thought loops

• making connections between ideas that normally stay separate

• holding multiple possibilities at once

These are the cognitive ingredients for original ideas and breakthroughs.

This is also how emergent groups operate. When a system has more “degrees of freedom,” it can recombine ideas in new ways. Neurogenesis can happen when teams share tacit knowledge and cross-pollinate disciplines. Recent research shows neurogenesis is being explored as a therapeutic intervention for a number of disorders²

Emotional Safety Supports Creativity

Creativity requires more than intellect. It requires a feeling of emotional permission and the sense that it is safe to explore the unknown. Healthy neurogenesis supports this by helping regulate the limbic system. When this system feels supported, our capacity to imagine, play, and take creative risks expands.³

Meditation, exercise, novelty, and time in nature all increase neurogenesis, which may be why people often describe feeling more open after engaging in these practices.⁴  It mirrors innovation culture: psychological safety, novelty, and cross-boundary exploration all increase the “group neurogenesis” of a team. More emotional bandwidth equals more breakthrough thinking.

A Foundation for Resilience and Long-Term Health

Neurogenesis also plays a role in mood regulation, learning, memory formation, and stress recovery. Low neurogenesis is linked to depression and anxiety. Higher levels are associated with adaptability and emotional resilience.⁵

It also supports long-term cognitive health and protection against age-related decline.⁶In organizational terms, neurogenesis is the biological mechanism of anti-fragility. Systems that can update themselves stay alive, curious, and capable of evolving.

Why This Matters

We are in a moment where creativity is no longer a luxury. It is becoming a core life skill. The world is transforming quickly, and many of our old structures and assumptions no longer fit the realities we are living in.

Neurogenesis gives us a biological way to stay flexible, imaginative, and resilient. When we move, rest, nourish ourselves, and engage with novelty and connection, we are supporting the creation of new neurons. We are growing the internal architecture for new ideas, new solutions, and new futures.

This is the same architecture required in our collective systems. When people with diverse forms of tacit knowledge come together, something like “group neurogenesis” happens. The system becomes capable of new insight. New pathways appear. New forms of intelligence come online. Creativity is not only psychological or cultural. It is biological. And when we support the biology, the imagination follows.

Where in your life or work do you feel the early signs of “new neurons” forming? What conditions help you access fresh thinking, new intelligence, or previously hidden connections? Thank you for reading and I would love to hear from you!

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1  Gage, 2002; Ming & Song, 2011; Addis et al., 2007

2  Aimone et al., 2014

3  Snyder et al., 2011

4  van Praag et al., 1999; Tang et al., 2015

5  Eisch & Petrik, 2012

6  Kempermann, 2015

7  van Praag, 1999

8  Tononi & Cirelli, 2014

9  Kempermann et al., 1997

10  Lee et al., 2002