Creativity For Better Mental Health

Being creative is good for your brain. Several studies have shown that creativity and good mental health go hand in hand. This article offers tips on how to promote both of them.

Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed. The created item may be intangible (such as an idea, a scientific theory, a musical composition, or a joke) or a physical object (such as an invention, a printed literary work, or a painting).

Wikipedia

Reasons to develop creativity in your life.

You may believe that you are incapable of being creative. ‘Oh, I’m simply not the creative kind,’ so many people remark. However, everyone has the ability to be creative. Sketching, playing with clay, embroidering, making music. Creativity comes in many kinds and sizes, and it offers some surprising long-term advantages.

Creativity helps with problem-solving.

Cultivating your creativity teaches your brain to be more adaptive and flexible in coping with many problems. Not how to get the pot balanced and smooth, but also how to address a problem with a job assignment, a relationship, or a career issue.

Being creative pushes you out of linear thinking and the constraints of conventional logic. Options are no longer limited to black and white. Instead, the mind can examine your situation from various perspectives, detecting potential subtleties that you may otherwise overlook.

Creativity boosts your confidence.

Learning a creative talent requires application of mind and a great deal of practice. Before you can produce beautiful and useful dinnerware, you’ll have to make a lot of mud pies and lopsided pots. However, mastering your chosen art form allows you to gain confidence in your talents, which will, in time, spill over into other aspects of your life. As you overcome failure and create beautiful things, you will realize that perseverance and optimism are crucial to success.

Creativity is extremely fulfilling.

Nothing beats starting out with raw materials and being able to create something one-of-a-kind from them when it comes to giving a sense of fulfillment. This feeling is one thing that is better experienced than explained. 

Creativity enables you to express yourself.

Making a painting, a piece of prose, or a piece of clothing allows you to create something unique. Nobody else can produce the very same thing that you can. Your creation can be a non-verbal expression of who you are.

Creativity might help you live a longer and healthier life.

Surprisingly, this is true. According to studies, being creative can lower your mortality risk and add years to your life. Making, sketching, woodworking, knitting, and painting all stimulate distinct neural pathways in your brain and aid in stress and anxiety reduction. Creativity can help you live a better, more satisfying life by slowing cognitive aging.

What stops you from being creative

You understand how it feels. You want to start on your favorite project, and your mind has gone utterly blank. Nothing, zilch. It’s as though your mind has frozen. Thankfully for us, people have researched the most prevalent roadblocks to creativity and how to overcome them and get back on track.

Failure anxiety or fear of failure.

Most individuals fear failure because they regard it as a one-way ticket to ruin, rejection, and a permanent stain on their reputation.

Fear of failure is, for some, the flip side of perfectionism. The belief that nothing you accomplish will be enough and that your failure determines your identity.

Fear of failure makes you less inclined to take chances and puts you off starting at all. And they are the two things that might suffocate creativity.

Re-frame creativity as a series of experiments, with failure serving as a form of course correction and an unavoidable element of the process.

There isn’t enough time.

Another enemy of creativity is the ticking clock. If you’re like most folks, your calendar is undoubtedly jam-packed, and you feel like you’ll never be able to catch up. Moreover, if your to-do list keeps expanding, you won’t be able to relax and allow your creative juices to flow.

A simple method to make extra time is to schedule some downtime in your calendar. Prioritize some quiet time to listen to music, meditate, or simply sit quietly. As a result, you’ll be less stressed and more open to the creative flow.

You are spending too much time in front of a screen.

Sitting at your desk and looking at your computer, doom scrolling through social media, or continuously checking your phone for notifications is not a good approach to be creative. So if you’ve been trying to write or get creative and it’s simply not working, take a break, a stroll in the park, or brew a cup of coffee.

Begin out of the situation that is holding you trapped, and get moving so that your mental gears can disengage and relax, allowing space for inspiration.

You have a pessimistic outlook towards your creativity.

Pessimism will put a halt to creativity. If you’re sitting there frowning and thinking you can’t do it, you’re almost certainly not going to be able to do it.

Pessimism and negative self-talk create a vicious cycle of depression and lack of motivation. Motivation seldom precedes action, but you are likely to feel motivated if you do begin.

How to be more creative

People frequently believe that creativity is this mysterious, intrinsic skill that you either have or don’t. However, research has proven that there are many strategies you can use to boost creativity in your daily life and profit from new ways of thinking and problem-solving.

Change your usual routine.

It’s easy to fall into a routine of doing things the same way every day. However, the more you expose your brain to change and novelty, the more adaptable and creative it becomes.

Keep your creative mind active by reading new books, tasting new cuisines and restaurants, or simply taking alternative routes around your neighborhood. Changing your routine will excite your mind and get you thinking about new options and ways to live.

Relax the social musts, shoulds, and oughts.

Shoulds and oughts govern so much of what you do. From the eight glasses of water you’re meant to drink to the right things to eat and how much and when, to whether it’s alright to chat in the elevator, how you think you should act definitely governs a large portion of your life.

Today, try breaking a few of the rules. Say hello to a stranger, the waiter, or the bus driver. Allow your creative, even a little anarchic, mind to flourish by opening up a little.

Take a mindful look around.

Another effective technique to unwind your mind and enable your creativity to flourish is simply sitting in the current moment and noticing what is happening around you. Then, work your way through each of your senses, paying close attention to your surroundings. What are you able to hear, see, smell, feel, and even taste? Take note of everything, and then write down what comes to mind.

Look up and around as you walk down the street. You’ll probably be the only one who isn’t staring at their phone or glaring into the distance. Don’t pass up the opportunity to observe the signs of spring or autumn. Look up and around to watch how many different colors and textures there are just before you.

Have genuine conversations 

How much of your conversation is spent either listening just to respond? Take a step back and actually interact with the people around you. Don’t just talk or worry about what you’ll say next. Active listening is essential, as is giving the other person space to talk.

Constructive conversations open up all kinds of opportunities and creative solutions that you might not have considered before.

Conclusion

Give creativity a try; it could be that one nudge you need on your path to better mental health. If you try, do let me know in the comments how it went. If you still find yourself unable to start I would like to invite you for a virtual coffee and we will talk about how you can get started

References: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320947 ,  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/247889064_Music_mental_health_and_creativity , https://www.sciencealert.com/a-rare-condition-cuts-the-connection-between-two-halves-of-some-brains-here-s-how-they-respond  , https://www.psychreg.org/expressive-writing/