How can creativity improve your mental and physical health?
Playing music, drawing, dancing, knitting, and many other creative endeavors may help you find inner peace. Art is a way of expression that goes beyond words and language. When we express ourselves in art and creativity, we solve our problems effortlessly.
‘Art is the proper task of life,’ said Friedrich Nietzsche. It’s no wonder why philosophers are amazed by the art and speak highly of it. As it turned out, being creative doesn’t only free the mind and soul, it also helps the body stay healthy.
Following a creative endeavor brings a sense of achievement and can turn a bleak moment that could’ve been spent doing nothing into a moment of ecstasy.
In this article, we will tackle the importance of being creative, and how being creative can improve your life.
Creativity makes you good at solving problems
Being an artist is something that cannot be learned through a manual. On the path of creativity, there are challenges and obstacles that you have to deal with. When you get used to overcoming those challenges and obstacles in your creative endeavor, you take that ability to solve problems into your life.
Creativity helps you equip yourself to deal with novelty and overcome problems by facing them. Composing a song on the guitar is like giving yourself a problem that you have to solve. The problem can be a technique that you haven’t mastered yet or a quick lick that challenges your fingers.
Knowing that you can achieve something artistic helps you understand how the world works for us as humans.
Creativity increases self-awareness and enhances our sense of expression
There’s nothing more authentic than an artist who secluded him/herself to create a masterpiece. The artist pours her/his soul into the piece of art and through that, she/he expresses her/his inner reality
Creating art takes you to the depths of your soul. When you travel that far into our psyches over and over through art, we understand ourselves and realize who we are on a deep level.
Taking time to develop your ideas increases your respect for yourself and helps you communicate with the world. Many artists tell us about creative expression and how it’s a form of communication between them and their audiences. However, you don’t need an audience to be an artist. You can be an artist in your small community of friends and family members. They will appreciate that.
Creativity reliefs stress and can spare you from going to a doctor
Most of the artists will tell you about how creating art feels hypnotic. Creativity has always been associated with meditation and relaxation. Musicians like to call it the ‘flow state’.
The flow state is when your mind is quiet and not being critical. The flow state empties the mind and makes you focused on one thing, which is the art you’re creating. Making you more relaxed and forget about your worries and stress, the flow state is a form of therapy. Even those Death Metal musicians, who seem tense in their music, will tell you that it helps them relax and release stress.
Artists will also tell how creativity saved their lives and gave them hope. It’s no wonder why many psychotherapists encourage their patients to find a creative endeavor. It’s a well-known fact in psychotherapy that creativity enhances mental wellbeing.
When the mind is relaxed the body also stops tension in the muscles and releases hormones that restore the cells. This is a well-known fact about the parasympathetic nervous system, which is activated when we are in a meditative state.
Conclusion: How to start a creative endeavor & express yourself artistically?
- First of all, you cannot experience the flow state when you’re constantly interrupted. Try to stay away from your phone and things that distract you.
- Find something you enjoy. It could be playing the guitar or any other instrument, drawing, knitting, dancing, and so on. Try to do something you really like. You are more likely to achieve higher states of trance when you do something you like for its own sake, not for money or approval.
- Don’t wait for that moment of inspiration. You have to bring it. Set a schedule and stick to it. It could be an hour a day, more or less.
- Try to learn some online courses about the techniques of your art; they might help you understand how to be better.
- Don’t judge yourself harshly. The point is to enjoy your time.
- Fake it till you make it!
