Creative expression and Wellbeing

You must be wondering, how does creative expression relate to health and wellbeing? Well, research shows that creative people are generally happier, more confident and truer to their self. The research from the University of Otago in New Zealand took a cohort of young people, who recorded a daily diary of their experiences and emotional states over 13 days. After analyzing the diaries, the researchers found a pattern of the participants feeling more enthusiasm and higher “flourishing” than usual, following days when they were more creative. The research appeared to indicate that creative activity on one day had a positive impact on wellbeing on the following day, leading to a spiral effect in those students who regularly undertook creative activities. It comes as no surprise that creativity is among the primary food I discussed in a previous post, which is essential to your overall health and wellbeing.

There is a common misconception, that creativity is confined to a few who demonstrate some form of artistic expression such as poetry, dancing and fine arts, and are "original" and outside the box. While these are all great ways of creative expression, there are many more ways to explore this area in your life! In reality, nothing creative comes from abstract but rather built on from previous ideas and concepts. Creativity is simply the act of creating or should I say re-creating, and is more of a fresh take to existing ideas. We are all creative beings, and derive a lot of joy from our own creative expression, no matter how we want to express it. In a way, I believe that we each come with our own unique form of expression that only we can bring to this world, and should we ignore this area of our life, not only will it affect our own state of wellbeing, but it will also deprive the rest of the world from this unique expression.

Cooking a healthy meal, coming up with a business plan, brainstorming solutions for an existing problem, setting goals, journaling, rearranging your home furniture, coming up with new daily outfits from your exiting wardrobe, trying new self care practices and gardening are all but some ways you can cultivate your creativity. Quite often, people limit their creativity because of pre-existing knowledge. There is, however, an interesting way of freeing yourself from your past knowledge so that you can think more creatively. A study done by Polman and Emich (2011) in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin shows that when people are thinking and creating on behalf of someone else, they are more innovative than when they’re building something for themselves. This is also a good time to mention master minds; a group of people meeting on a regular basis to discuss ideas, solve problems and express creativity. Master mind groups have proved to be very successful, and I believe that it is partially attributed to the fact that people find it easier to creatively express when they're building something for someone else. You may want to experiment with this by pretending to do a creative job on behalf of someone else, and note what you come up with, or just join a master mind group for fun.

As a yoga teacher, I often encourage my students to develop a daily routine to "channel" their creativity as I would like to call it. Taking time for yourself to channel this energy, by creating a safe space or environment , sticking to a certain time of the day, and repeating it on a daily basis, will stimulate your creativity and build the momentum.

Some ways I channel and express my creativity, is through my own yoga practice & meditation, sequencing yoga classes for my students, coming up with new delicious healthy recipes for myself and my family, blogging, photography, creating content for my social media accounts, daily walks to declutter my mind, adult coloring books, vision boards to focus my energy on what I would like to manifest, and finally journaling. One very creative way (pun intended) to channel your creativity is "Morning Pages".

Morning Pages is a creative exercise from The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron done first thing in the morning. What makes it unique, is that you write using stream of consciousness. In other words, you write the first things that come to mind, without analyzing or filtering. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages. The goal is to set aside logic, play, and see what arises. As you write, you’re practicing self-acceptance and tapping into your intuition and creativity. We are all creative geniuses, ready to express our unique gifts and share with this world. It is understandably difficult to dedicate time to explore this area in life given our current fast paced lifestyle, but in my opinion extremely essential! As with everything else, your choice of a creative endeavor is completely bio-individual , and depends on your unique personality, background, and lifestyle. However, dedicating time everyday for some sort of creative activity, releases stress, brings joy, and allows you to connect to your true self. Please feel free to comment or drop a question below.