Be More Creative - It's Good For your Health!

[Dan Goodwin]

There have been a few discussions on CCS recently that have touched on the topic of how when we don't create - when we don't express ourselves through words, paint, film song or dance - we're actually repressing a significant part of ourselves.

Why do we create? To connect with and understand others? To connect with and understand ourselves? To connect with and understand the world we live in?

I believe all three of these!

So when we don't create - when we bury that urge and suffocate that core and vital part of ourselves - it's not difficult to see that repression leads to at the very least a nagging underlying dissatisfaction that there's something more in life, something missing, and at worst, depression, mental illness and even physical debilitating symptoms.

What are your thoughts on this subject? Should we create first and foremost to maintain our own good health and sanity?

Leave your comments below...

[Karen Weinert]

I know when I'm putting off a project that I know I want to do, I feel dissatisfied (and the question then becomes why do I put it off? There are many answers, none of good). I sleep a lot more, I eat less, I exercise less. The sleeping could be a time when I'm creating but I don't.

I get mad at myself and it turns into a cycle of WHY AREN'T YOU .... ?

So, I would agree with Dan. Not creating can lead to many negative feelings and results. It is vital to express oneself and any expression can be creative.

[David J]

Being creative takes us away from the day to day activities that can make us depressed.
I find that writing, even for a few minutes, allows me to enter a world of my own choosing.
Where I am able to live a life through the characters and situations that I create.
I am then able to exorcise my frustrations, doubts and fears through those characters.
Is this keeping me sane or is it the 'voice of insanity' speaking?

[Lotus L Vele]

O David!
I like what you said! I have been journaling daily for about 3 months now and I noticed that I don't feel so overcome with my life situation. My journaling includes words and doodles. I can totally lose myself in a doodle and feel refreshed afterward. I also use journaling to work out patterns of dolls that want to come to life eventually (I'm a doll maker). I use my dolls to express how I'm feeling too (or sometimes how I want to feel-which helps me get there).
The creativity keeps me sane and out of jail... LOL! Lotus

[Jules]

I must keep creativity top on my list. Not specifically painting-creativity in general. It keeps my mind open and alert to observe things around me. When I am in this open state I am much more receptive to lifes little pleasures and joys...even the bad times, which will always happen are better because I can find humor in them or create something to help me past them.

There was a period in my life where I did not take my creativity seriously and allowed it to slip from my life. As you stated above I always had a feeling something was missing- that I did not know who I was or what I wanted out of this thing called life.
It was not until I created something again after a long dry spell that I realized creativity was what was missing. It makes me feel complete- I had been only a shell of myself while ignoring my creative impulses.
I for one feel this is as important for me as good diet and exercise and must never be squashed down or ignored.

I saw on the news recently some Parkinson Patients were dancing...and while dancing all their symptoms vanished and for the length of the dance they all claimed to feel 'normal'

[Lotus L Vele]

I agree Jules!
Creativity is as important to me as breathing. I have a healthier outlook on life when I can express the "real" me in my art.

I've had to put creativity on a shelf for awhile and it was the most unhappiest time of my life! I was newly married and expected to raise my children and be the good housewife and not think of myself. Never again! I fight tooth and nail for every moment of creativity I get! ; )

[sabrina]

I agree about keeping creativity on the top of the list.
It is such a hardship when you go through a state of deppression,
and your creativity suffers because of it. Repressing feelings is so
unhealthy, I don't think people realize, how damaging it is.
When I create I come into a place of peace, I feel focused and in
the now. For myself I am learning that I don't have to spend hours,
or having to be perfect, or feeling that I need to compete with other
artists. When I do my music I feel it is so healing for me.
I still struggle with my doubts though, and I would like to believe
that this is my purpose in life.

Sabrina

[RobynG]

I know for a fact that when I suppress my creativity I become depressed. I don't normally suffer from depression but due to circumstances I had to push my art aside for a long stretch and slowly I could feel myself losing energy until I had no interest in my art at all. Now that I'm back creating again I view those lost years with horror. I never want to feel that way again. So first and foremost, I create to mantain sanity and good health.

[Bruce Morse]

There have been times when I have been able to respond to the tough times in my life with creativity and the process has helped me enormously. There have been other times when my creativity was impossible to access. I have no idea why, but it is frustrating. Being creative
puts me in touch with a resource in myself that makes me feel autonomous, not so dependent on the ever shifting tides outside myself.

[Lin Neiswender]

As my health has limited my activities the last few years, I have returned to my creative well and rediscovered my joy and zest for life. A limitation has turned out to have a powerful positive aspect that has worked wonders for my psyche. I give CCS a large chunk of the credit for that, for giving me a safe place to flex my artistic muscles after many decades of artistic inactivity. It is such a pleasure to be creating again; it's almost a high to do so. My brain cells are firing with joy and abandon when I pick up a brush or my collage scissors or turn on my computer to write. More art, creative writing and music therapy should be done to help people cope with debilitating physical and mental conditions- it pays great dividends!

[Nadine]

Oh you're absolutely right about this, Dave. When I've had long periods of "off" time from any creativity (which was never on purpose), I've always felt more depressed, ashamed, and angry at myself than when I make a habit to create.

Yet, even so, I still don't feel a sense of self-worth, or true creativeness even when I go to "create" something. I have not yet discovered HOW I can be creative in my own unique way, or what it is I SHOULD create and share with the world. I know what I WANT to create, but its more like "recreate", its not truely MINE... I guess it could be my own take on someone elses' creation, but is that truely being creative?

What I'm trying to say is, it can seem just as unhealthy and depressing to not know HOW to be creative, or not know who you ARE in a creative sense, to not have truely unique and inspired ideas of your own, but instead to be inspired by someone elses' work. That's not to say that this path of creativity won't eventually fofill me. It's just that I have so much to learn, so many skills to get first, before I can actually dive in and CREATE anything - that is, to actually get to the point where I'm sharing finished work with others, and express what I wish to express. Until then, its more like practicing and training myself to learn what I need to learn to be creative the way I want.

When you don't know who you are in a creative sense, yet you desperately desire to be creative, and you don't even know how to express your ideas to others (nor do you want to, from not trusting anyone) you can be just as frustrated with life and with yourself as if you weren't creating at all.

And I sure don't know what to do about it...

[Jules]

This is an interesting point. Although creating makes me feel complete as I mentioned above- I do not really know who I am creatively-I continually evolve, try new things, change. I often wonder if I will ever find my unique niche, or if I will recognize it when I do.
What I do about it is just keep at it. Keep learning 'skills' keep testing ideas, keep creating.Stop expecting myself to be perfect.

Once I really knew that it is the process rather than the product that is truely fulfilling all these concerns fell away. I am learning 'who I am' with my art expression- I am also learning who I am not (this is important for me also) And I expect to keep changing, as a person and as an artist. Change is the only constant in my life.

Please do not be hard on yourself Nadine-It will happen for you. If you love and appreciate the process the product will emerge almost of its own accord.

[Lin Neiswender]

That is such an important concept Jules, that it is the process that is as important as the product, if not more so. I feel a buzz when creating, even if what I create doesn't turn out great, I still had fun doing it. I think it gets the endorphins in our brains flowing, making creating pleasurable.