Why Make Creativity Part of Your Self-Care Routine?
If self-care is defined as “the practice of taking an active role in protecting one's own well-being and happiness”, then being creative ticks all the necessary boxes to be considered a candidate for adding to your self-care routine! But if you’re still unsure, read the reasons that follow…
1. It can improve your mood and reduce your stress levels!
We all have low times, of varying degrees, but being creative can help to bring about a feeling of happiness and joy by stimulating the release of dopamine, and making you feel in flow with what you are doing. This feeling of joy reduces stress levels and just makes you feel happier!
2. It gives you ‘time-out’. A pause. A momentary rest from your busy life.
It forces your brain to think about something else - something away from the problems of day-to-day life or business anxieties and worries. This means it’s easier to switch off than just meditating, or sitting in silence, when your mind so easily wanders. By giving your mind something else to think about, something which takes very little 'thinking' but just enough to keep your brain occupied, you can truly switch off and have some ‘me-time’!
3. It keeps your brain active.
As alluded to in point 2, it keeps your brain active, but not in a stressful way like your work possibly does. This brain activity allows the essential maintenance of your existing neural pathways, while also creating new ones, vital to keeping your brain functioning and healthy. Some would say that it’s the ‘perfect preventative healthcare for your brain’ (wellbalancedwomen.com).
4. It brings out the true ‘you’.
How many times do we feel lost when we think of who we actually are? When we’re pulled in so many directions, taking on so many roles and wearing so many different hats? Being creative allows the true ‘you’ to come forth and show itself. It’s an instinctual thing when you’re ‘creating’ - you allow yourself to ‘go with the flow’, see what happens, and not worry about the result. That’s a beautiful moment when it happens. We are often so caught up in what the end ‘thing’ will be that we forget to soak up the process and just let ourselves go. Through creativity, this is exactly what happens. The impulsive decisions of what you ‘choose’ - colour, patten, lines, shapes or even words, all combine to create a vision which is representative of YOU and you only. No-one else’s will be the same. Ultimately it’s about learning what the true you is, and then embracing your uniqueness.
5. It can be accessed anywhere at any time!
Creativity is a never-ending, always available, potential source of un-tapped joy. I’d most certainly pack that in my bag on a daily basis if it was a product I could buy! Wouldn’t you?! But you CAN! And it's free! Anytime and anywhere, you can tap into the part of you which thinks creatively, IS creative, or becomes inspired by others’ creativity. You can always be curious about what is in front of you; you can always go inside your head and think about something creatively; and most places you can pull out a notebook for a quick sketch, doodle, pattern or note. Once you realise how easy it is to access this creative resource, you’ll make sure you’re never without it again.
6. It’s fun!
(I could just leave it there because really that’s all I should need to say on this one, but just to put it into context…) Remember when you were a kid and you played all day? You experimented, explored and learnt stuff as you did creative activities, without even realising you were doing either! That element of fun in making, drawing, painting, sticking, dancing, singing, and even babbling, is not simply ‘child’s play’ - it’s creative play in its purest form - with no judgement, rules or limits. How freeing! Doing something fun brings balance to our daily lives, and we could all do with a bit of that sometimes, don’t you think?
So to conclude then, creativity is most definitely a form of self-care.
It’s a muscle which needs exercising in order to release its potential to make you feel better. It has so many benefits to our well-being, state of mind, and outlook on life.
By being creative regularly (and that regularity could just be a few minutes every so often) you'll notice changes in yourself and how you think about things, both in your personal and professional lives.
The impact is huge, and the process is so enjoyable. Why wouldn’t you include it in your self-care routine?
If it is something you’d like to start to introduce into your life, there’s no better way than to join Wonder Club. This group of people all have the same goals: to increase their levels of creativity generally, bit by bit, at their own pace, to fit into their busy lives. There are no time-consuming craft activities (I leave those to the expert artists and makers who provide amazing workshops), but it is the perfect introduction to a creative way of thinking - cultivating your creative mindset - with ideas on how to fit doses of creativity into your busy day, the benefits on our well-being, how it will impact and benefit your professional lives, and then loads of inspiration within the lovely group too.
Head here - Wonder Club - to find out more!