How Creativity Helps Mental Health
Why is creativity important for mental health?
Creativity in any form helps us to express our feelings. Whether that’s through writing, singing, dancing, painting, sculpting, etc., creativity gives us an outlet to be freely vulnerable and authentic.
When we don’t give ourselves space to release our feelings, they actually can do more damage to us. Bottling things up can make us anxious, tense, even physically ill. But so many of us do it because we don’t know any other way to deal with our feelings! We don’t want to overreact to something, so we push away any emotional reaction. We don’t want to seem dramatic or weak or scared, so instead of letting ourselves explore those feelings, we just lock them up and hope they don’t bother us anymore.
Finding a creative outlet that works for you is a wonderful, healthy way to unlock those feelings and release them without creating greater conflict in our lives. And giving ourselves the space to release those feelings gives us a chance to explore them.
Through art, music, movement, or other forms of expression we can start to unpack and understand our feelings, and what those feelings are telling us about ourselves, our needs, and our desires.
The benefits of creativity can include:
Self discovery
Higher self esteem
Lower stress levels
Emotional release
What gets in the way of creativity?
It can be hard to find time for creativity.
Work/life balance is already tricky for people to prioritize and maintain, so when we start thinking about adding more into that balance we get anxious, exhausted, and reluctant.
It’s important to remember that giving yourself space to explore your feelings and to be creative without the expectation that goes along with our work lives (productivity, perfection, etc.) can help to recharge you and actually give you more energy.
Carrying the weight of unexplored and unexpressed feelings takes both a mental and physical toll. It makes you tired, weary, unmotivated. It can make it difficult to get through seemingly easy tasks because you are so weighed down. Learning to prioritize this type of self care can help you to show up for yourself, 100%.
Ways you can add creativity in your life:
There are endless ways for you to add creativity to your life. Which is great! But it can also make it overwhelming to figure out where to start. And it means that some things won’t work for you. You might have to try a few different outlets to figure out what you really enjoy and what benefits you the most.
To help you, I’ve put together this list of creative outlets you can try in your own life:
Journaling
Writing short stories
Drawing
Painting
Making collages
Singing
Dancing
Playing and instrument
Photography
Sewing
Knitting
Embroidery
Making clothing
Acting
Learning an instrument
Writing music
Crafting
Cooking
If you need more ideas for how to add creativity into your life, or have questions about how it could help, our counselors can help you.
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