Today I am going to make a short blog post about creativity and its role in reducing stress! Now, if you are going to say "But I am not creative, this message isn't for me, so I am outta here..." I will tell you STOP RIGHT THERE! How we think about the term creativity is typically a myopic perspective that needs correction. I will be the first person to tell you that I have spent my life believing that I am not creative. I was wrong. The correct attitude, for myself, is that I am not a very good artist, as in my stick figures are even questionable.
That does not mean that I, nor you, am not creative. It means that my, or your, creative expression takes a different form. I love to write, and I love to bake. Not so much for cooking, but I do love to bake. And I love to come up with new things to bake, which is a form of creativity!
Creativity is defined in the research as a new or novel solution to a problem. How we define problem can be: "I am feeling very sad and I need to do something with this sadness." If you are a musician, you may decide to write a song about it. Then we have a new, hopefully beautiful, creative expression of sadness in music. If you are a writer, you may develop beautiful prose in poetic form that expresses, and thus relieves you of, your sadness.
Again, I love to bake, so when I am bored, stressed, or anxious, I like to go into the kitchen and bake something. It helps me use my anxious energy, and it distracts me from the source of the stress. Both are helpful when we are stressed!
Research on creative expression also tells us that our body responds to the expression, in ways that are helpful. As much as stress has been found to be potentially damaging to our heart, via excessive cortisol production (cortisol is a stress hormone), acting in creative ways has been shown to reduce our cortisol levels!
So, think about how YOU express yourself creatively. We all have our own unique channel for creative expression, we just need to think about it. Come up with ways you can tap into that creative expression this weekend, and see how good it feels to take your mind off all the bad things happening right now. Feel the release of the stressful feeling you experience when your cortisol levels are high and you feel that 'fight or flight' response kick into high gear. It probably won't be the banana bread I hear so many people have been baking during the pandemic, but I can guarantee there will be some baking going on at my house this weekend!
Next week, I will continue the discussion of creative expression by delving into one of my areas of expertise: flow. Until then, stay safe, be well, take care. And do something creative.
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