How creative expression is essential in challenging times
Dance mob at the Portland Train station — photo by Johnny
How creative expression is essential in challenging times
Over the years, various people have told me that they weren’t creative, but they’re wrong. Everyone is creative. You don’t have to consider yourself an artist to be creative. I believe it’s your birthright. And it’s especially important in hard times.
Creating is imagination in action.
As a kid, I spent a lot of time daydreaming. That eventually became creating. Since that time, I’ve been creating something or another almost every day. I remember one of my favorite things to do as a child was to create storylines for my Barbie dolls, little soap operas. I created elaborate houses for them out of cardboard boxes and fabric. I also drew in my sketchbook for hours, made up dances, sang in the shower and wrote tons of poetry. Even during challenging times in my childhood, at home, at school, and out in the world, my creative expression was always there to help me make sense of a world that I didn’t quite understand.
City miniture model for the City Park in Budapest — photo by Roxanne
Creating is invention.
All the things we use to help us navigate life have been created: buildings, art, transportation, language, writing, and so much more. Think about all the inventions that have helped solve a particular problem? Sometimes what we create isn’t just for ourselves but can help others. As I’m writing this, I’m using a pair of noise-canceling headphones. Someone created these, a small thing that has made a significant impact on many people. But creative invention doesn’t just have to be restricted to tech. It can be creating a piece of art or architecture that inspires people, maybe something that is accessible and inclusive and helps make the environment a little better. I think of the inventiveness of slang and marvel at how language evolves. Even the corny jokes my husband makes up and shares with me when I’m sad.
A woman makes beaded necklaces — photo by Anthony Fomin - Unsplash
Creating is exercise for the mind.
According to Southwest General, “Creative tasks engage both sides of your brain, encouraging cognitive flexibility—the ability to adapt to new ideas and situations. This not only helps with personal growth but also can improve your memory by exercising recall and retention. Regular creative expression enhances focus, as it requires sustained attention, which can spill over into other areas of your life.”
Creative thinking is problem solving and putting things together, which could take the form of puzzles or knitting a sweater or a complex story plot. Even as I write this, something fundamental is happening in my mind. I’m both engaged and relaxed. Writing in the morning has helped sharpen my brain, as well as reset my nervous system. When I skip it or go directly into work mode, I don’t feel as good or function as well. My husband sometimes creates crossword puzzles to challenge and relax him. I have a lot of friends who knit or felt or sew, and they go into a meditative state while creating.
photo by Claude Gabriel on Unsplash
Creating can be good for the body.
From Southwest General again: “One major benefit is the improvement of fine motor skills. Creative activities, such as painting, knitting, sculpting or playing a musical instrument require precise hand-eye coordination. These actions engage small muscle groups in your hands and fingers, helping to maintain dexterity and prevent stiffness as you age. Regularly engaging in these activities can help enhance your ability to perform everyday tasks more effectively.” The article goes on to show that engaging in creative activity lowers stress hormones and improves immune function. Being creative can also lower perceptions of physical pain. “The study on the effect of music on pain sensitivity by LiKamWa et al. (2022) found that music and singing can impact people’s central pain responses and may be effective as an addition to pain management programs.” The Mexican artist Frida Kahlo made paintings while bedridden. To cope with her devastating physical and emotional pain, she was creative. Her work continues to inspire others to this day.
photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash
Making stuff is emotionally healing.
Creating helps process grief and other difficult emotions. Where would we be without break-up songs? I remember listening to a podcast where Phil Collins was interviewed about writing his song “Against all Odds,” inspired by a painful divorce. The graphic novel, The Crow, written by James O’Barr, came after his fiancé was killed. Creating after great emotional loss and tragedy is transformative, not just for ourselves but also for others who have gone through something similar. Creating with the power of our grief becomes a way to connect and help others.
When there is collective suffering such as political or social unrest, creating can unify us, through song, dance, writing, films, etc. It can become a form of resistance against injustice, a place to process anger and fear in a healthy way.
Some psychotherapists utilize art therapy with their clients. There are numerous scientific articles that talk about the efficacy of creating to help with healing. Regardless of whether you’re using creating art as a healing modality or just to pass the time, creating focuses energy on something productive.
A group of international crime writers reading short stories they wrote the day before at an event called, The Alibi in Slovenia. photo by Roxanne
An antidote to loneliness.
Creating can be a way to connect with others, working in groups or in collaboration. Sometimes people get together to practice life drawing or painting plein air. Recently my husband and I were in Sidmouth, England and joined a local writers’ group. Wherever I travel I look for a conscious dance group where I can dance as well as connect with locals and make new friends. Sometimes there are creative collaborations where two people co-create something that they may not have been able to do alone.
When I’m by myself and I’m fully absorbed in creating something, it is never lonely. The creative process becomes a friend. Creating can make loneliness feel less lonely. Instead of being alone, I’m with myself.
Creativity is an escape!
It has the power to transport us to other worlds we create with our own hands and mind. Maybe it starts with a long walk where my mind can wander past thoughts, worries, and boredom. And eventually something may spark like a poem or story idea or maybe an image for a painting. And then I can’t wait to get where I’m going and write it or sketch it. To live in a creative space is to live in another time, an existence that is apart from our mundane lives. When I’m writing a story, whether it’s realistic or fantastical, I’m living in another world. This other world is always available to us, through a story, a painting, a song, a dance, a poem, or a lump of clay.
An artists easel near a pond at the Riga Botanical garden — photo by Roxanne
Creating can be a meditative process.
Making stuff keeps us present while directing our focus on something positive and productive. Sometimes it can be repetitive, playing the same note, making the same movement, a similar brush stroke. It can become trancelike. We can enter altered states. The African musician Fela Kuti used to play long drawn-out songs with his band, designed to put people into a meditative state before he delivered his political lyrics. Deep in the process of creating, we can soften our sense of time as well as our sense of self.
Creating strengthens our relationship with self.
Creating something is a way to know or understand myself. As I age and as the world changes around me, so does what and how I create. When I’m rigid or tentative in my process, does that show up in other parts of my life? When I’ve struggled with a creative project and then have a breakthrough, I often feel lighter and freer as though a weight has been lifted. And on the flip side, when I work on some other aspect of my life: my health, my work, my relationships with others, my creativity is also impacted. As I continue to learn about myself and the world and gain new skills and experience, my creative world continues to expand. My relationship with myself and my creativity are intimately connected.
Music shop indow display with guitars and Ukuleles in Riga, Latvia — photo by Roxanne