Time to reconnect and improve your creative ability
Did you know that reading poetry and the classics can be more helpful than a self-help book. And knitting is significantly therapeutic, as is listening to music. If we go to a gallery just to appreciate art, can it dramatically lower our stress and anxiety levels and does it have an effect of helping you feel calm, relaxed and happy?
It has also been found that drawing, reading poetry, crafts and crafts can be very helpful in relaxing your mind and muscles, reducing inflammation and indigestion problems. It also improves positive self-esteem and increases productivity. This is because creative pursuits help us focus our attention, similar to the way meditation does.
Flow is the key ingredient to accessing the many physical, emotional and mental benefits of creativity. Psychologist talks about the state we are in when we are so busy with our creative process that we even seem to lose track of time, temporarily forgetting about ourselves, our problems and internal chaos. When we are in flow, we tend to forget what is happening in our lives right now and even what is happening in our body. We notice that negative thoughts disappear during this time. For some, they reach this state when they exercise, but even tasks that involve repetition, such as knitting, crochet, help to relieve strong emotions and have a calming effect on our nervous system.
If you’re feeling depressed or anxious, recent studies have shown that activities with meaning and purpose, including creative passions, act as your own internal medicine, acting as a natural antidepressant and mood enhancer. Ask yourself, do you need a mental
or physical improvement? And if the answer is yes, it might be time to focus on your creative passions and spend more time on these activities. One way to reconnect with your creativity is to take yourself on a weekly artist date, where you go alone on a date or activity that reconnects you with an activity that you love to do, but you have to do at some point or another. reason no longer does.
Enjoy this video where how taking yourself on an Artist Date brings playful fun back into your life.
Go to an art show
You may have had a mind blowing, tingling experience looking at a painting, sculpture or other work of art, you know what I’m talking about. Maybe you have doubts about art or you feel that art is not for you. Rest assured, you don’t have to be all artsy to enjoy art. You don’t even have to understand it to get anything out of it. Just stay curious and let your body have its natural response to what you are experiencing. If you only have one moment where you can experience wonder, then that is what counts and has a positive benefit for you.
Emotions are processed by a special part of the brain and when our pleasure centers are activated by thinking about a painting or other work of art, even when it is not immediately clear what the work of art is about. Our brains, bodies and emotions are positively rewarded. Signals to the brain are the same as when we daydream or think about the future and further enhance the pleasure and reward mode. There is also an area called ‘the inner insult’ that is associated with the experience of pain being triggered and this may be due to our brains trying the process and finding meaning in the artwork. Taking the time to go to an art show or even taking a painting class can therefore be very rewarding and will often alter your activating and enhancing the reward centers through repeated positive cues.
Why not start writing a daily diary?
Are you stressed? When was the last time you wrote in a journal? Most people are too busy answering a full inbox a day, a huge to-do list to consider the benefits of for themselves each day. But before you ignore it completely, there are many health benefits of writing that are worth considering. Many people walk around with a huge amount of stress that is too much to handle. The cortisol produced by constant activation of stress hormones is very harmful and stressful to our immune system and leads to serious health problems if not stopped in time.