If you aren’t in a creative job industry, it can be difficult to integrate creative activities into your everyday life. Life can feel stagnant and mundane for people at times, so creativity is a way to spice up your life and shake things up!
What are the benefits of creativity?
Research demonstrates that creativity fosters emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and social connectivity. Emotional regulation plays a crucial role, as engaging in creative activities provides an outlet for emotional expression and regulation, enabling individuals to process and manage their overwhelming emotions effectively.
Moreover, cognitive flexibility is fostered through creativity, as it encourages flexible thinking, problem-solving, and the exploration of alternative perspectives. These cognitive processes enhance individuals’ resilience, adaptability, and coping skills, thus promoting positive mental health outcomes. Additionally, social support and connection are important factors in the creativity-mental health relationship, as creative endeavors often involve social interactions and community engagement. Collaborative creative activities foster a sense of purpose, satisfaction, and social integration which are essential for well-being. There are plenty of ways to integrate creativity into your life 👇
- Creative writing and drawing – Being able to write or type out anything that comes to mind can be cathartic and an emotional release. Whether it’s expressing your feelings, creating a story, or drawing, this activity can be a vessel to explore your inner world. These blogs I write for Channel Kindness serve as a positive outlet for me to get my thoughts and ideas onto the paper and screen! 🎨📝
- Fashion – Being able to create your own unique look that best represents you can be a cool way to express yourself. There is something so freeing about choosing how to dress and show up in this world. I only developed this perspective of fashion when I worked at a boutique for a few years during undergraduate school (shout out to SINGER22) 🎀
- Singing and dancing – Being able to sing or dance can be a physical and emotional outlet to channel your energy in a fun way. Oftentimes, we don’t realize that we store a lot of emotions in our bodies. Singing and dancing can release your mind and body of any unreleased tension and actually increase some neurotransmitters (dopamine, serotonin) in the brain, known as the ‘feel good’ hormones and ‘natural painkillers’. These activities can be a gateway that allows yourself to release a variety of emotions and become more in touch with your mind and body. 💃🏼🕺🏼
What are some other ways you can add creativity into your lifestyle? Perhaps you could start out by writing for Channel Kindness like I do! Here is the link to submit your piece here!
