It is impossible to steer clear of all of life’s difficulties, but knowing how to cope in such times is a crucial factor if you are to maintain a positive sense of wellbeing. One tool many people have found to be effective in finding hope in difficult times is to engage in some form of creative expression.
It is easy to limit your understanding of creativity to just painting and drawing, but creative expression can be a multitude of things: cooking a meal, working in the garden, dancing, singing in the shower, baking a cake from scratch, doing a Sudoku, knitting, jogging … the list is endless.
You know you are onto something when you lose track of time and life is “suspended” in that moment. It’s during those times and those activities that you connect with your creative energy and feel more hopeful, happier and more relaxed as you move into your own sense of being.
Creative expression is effective in reducing stress and promoting hope because creative activities engage the right side of your brain, bring your awareness back into your body and can be a form of meditation, all of which slow you down and provide you with a new perspective.
Engaging the right side of your brain
When you involve yourself in creative expression you engage the right side of your brain, the side you often used as a child when you played and created. When you use the right side of your brain you tap into the fun side of being a kid.
As an adult, it’s important to spend time engaging this side. Lucia Cappacchione explains in her book The Art of Emotional Healing, “Once we enter the atmosphere of grades, evaluation and judgement, the natural artist inside takes a backseat. As we are ushered into a world of ABCs and 123s, the straight lines, circles and dots become letters and numerals and line up to report for duty to the left brain, where our language centres reside. And the right brain, which specialises in visual-spatial perception, emotional expression and intuition, starts to shrivel up from lack of use.”
Bringing awareness to your body
Part of the reason creative expression is such an easy way to relax and have fun is it brings your awareness into your body, into the tactility and sensuality of life. Creative expression engages your senses: the messiness of paint, the fragrance of food cooking, the grittiness of dirt in the garden, the visual delight of colour, shapes and design. Connecting with your body and your sensuality helps you to explore a different sense of self.
As a kid, you probably spent a lot of time engaging with the world through your body — hanging off monkey bars, playing in a sandpit, getting covered in paint, glue and glitter, licking the spoon from the cake mix. As a kid you came to understand the world through your body.
Sadly, as you get older and play sessions no longer dictate your life, you can experience a sense of disconnection from your body, finding yourself living mainly in your head. Sandra Magsamen in her book Living Artfully strongly advocates for adults to re-engage in play. She writes, “Play rejuvenates and revitalises us. It helps us see the world from different points of view. It rekindles our optimism, encourages experimentation and renews our ability to be flexible and make meaningful connections as we continually adapt to our changing world.”
Being able to adapt to your changing world is a sure way to reduce your stress and anxiety. Just as meditation is known for promoting more peace and balance in people’s lives, creative expression can be regarded as a form of meditation.
Creative meditation
When you engage in creative expression you move your mind and body into a space similar to the meditation space. Creative expression allows you to be in the present moment both physically and mentally.
In Herbert Benson’s book The Relaxation Response he outlines the physical benefits of meditation: “When the mind is focused, whether through meditation or other repetitive mental activities, the body responds with a dramatic decrease in heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure (if elevated to begin with) and metabolic rate — the exact opposite of the flight-or-fight response.”
The benefits gained from meditation are the same as when you engage in creative expression. It is not surprising, then, that creative expression has also proved to be particularly powerful in helping people cope during difficult times in their lives and during times of depression.
Creating through difficult times
C. Diane Ealy, author of The Woman’s Book of Creativity, recognises the power of creativity to assist people who are dealing with depression. “Ultimately,” she writes, “by living a creative lifestyle, we replace the depression in our lives, fulfilling our potential and becoming who we truly are.” I can personally attest to Ealy’s comment, as I discovered the power of creativity at a time when my spirits were very low and I felt stuck in a depressive mindset. I had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome the previous year at age 23 and was struggling to understand the massive changes it bought to my life.
Due to my illness, my career was on hold, my body was no longer my ally, my friends had either waned or failed to understand the gravity of my illness, and my sense of self had been seriously challenged. At this time I asked some deep questions: “Who am I if I am unable to do things and achieve?” and “What is the meaning and purpose of my life?”
While I was asking these difficult questions, my dad passed away unexpectedly and I was left trying to fathom the inherent uncertainty of life. It was a time of great sadness and loss. One morning, I woke up and felt totally overwhelmed. I have always tried to be proactive in my life, to step back from a situation and see what I might be able to do to make things better. So I asked myself, “OK, so you are feeling a lot of loss. What is the opposite of loss?”
Assuming that the opposite might make me feel better, I found myself answering, “Gain.” I thought about this for a moment and noticed that the word “gain” inspired in my mind the word “create”. Instantly, I saw how the ability to create something might be an antidote to my loss and grief.
I went out that day and bought what I needed to begin making my own jewellery, along with some paints and sketchbooks. While I cringed to spend the money I didn’t really have, I realised that, unlike the $10,000 I’d spent on medical treatments that were unsuccessful, this investment in art supplies might be the best money I could spend to regain some sense of wellbeing and happiness in my life. I was right.
Since that time I have re-engaged in writing, designed and made my own jewellery, learnt how to draw henna tattoos, to knit and make blankets to be sent to a charity in Africa, painted a few canvasses and sketched a few pictures.
What creative expression has offered me both then and now is a tangible sense of hope. When I look at my life, I could focus on all the things I have lost or I could focus on all the things I have been able to create. Creative expression has offered me an alternative way to view my life, a perspective that has ultimately led to less stress and anxiety, along with more happiness and a sense of purpose and meaning.
Finding hope in creativity
I am certainly not alone in finding hope in creative expression. I spoke to a wonderful woman who was also diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome in her early 20s and who continues to live with the illness some 20 years later. She shared with me the positive role creative expression has played in her life as she has sought to cope with the limitations of a chronic illness.
She said, “The process of allowing yourself to engage with creative expression is quite psychically energising and it’s enjoyable. So you are in that moment and you are less likely to be thinking about what you can’t do; you are more focused on what you are doing now. It is a saving grace, a kind of medicine, really, and I don’t think I could survive without having that creative aspect.”
The more you inject creative activities into your life, the more you will reap the benefits. No doubt, for many, it has been a while since they have picked up a paintbrush or taken a dance class, but now is as good a time as any to re-engage with your creative passions.
If you are unsure what your creative passions might be, Diane Ealy makes a valuable suggestion: “Discovering our natural passion is like an internal treasure hunt. One place to begin is by recalling what you enjoyed doing around the age of 11 or 12 … the interests you had during your early teen years can indicate where your natural passions lie.”
So it might be time to dust off those dancing shoes, find your camera or start swimming in the ocean again; whatever it was for you when you were young, it might still be true for you now. There is a word of warning, though. Magsamen explains, “As you start living artfully — or return to living artfully — be gentle with yourself. We have been conditioned to focus on whatever little thing isn’t right about ourselves, our creations and our surroundings. Instead, let’s decide to focus on what is right, lovely and beautiful. This is a simple concept, yes, but it’s transformative just the same. Many people today have been looking outside themselves for wellbeing and happiness when what they’ve been searching for has been inside them all along.”
The Beauty of creativity is it allows you to live more vividly both in the joyous times of life and during the hard times. Creative expression allows you to take time out for yourself and to enjoy what life has to offer. Having fun with creative expression is a wonderful way to live a more hopeful, happy and passionate life.
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Jessica Stead is a freelance writer. Jessica has completed a BA (Hons) in Communications and has written a thesis on the role of hope in the lives of refugees. She is currently expanding her writing on hope and self-awareness based on her personal experiences and interviews. E: Jessicastead2225@hotmail.com
