How creativity helps in overcome stress, depression and anxiety issues
Now a days, all of us are facing mental and physical problems, some because of our lifestyle and lately due to pandemic situation around. Many people are really finding it difficult to cope up with the difficulties of life. A lot of people lost their jobs and many their loved ones. During these challenges, even the strongest one finds it really hard to be normal and fight with the situation face to face. Even I have seen many people around who somehow not able to understand that this pandemic is not just about negativity, but it has also gave us the time to just slow down in life to think more deeply about our goals and to enhance our skills. Here I am talking about the goals and skills which I have forgotten may be because we were so busy with our regular lives.
May be many of you will not agree with me, but here I am going to share my experience during lockdown , as it has given me ample amount of time to plan out my upcoming time. I have been in the creative field for many years professionally. As a child, I had this talent of imagining things and drawing them on the paper. I used to find it so fascinating that it was like living in my own colorful world. This was the reason my concentration power improved. As I grew and pursued Fine Arts as a profession, my life became more disciplined and my imaginative skills improved.
During the time of pandemic, I gave more time to my this talent, enhancing it giving it more time and planning about taking it to next level. I also learnt new forms of art like folk art, doodling and many more. This somehow gave me no time to stress out about the situation around in the world, although I took all the precautionary measures while stepping out.
So here I am trying to explain to you that life is all about highs and lows, good times and bad times. But its up to us how we see a ray of hope even on the darkest day. You can call it “ART THERAPY”
Here I am talking about any type of skills you have like singing, dancing, cooking, sports, and many more to this list. Creativity induces positive health effects. As being involved in any creative activity, an individual experiences a decrease in their levels of cortisol, a hormone that the body secretes to respond to stress.
Just like physical exercise, creative stimulation engages and focuses our minds on the task at hand — and distracts us from feelings of stress and anxiety. In other words, when you “lose yourself” in the composition of a song or the filling of the colors to your art work, you are essentially entering a healthy flow state. You don’t notice time or events happening around you. During this period, your brain secretes a healthy dose of pleasure-feeling chemicals such as dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. By creating, we may enter flow, which can give us a rush of good feelings.
Here I am going to put main benefits of creative skills in bullets, which are as follows:
- Acts as a form of self-care: Sometimes, with all of life’s responsibilities, we forget that we need and deserve downtime and self-care. Taking even a few minutes on a regular basis to devote to a hobby can give you more of what you need in this area. With art, you have the additional benefit of being left with something beautiful (or at least interesting) to show for it.
- Helps you tap into a “state of flow”: Some psychologists describe flow as becoming deeply engrossed in an activity. Similar to meditation, flow can improve performance and lower stress levels.2 You may experience flow when you’re practicing an instrument, playing a sport, gardening, writing, painting, or drawing.
- Takes your mind off things: Creating art can take your mind off of whatever is stressing you, at least for a few minutes. It’s difficult to keep ruminating on your problems when you’re focused on creating. If your problems stay with you, you can incorporate them into your creations. Once you’re done, you should have a clearer head with which to tackle your problems again.
We all should realize that how we feel physically (and mentally) is more important than the work we create. So if we are healthy and happy, we will do our best. Listen to your body and your mind. Do what’s best for YOU. This will be makes overcome all hurdles of life.
When you’re feeling down and out, get busy and creative. By putting yourself into a creative state, you’ll be sweeping negative feelings to the corners of the room and making space for a new masterpiece — even if it’s nothing to sing home about!
The coolest thing about living in the present is that CREATIVITY LIVES IN THE MOMENT. Each moment is UNIQUE.
So stop worrying about that is happening around, meet your inner self and live in the moment with your best.
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