Creativity nurtures our health
How creative acts give us a sense of autonomy, possibility, and joy
Hello, dear friends!
Happy Christmas Eve, if you celebrate, and happy all things winter and cusp-of-new-year. I’ve mostly been trying to get through the ridiculousness of December. How about you? I love this month, and also, it’s a lot.
This Odyssey of the Body note today is to tuck into your brain for 2024, a reminder that it will be quieter soon and you will need to consider how to fill the hours and months ahead.
My vote for 2024 is more creative time.
Hmm. Brianne, isn’t this a newsletter about illness, wellness, that sort of thing?
Why are you writing about creative time?
I believe creativity is good for us.
Good for our bodies, our minds, our spirits. Good in a different way that a medication or operation or productivity hack.
I call creativity anything you create for fun. ANYTHING. It could be doodling, baking cookies, knitting, filming and editing a video, writing a haiku, painting big colorful stripes, rearranging a section of a shelf to be delightful, adapting a card game to be extra silly, making a costume for your cat, running your fingers over piano keys, sketching a self-portait with your non-dominant hand, building a snow fort.
The range of creative acts is infinite.
The key is for fun — so if it’s baking cookies because they are due for a school event and it’s the last thing you want to do at 10 p.m., then that doesn’t count.
The for fun part means you can use your imagination. You can do what kids do naturally, and adapt as you go.
When I create, I feel good.
I feel warm and human and excited and happy.
I don’t know exactly what’s coming next. The mystery is part of the thrill.
What will happen when I lay orange on top of pink in this painting?
What will happen when I add butterscotch chips to the brownie batter?
What will happen when I put this word next to that word next to that word?
I beliveve creativity is good for our mental health, our feeling about ourselves, our joy, our connection, our sense of automony and power.
For all ages. (We adults need the reminders most!)
And for all states of health.
Wherever we are on the spectrum of wellness on any given day, acts of creativity are signals of our power and life.
When we are sick, especially, it can feel like we have lost all independence. When we are lying in bed, too tired to cook, too much in pain to do anything except click on another video, restricted in diet or mobility or energy — the limitations can make everything feel worse. What is left? What is possible?
Almost always, we can still do something creative. It could be so tiny. Drawing a single bright purple line with a crayon. Humming a few bars of a favorite song. Imagining being in a favorite place. Yes, imagining in your head counts as creating.
Your thoughts are going to be churning whether you like it or not — why not put them to good use?
By creating, you are putting something of you in the world.
You are shaping your experience.
You are reminding yourself that you can shape your world, even as other forces and factors may be shaping you in ways you don’t love.
Creative acts help us process.
We spend so much time absorbing directions, executing tasks, and feeling the intensity of life. And when do we get to release the pent-up feelings? Not while grocery shopping and folding laundry, likely!
When we let the words flow out, or the paintbrush take over, it can help clear out the many things that have been building up inside.
Creative acts bring us back to joy.
How much fun is it do listen to your own internal compass on what you would like to do, what color you like, what style you like, what kind of musical beat you want to hear?
Sometimes that inner voice can be muffled by all the needs of fellow humans.
But your inner voice is important.
Tuning into what you like, what makes your body sing, what you want to create is a way of listening to yourself.
If you can’t tell what color crayon you want to pick up, how you can you tell what bigger decisions you want to make in life?
Finally, creating opens possibilities.
Creating reminds us that there are more options, more choices, more avenues that the world might appear to be offering at first.
When we are stuck, creating opens the back door, cracks the attic door on the ceiling, lets us slip through the mouse hole into a new world.
I hope when the December noise settles into the January quiet, and you have a moment when you are feeling stuck, or discombobulated, or restless, or even upset, angry, or heavy with despaire, you might remember this note. And pick up a pencil or a crayon or a guitar — tune into whatever you feel like doing — and create.
Thanks for being here. I hope you have a wonderful 2024 ahead.
To our journeys,
Brianne
p.s. My belief in the importance of creative acts is why I am hosting Winter Art Camp in January. If you are looking for community in your creating, come join us