A Case for Creative Wellness: How Creativity Can Improve Your Health
“You may say I'm a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will live as one.” –Imagine by John Lennon
What is “Creative Wellness?” And how can it help you feel better?
When I founded my business, Feel Creative Wellness, I spent a lot of time deciding how to best summarize our innovative and holistic approach to therapy, which prioritizes self-expression and creativity—especially through music. Thus: “Feel Creative Wellness.”
But what is “creative wellness,” and why does it matter to the public, many of whom may not currently prioritize/practice creativity or who may even believe they aren’t creative? (Something that I feel strongly is a lie created by a capitalist system that wants people to be, above all else, productive.)
First, let’s define both creativity and wellness.
For me—someone who lives with an invisible disability—wellness is not merely the absence of illness. If that were the case, anyone living with chronic illness would never be able to achieve wellness, and that has not been my experience. Rather, I see wellness as a way of living that supports physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Wellness is achieved through daily supportive practices and habits.
Creativity, according to the Oxford dictionary, is “the use of skill and imagination to produce something new or to produce art.” For centuries, creativity has been valued by societies for its ability to open minds and increase innovation. More recent research has found a link between creativity and increased positive emotions, decreased symptoms of depression, reduced stress, reduced anxiety, improved ability to process trauma, and even improved immune system functioning.
As our culture continues toward a virtual/algorithmic version of itself, with less and less real human contact, the many creative things that organically emerge when humans come together are at risk. As a result, there is now a resurgence of the need for creativity just for creativity’s sake.
My argument in favor of using creativity as wellness is three-fold:
People should care about creativity, as it just might be the missing link to living a better, healthier, and happier life. Unlike many of the options available to help us feel better these days—some of which are crucial in helping people get back on track, so this is not an argument against those specific cases—creativity is instantly available to each of us, without side effects or risk of addiction. (And if you become addicted to being creative, where is the harm?)
Creativity can be cultivated. It’s time to let go of the belief that we either are creative, or we aren’t. We are all innately creative. Humans are creative beings. When we were children, creativity came naturally. As adults, it often gets buried underneath to-do lists and fear of criticism. If we view creativity as a wellness practice, we see that it can be cultivated. In the same way that you can become more mindful by practicing mindfulness, we can train our brains to think creatively by practicing creativity.
Creative Arts Therapists—including Music Therapists—are uniquely positioned to help fight the current mental health crisis plaguing the world, as our education, training, and clinical practice prioritize different forms of creativity as the catalysts for better health.
So, when I think about “creative wellness”—a term that combines two broad concepts—I’m thinking about 2 distinct things:
“Creative wellness” as the act of using creativity as a tool to help us achieve a state of wellness or well-being. Think: writing a song or painting a picture to help you process something hard instead of keeping it bottled up inside, thus reducing stress or anxiety and increasing positive emotions.
“Creative wellness” as the act of infusing creativity into well-established wellness practices or ways of living—like meditation or mindfulness— both for the sake of practicing creativity and as an innovative way to help people stick with these practices and reap their benefits.
Here’s a real-life example for how this can look in practice:
When I first started meditating, I just couldn’t stick with it. I felt tired. I got bored. It felt like another chore to add to my to-do list. I didn’t see the point. However, as someone suffering from anxiety, I really wanted to feel that state of calm and ease that so many meditation practitioners had promised me was just around the bend.
So, I started searching for ways to infuse creativity into my meditation practice.
I developed rituals that I looked forward to. Before every meditation session, I would brew a cup of my favorite tea and light a gorgeous candle that was reserved only for meditation.
I also started collecting pieces of the Earth, like fallen leaves or wildflowers (always already on the ground, never picked), and started creating a dried bouquet (pictured below.) I started taking mindful walks and finding myself filled with glee when I noticed a small branch that had fallen from a tree or a flower that had just fluttered down from a bush. Things I hadn’t even noticed before were suddenly a source of inspiration for my bouquet.
At the beginning of my meditation sessions, I would turn on calming music and then spend time arranging my bouquet—either adding new pieces of removing anything that needed to be returned to the Earth.
I practiced mindfulness by simply focusing on my breathing while I created. I also used objects like acorns and beautiful crystals I had collected to create temporary designs in my meditation space. My goal was simple: create for the sake of creating. (It should be noted that I am a musician, not a visual artist. For me, creating visual art was an easier way to disentangle myself from perfectionism and just create. It should also be noted that creativity is not limited to music and art. Creativity can occur in many forms: writing, reading, gardening, photography, storytelling, crafting, daydreaming, mindful observation, and cooking are just a few more examples in an unlimited list of ways you can practice creativity.)
After practicing these creative rituals for a few weeks, I started to look forward to my meditation sessions. I found that linking the act of creating with a practice like meditation helped me stick with it. Eventually, I started to feel that sense of calm and ease the meditation practitioners had promised. I could not believe how much better I was feeling—me, a total skeptic! (I know I sound like an infomercial at this point, but this is truly how much these practices helped support me, and I believe they could help you, too.)
I noticed improved sleep, less stress, less anxiety, increased self-awareness, better focus, increased patience, less pain, and even a lower resting blood pressure! I wasn’t the only one who noticed. A few months after starting my journey into creativity as a wellness practice, my doctor was stunned to find how many of my chronic health conditions had improved in some capacity.
But was it the meditation? Or was it the creativity? Does it matter?
Are you interested in using creativity or other wellness practices to help support or improve your health? Reach out to us today. We offer an opportunity to work directly with an experienced and nationally board-certified music therapist whose specialty is creativity as wellness. In addition to music therapy, we offer individual meditation guidance for those interested in developing (and sticking with) a meditation practice that incorporates creativity and is tailored for you. Email us. When you do, we’ll send you a free Guided Meditation with Music, created by the team at Feel Creative Wellness, LLC.
Healing is an art. Let’s create it.
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