Creativity and Mental well being

This winter I mentored a student (Y.P.B) who is doing a program in Art  Therapy.  I met with her regularly and as I  listened to her talk about her studies I learned a great deal about how art therapy connects with the cognitive behavioural therapy work (CBT) that I trained in.  It also connects with the Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) and mindfulness .  So again, I learned from my student that there are many avenues towards mental health and well being.  There is no straight path or one way of being well.

Last week I wrote about a small piece of art that I drew at Y.P.B.’s request.  It was a challenge and when I look at what others have drawn for her I feel slightly embarrassed at my elementary efforts. I am amazed and delighted by the creativity that people are demonstrating.  It is hard not to compare their creative efforts with mine but I am not going to do it. Judgement of good, better and best is not part of healthy growth for my own mental health.  Now if it was my goal to become an artist I might need to practice a lot more, take art classes and submit my work for evaluation.  Since that is not my goal in practicing then I won’t judge it harshly or compare my little drawing to others. 

I think that we need to have that kind of attitude with our own mental health.  My mental health belongs to me as does my definition of when I am well.  Many years ago I had a lovely client who had lived with depression for many years.  After a while in our work together she told me that she was well.  My first thought was but…you could be so much better.  It is not up to me to define when someone else is well, frankly its up to the each of us to define when we are well and what suits our lifestyle and choices.  So back to my topic of creativity and mental health…

What does it mean to be creative? Most people tend to think of creativity as an artistic endeavour, such as writing, painting, sewing, knitting, or music. In reality, that’s a relatively limited definition. 

What is creativity? 

Creativity is anything that stretches your brain out of its normal way of thinking. 

I believe that creativity in any form is a good thing. Scientists are continuing to uncover encouraging evidence that engaging in creative activities from painting to gardening are beneficial to your mental health and well-being. 

Modern psychologists go beyond a limited idea of creativity.  There is a much wider range of creativity. Do you write code? Develop advertising campaigns? Come up with unique recipes? Sew or knit? Do crossword puzzles or fill in adult coloring books? Doodle during meetings? Then by most modern standards, you’re creative. Creativity is anything that allows the person to stretch their imagination by going inside and letting what is hidden in our brains bubble up to the top.

Mental health benefits of creative activities

In 2015, psychologist and art therapist Dr. Cathy Malchiodi wrote about several studies confirming that being creative can increase positive emotions, lessen depressive symptoms, reduce stress, decrease anxiety, and even improve immune system functioning. A 2016 study in The Journal of Positive Psychology supported these earlier findings, concluding that “spending time on creative goals during a day is associated with higher activated positive affect (PA) on that day.” 

Positive AFFECT

Affect is a word we use but often don’t know what it means, well at least I was not sure when I began work as a counsellor.  So I will explain it to you because it took me quite some time to figure it out.

A person’s affect is the outward expression of a person's internal emotions.  So… affect includes, facial expression, body stance and even the look in our eyes.  Affect can also include how we are dressed and how often we bathe or brush our teeth.

For most people, there is a harmony between affect and circumstance; for example, if you are depressed you might look sad, have tears in your eyes, dress in dark colours, or find showering and doing your hair to be too much energy.  Your affect would give many signals to an observer that you might be experiencing depression.

Positive affect is the extent to which people experience positive moods, such as joy, happiness, and optimism. Sometimes the positive affect puts a little ‘spring in our step’. and a light in our eyes. Higher positive affect lowers stress and;

expands our perspective so that we notice more possibilities in our lives.

What about the myth that creativity and mental illness go hand and hand?

We have all heard of creative people who have lived with mental illness. Picasso, Van Gogh, Robin Williams and so many others who experienced depression also were very creative. The correlation seems so obvious but if we jump to the conclusion that creativity causes depression or the reverse that depression causes creativity , we would in fact be incorrect in our deductive reasoning. Studies have shown that those incredibly creative people said that depression or mental illness slowed down or stopped their creative flow.

In this three minute video the quietly well spoken Dr. Nancy Andrews disproves the myth that that people who are creative have a higher incidence of mental illness. She also disproves the myth that creative people must have a mental illness in order to be creative.

Creativity as a child

Most children are freely creative, every picture they draw is a great work of art worth framing or at least putting on the fridge in a prominent position.

When we’re young, our lives are full of creative activities. We make shapes with clay, invent lifelike scenarios with dolls and toys, bang on drums or pots and pans, and color regularly. My youngest grandson engages in creative play on a daily basis. He has often travelled to Mars or the Moon with Lego bricks.

As teens, we may participate in the school band or take a photography or creative writing class as an elective.

However, as we get older, creativity is sometimes crowded out by our educational and vocational pursuits, our focus on supporting families, and daily chores that we carry out with mindless repetition. At some point in our lives most of us become modest and self effacing about our creative voice.

Creative Leadership

There have been some studies that indicate that truly successful companies have leaders who claim both their own creativity and welcome creativity in employees. Creative leaders:

1. Make more business model changes to realize their strategies

2. Invite disruptive innovation- What can we do differently?

3. Consider previously unheard-of ways to drastically change the enterprise

4. Are comfortable with ambiguity- they live in a space of not being certain

5. Score much higher on innovation

6. Are courageous and visionary enough to make decisions that alter the status quo

It stands to reason that injecting into the business world creative endeavors such as idea brainstorming, innovation labs, and flexible time for employees to enjoy fun activities would not only help the company thrive but also improve the mental health and well-being of team members.

How Creativity Improves Mental Well Being

Typically, when people are creating something, whether it’s a software program, graffiti, or a quilt, they tend to get lost in the activity. I know that time flew by last week when I did my small piece of art. My friend tells me that when she is quilting time just flies by. I know that at the end of my day I felt quite peaceful, proud and happier.

The act of creating requires focus and concentration. This is one time of the many times that multitasking doesn’t work. Some psychologists call this state of creativity, ‘flow’. The Flow Genome Project, an organization that researches human performance, defines the state of flow as:

“those moments of rapt attention and total absorption when you get so focused on the task at hand that everything else disappears and all aspects of performance, both mental and physical, go through the roof.”

The state of creative flow changes how the brain functions.

Brainwaves slow down, and original thoughts are better able to form. Additionally, the prefrontal cortex temporarily deactivates, or ‘becomes quiet’ making us less critical of our ideas and therefore more courageous in our efforts.

Lastly, during a flow state, our brain releases ‘an enormous cascade of neurochemistry,’ including large quantities of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine. These are pleasure and satisfaction inducing chemicals that affect creativity and well-being. 

The way the brain acts during creative activities is similar to the experience during meditation, mindfulness, and yoga exercises. These activities are designed to help you  find peace, calm and happiness by blocking out external stimuli . Creativity can produce a natural ‘high’ or feeling of joy and contentment. People seem to know what the runners high brings to them, but I think the highs that surround our creativity are worth developing and nurturing.

Thank you again for reading my reflections on my own creative learning from students, clients and the courageous.

In my own act of courage I have included one of the early drafts of the picture that I drew for Y.P.B.

Deborah