I am changing my perspective on how I look at playing and creativity. We are all well educated on the importance of how eating right, taking vitamins, exercise etc is good for your health, have you ever noticed the effects playing and being creative?
Take Mary Lou Cook quote “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes and having fun”, there is a lot of really valuable attributes that make us more complete, well rounded, happy, adventurous human beings.
Play and being creative is an integral part of our wellbeing. This is not new findings, but I like Brene Browns‘ research is we all know ‘the how to’ be good to ourselves but we overlook the ‘what gets in the way’ of us taking full action.
This hits home as I have caught myself a number of times saying ‘I don’t have time’. I walk past plenty of opportunities gathering dust wishing if only I had time. In a ‘busy/need to get things done’ way of thinking, being creative is seen as slacking off, wasting time and the ‘I should’ be doing something more important or urgent takes over.
Being dictated by what I think others will say. Being a business owner I am aware of the guilt that arises, if I’ve got time to play, then I should be doing that work, I should respond to those emails, get on top of my to-do list. I see thoughts stopping me from acting on my creative desires. I have even caught myself being envious of others and wonder how do they get the time?
When I’m not being creative or playful the fun, joyful side of me gets squished, it diminishes. I see my confidence and motivation reducing. I’m more serious, dull and bored with life. My conversations turn negative. I have little enthusiasm for eating well, exercising, even connecting with friends. This kind of behaviour is no good for my health, it leads to feeling down and depressed.
Then it hits me, being creative and having fun is actually medicinal, absolutely necessary. Just like taking vitamins, eating well, practicing yoga and exercising are all good for me, being creative nourishes that part of me that craves to have fun, to be joyful, imaginative, free to be spontaneous. Playfulness and creativity are energising. I feel young, it keeps my mind active, develops coordination, the list goes on. What I love the most is after a good play session I am pleasantly exhausted, I rest deeply rather than in a state of restlessness or as I like to call it ‘resting tension’. A tension you allow to slowly creep in. You tolerate it because you think you have to, and it becomes your new normal state to function from.
We are three dimensional, well rounded emotional human beings. No matter how much we try to avoid, drown out, or hideaway, the full rainbow of emotions need to be expressed, just in a healthy way. I definitely notice when I have more fun in my life I handle my sadness, grief, and frustrations with so much more love and compassion. I see the upside of a negative situation so much faster. When All of Me is being supported I am more productive. I feel those happy endorphins giving me a natural energy fix. My confidence is up and I am far less judgemental towards myself and others. Rather than the ‘down and out’ part of me worrying about the little things, or the unproductive perfectionist me guzzling up my time and energy. I instead feel more inflow and ready to handle what life throws at me. I become the ‘human being‘ I am meant to be, rather than a robotic ‘human doing’. I want to Be more myself, rather than going through motions of just doing things to get through the day.
Start small, simple, basic. Take action when a spontaneous inspirational moment arises, tell that perfectionist side of me that I’m not looking for the next Picasso or to win a dance competition. Expect to fumble, to make a ‘mistake’, for it to look different to what I expect and allow for the unexpected surprise to arise. Change the way I look at criticism, stop judging others to remove the consciousness of it coming back at me. Take back control and contain all that energy being consumed by all the reasons that stop me and use this power to inspire and uplift me. Get emotionally more resilient because this is when I do my best work. This is when I am genuinely happier and so much healthier.
Playfulness and Creativity are only limited by your imagination…dance, draw, paint, my personal yoga practice, jigsaw puzzles with friends, walking in nature, gardening, book club meetings… these are some that I love and need to keep doing, what about you?
