Bringing the Creativity

Carolyn Mehlomakulu, LMFT-S, ATR-BC writes about creative activities and their mental health benefits on page 32 of The Balanced Mind -A Mental Health Journa- Exploratory Prompts and Effective Practices. Creativity, Carolyn explains, goes beyond the making of art and can include “gardening, decorating your home, editing photos, cooking, playing music, writing, crafting, and even creative problem-solving or coming up with new ideas” (p. 32). I have started bringing regular coloring that I can hang as decoration into my creative outlet, as well as having a set to begin learning embroidery (I NEED to start this today), and I would like to find another creative outlet with some sort of affordable craft idea that I can do when my wrists hurt.

I have a laundry list of self-talk and beliefs around creativity that I need to challenge and rewrite. The first is that I am not an artistic person and creativity is not my “thing”. This is my excuse for a lot of creative expressions. I have bad wrists and hands, so that is a mental block I have to overcome, plus my perfectionism is out of control when it comes to creative pursuits. I need to find a creative expression that allows me to relax like coloring, but allows for some form of self-expression. Anxiety is something I am always working on, so finding something that can help decrease anxiety while giving me space for self-expression would be a plus. I’d like to try painting small models or something, I would LOVE to create a little fairy garden or terrarium to display. Maybe something more affordable that can be decorative, I just need to wander around Michael’s for a couple of hours and see what strikes me as interesting after I finish the first embroidery project.