My relationship with creativity is rarely in balance, it is a pendulum, a complete pendulum. One minute I’m loving every idea and thought that’s coming out of my head, then within an alarmingly short space of time, I cannot stand it. In those moments I feel like the good times were just pretend, a fluke, as if I’m some sort of creative imposter, and I wonder why I bother trying to be creative at all.
“It [creativity] opens our hearts and doors to our mind. It brings us to hidden parts of ourselves. It allows recognition of uniqueness and identity. It can help draw out what is already there within – hidden talents and inner capacities can emerge. It connects us with our passions.”*
A bit of background
I went to a school which valued academic studies over the things I loved such as art and design. Even my university which prided itself on producing well rounded students eventually killed off the creative side of its media course in favour of the theory side.
At work I was often seen as ‘messing around’ when in reality I was completing a project. I once got kicked out of a room because a meeting was considered more important! To them unless you were at a desk or in a meeting it wasn’t “proper work”.
“Doing something creative that involves actually creating something – like baking, drawing, doing a puzzle, etc – is like revving the engine of your mind. You’re shaking off the cobwebs and getting your brain moving. It will be easier to get going on the task you’re having trouble with.” **
When I was making my choices for A levels the school adviser asked me what I wanted to do for a career, at the time I was interested in becoming a conservationist, so they told me I should study Biology instead of Art (which I really wanted to do). As a consequence all my A level topics were academic. Naively I agreed. I was absolutely rubbish at Biology, and with none of the subjects offering me anything that resembled creativity I exploded with it at home. Every night I was crafting, drawing, writing. It needed a way to release itself. Hidden away in my own little world it was the only safe space to do what I enjoyed.
All about balance
Picking the wrong A Level combination showed me the importance of a balanced life, however I didn’t learn from it straight away. Over the years I have repeatedly bottled the creativity up leaving me with an unbalanced life. I bottle creativity up when I feel as if creativity is getting in the way of house work or when I feel it’s selfish. Then I get frustrated with myself for letting it happen and it bursts out, which is too intense, it’s too much, and the whole cycle starts again.
All of this is so stupid, because I thrive better when there is a balance. We all thrive better when there is balance. When I value my creativity enough to weave it into life and not compartmentalise it into time frames that is when things excel. Society might not value creativity enough but that doesn’t mean they’re correct, and learning not to listen to that voice is my hardest battle. I am a Christian, and church is also a terrible place for creativity (in my experience), but recently I’ve been seeing how God actually values it, He encourages it, and more importantly it is a gift.
3 Simple Ways to Create Balance
What ever our gifts and talents are we should all be treasuring and valuing them, not letting society let us believe otherwise. That’s easy for us to say, but how do we make that happen in reality? How do we created balance in our life?
Here are a few things I’ve learnt from my own personal journey, and one that continues to grow and develop:
- You make time for what you value. So make time for creativity if that is what you value, whether that’s baking, crafting, writing, drawing, doing a puzzle, knitting. Start off small, aim for 10-15minutes each day and then take it from there.
- Don’t put pressure on yourself. When you’re a child you could draw for fun, sometimes you may have even painted your panda pink instead of black because that’s what you felt like. You didn’t paint or draw to show people, or sell, you did it for you because it felt good. So do what feels good. It doesn’t need to be a master piece. Enjoy the process without fretting about the outcome.
- Do you enjoy it? If the answer is yes, then good, keep doing it then. If you’re enjoying the activity and you’re succeeding at making something you are going to be releasing dopamine, which helps to motivate you. So regardless of how much worth society puts on your creativity endeavours, by doing them you’re going to be more motivated, able to problem solve better and be happier, meaning other tasks outside of it are easier to accomplish. It’s like a flipping superpower.
*www.youth.ie/articles/why-is-creativity-important-and-what-does-it-contribute/
**https://theimportantsite.com/10-reasons-why-creativity-is-important/
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