E105 - Mini Creations to settle your stress
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Speaker: hello. Hello, my creative friend. Imagine for moments. Melting away your stress, not with a magic pill, not with an expensive contraption that you need to buy, but with your own two hands in just a few moments. So often we feel anxious or overwhelmed, and the message that we receive is something is wrong with you.
You need to fix this, and you need to fix it fast. If you watch any amount of television, you are told there's a pill or an injection that will cure just about any malady that you are encountering right now. And most of them are costly, many of them are complicated, and it seems that they all come with side effects that often seem worse than what you're trying [00:01:00] to cure.
Don't get me wrong, I totally believe medication has its place, especially for deeper mental and medical health support. I'm a big believer in medicine, but I think that many of us are quietly asking this question isn't there something.
Natural that I could do today, right now to help myself feel better, and that's what this episode is about. I'm Beth Buffington. This is Create Today Today we're gonna talk about creativity and how small, simple acts. Small, simple, creative moments can help calm your nervous system, lower stress, and build resilience over time.
This is nothing fancy. It is nothing magical, nothing intimidating, [00:02:00] just creativity, doing what it does best, which is helping you become happier and healthier in heart, mind, body and soul. Today we're exploring mini creations. They are tiny bits and small moments of creativity that can make a big impact on your wellbeing.
So let me ask you something. Have you ever
noticed how stress affects you? Do you feel your shoulders are hunched? Do you feel that you have a tightness in your jaw? Is your breath shallow, your breathing more rapid? Do you get a racing mind, one that is a negative spiral that just seems to loop, and loop and loop, especially at the end of the day, or even worse at night while you're trying to [00:03:00] sleep?
the thing about stress that makes it tricky is that we often don't have time for a long meditations. We don't have time to go and set up an appointment for a calming massage,
So we often turn to something over the counter or a prescription remedy that will cover up what and how we are feeling. So here's where understanding the power of creativity and how mini creations can work to calm your brain, to lower cortisol and relieve stress.
Remembering to allow yourself time for these mini creations can provide a powerful tool for your wellbeing. So you see creativity meets and greets us wherever we are in a waiting room in our home, in our office.
Anywhere where we can pause for just a moment and create [00:04:00] mini creations. And we're talking about small, simple, mini creative acts that really aren't creating art. They're not finishing a product. You're not knitting a sweater, you're not completing a painting, you're not writing a story much simpler. Much more tiny.
You're simply relying on a repetitive creative act or a mini creative movement that will give you time to exhale and slow down racing thoughts and your anxious brain. So these are mini, not many, many creative actsthat will quietly build resilience in your life. And just in case you're thinking, oh, Beth, what actually is resilience
This might be a word that is new to you, or it could be one that you've heard about lately. Um, it's almost become a buzzword. You must have resilience. [00:05:00] So let's take a moment to define what resilience actually means. First of all, here's what it is not. Resilience is not about being tough. It's not about pushing and grinding through difficult times in your life.
It's not about pretending that difficult things don't affect you, and it isn't the evaporation of anything that is unexpected or painful in your life. Resilience is your ability to return to yourself when the unexpected happens. It's about being able to notice. Hmm. I am stressed, I'm worried, I'm feeling anxious or overwhelmed, and it's, it's being able to have the strength to find yourself without spinning out of control and allowing yourself to come back into balance.
This [00:06:00] gives you a better ability to think clearly and flex or bend against the storms that life will shower on You. Now this kind of flexibility, it keeps you tethered to the you who understands how to remain optimistic and grounded as you face those unexpected storms in life.
And creativity has an amazing way of providing what you need to become or to remain resilient. And the best part. You don't have to be incredibly gifted with artistic talents to use creativity in powerful ways in your life. So let's, uh, let's see what we mean by that, and let's talk a little science, shall we?
If you've spent any time being creative with me, you know how I like to share how science backs up the power [00:07:00] behind creativity and what it provides us. In order to be happier and healthier in heart, mind, body and soul. And here's the good word.
Research shows that when we engage in even brief creative activity, like five or 10 minutes. Our breathing begins to slow our stress hormones like cortisol. They start to lower
The brain shifts out of that repetitive, depressing, downward anxious spiral, and the nervous system moves into a calmer state. And what I love about this is how accessible creativity can be for you. You can be anywhere and be creative and to benefit from these small mini moments of creativity. and reap the positive benefits.
You don't have to be good at art. [00:08:00] So for those of you who are thinking, I'm not an artist, or for those of you who know people who say, I'm no artist, so this doesn't apply to me. Think again. Your creativity doesn't need to be perfect or even finished to reap the benefits in your mini creation time.
You just need to be engaged, curious, and present. And one last thing. You just need to have fun doing whatever mini creation you choose to do. So I promise you, you can do this. These tiny creative movements are effective because they interrupt stress because you're having fun and they don't overwhelm because there are no expectations.
There's no [00:09:00] deadline, there's no judgment. You're just having fun doing something simple.
Let's pause for a moment to hear a word from our sponsor. This episode of Create Today is sponsored by Sylva Sessions, the creative wellness membership. If you are enjoying learning how creativity can make you healthier and happier, you will love Sylva Sessions. This is a community where we explore creative health together
Inside Sylva Sessions, you'll discover how creativity can support your wellbeing in everyday life. Sylva Sessions focuses on three Cs. Core care, which is how we care for our bodies through nutrition, through sleep, through movement, and creative care, which is how to use your creativity [00:10:00] to lower stress and anxiety in your life and in community care, which is how connection with others helps you become a better person, helps you build resilience to weather the storms of life.
If the conversation today resonates with you, Sylva Sessions is your next best step. To increasing your wellbeing and your health. You'll find the details in the show notes or go to BDI create.today and click on the Sylva information to learn more about increasing your happiness and health creatively.
Now let's return to our conversation about increasing your happiness and decreasing stress and anxiety. through your mini creation. So what do I mean by a mini creation? Let's [00:11:00] talk about that. This is something small enough that you won't talk yourself out of doing it. There's no pressure, there's no performance, no expectations,
No judgment. This is creativity as a nervous system reset, not a productivity tool. So basically, you're not making something that you're going to give to someone or hang on the wall or sell. You're basically just getting messy. You're just experimenting. You're just having fun for a lovely moment or two now.
You know, I love a good list. I'm going to give you mini creation ideas that you can try today. So here's a few ideas. These are not rules, but just invites. You can use this list to actually do the things on the list.
Or use the list as a sounding board as [00:12:00] inspiration for something you might decide to do on your own. So here are seven mini creation ideas for you to try today.
Number one, doodling, doodle lines, doodle flowers, geometric shapes, or whatever your favorite doodle shape might be. Doodle, and you can doodle on anything a notebook, on a piece of paper, a napkin, a paper bag. You can doodle on anything, and you can doodle with anything.
Pens, pencils, crayons, markers, sharpies. It's easy. Have a doodle marker with you. Have something to doodle on and keep it someplace close by and you'll be ready to doodle anytime you are feeling stress.
number two. Rolling. Clay or putty in your hands. So here you're just going to have a small piece of clay or putty, and you're just gonna be rolling it into a little ball. Just concentrate on making [00:13:00] it as round as possible, or roll that little log or a little snake, whatever you wanna think of it as roll.
Just allow your hands to play with that clay. You can even create little shapes. Make a snowman, make a little bunny rabbit. Make a bird. As long as it's simple Just make objects with your clay circles, squares, teardrop, shapes, logs, snakes, whatever.
Play with clay. Now, clay, you can easily take with you. Do you just need a container that has a lid that can be sealed tight on the clay? That can be popped into any pocket or tote bag, or backpack or handbag. So play with clay number three, tearing paper and arranging it intuitively into natural shapes or geometric shapes, or whatever [00:14:00] form your imagination sees.
Tearing paper has several benefits A lot of people like the sound of the paper tearing. A lot of people like the texture that they feel in torn paper, and then there's that visual effect of you creating shapes with the paper that you're tearing. There's a lot of, of your senses that are being, used when you are tearing paper, so that might be a mini creation that you enjoy on many levels.
It's easy to have paper at hand. Paper is not hard to find nearby, and it's easy to take with you as well. So when you're feeling a little stressed, you can start tearing paper number four, writing a single sentence or writing a list of words that talk about how you are feeling.
But I also suggest you flip that perspective and start thinking about how whatever [00:15:00] you're worried about could be useful or what you can make with it, how this obstacle could become.
A hurdle that you can easily jump over, write that down in your sentence, make those lists of words, so flip your perspective and make that worry into something positive. Number five. Fill a small space with just one color. So here you're going to draw a circle, and then you're just gonna color that circle in, just color it in, and then maybe make a square and color in the square.
There's something very grounding about coloring in simple shapes that you make. It also gives a place to channel your attention. Away from whatever is overwhelming you. So it is simple shapes that you are coloring in. And [00:16:00] again, that can be done on scrap paper with just any pencil or pen you have nearby.
Super easy to do a great mini creation. A number six is if you want to be a little more elaborate with what you're coloring. Have a coloring book that you keep nearby where you can just open it up and just spend some time coloring my friend. There's something about a coloring book that takes us back to simpler days.
When we were children and we had coloring books, those were days where we had time to color without a care in the world. It was just something we enjoyed doing. How many of you colored on place mats at restaurants while you were waiting for your favorite food to arrive?
There's just a lot of good memories about coloring books in our childhood. So when you pull out a coloring book, it is a direct connection to moments where you [00:17:00] did feel a little more carefree. It's a really great way to just allow that overwhelm to evaporate through your creativity. And number seven, and this one might take just a tiny bit of a learning curve.
Number seven is origami. Now, if you know some origami already that you can just do mindlessly without a lot of thought, this is a great mini creation that is going to allow your brain to do something repetitive with movements that you have memorized. It will help settle your overwhelm as well if you don't know origami, but it seems intriguing.
Learn just one origami shape that you can do that will be simple, that you can memorize. And then when you are feeling overwhelmed, you just get at that sheet of paper and you start making [00:18:00] that paper airplane, that paper hat. Or fold that little origami frog that you can make, hop or make that bird that you can make fly, right?
Learn one simple origami shape that you can remember how to fold. This needs to be something that's easy for you to do without a lot of thought,
So you're gonna do it often enough that it is rote. You can make this bird, this frog, without a lot of deep thought.
This gives you seven ideas that you can pick from. I suggest that you choose one
mini creation that you really enjoy, make it something that does not need mountains of time to set up or clean up. After
With doodling, you need something to doodle with. And a piece of paper, the clay, you only need clay, origami, you just need paper. See, these are very simple things to do that don't need a lot of [00:19:00] supplies. and choose a mini creation
that allows you to take your. supplies with you in a backpack or a handbag, or a tote in a pocket, so that when you are feeling stress, you can just pull out that little mini creation and start going through the motions Coloring, rolling, clay, folding, or tearing paper, coloring objects, et cetera, and allow yourself to just become lost in these repetitive motions.
After a time, I want you to reflect what are you feeling? Have you allowed your breath to soften? Have you allowed your mind to concentrate on your creativity's motions? And has this allowed your brain to quiet down? Do you feel your breath flowing more freely?
Have you settled your racing thoughts? Does this, quiet your mind even a [00:20:00] little. it's not gonna make everything better magically but it's gonna help you settle down.
Part of the success here is allowing yourself this creative respite and allowing yourself. To concentrate on settling down, but each time you give yourself the permission to create that, my friend is resilience that you are building.
Now, skeptics out there might say there is no way these tiny creative acts will make any difference in your life, but they do, and science backs this up. Long term, having a mini creative practice is going to provide powerful improvements to your wellbeing. And let me tell you why this matters long [00:21:00] term, you're going to see some changes each time you choose to concentrate on a mini creation.
You're teaching your body something important, you're telling yourself. I can help myself by myself. You're telling yourself I can make myself calmer, less anxious, less stressed by myself. And that builds trust in your strength, and that builds resilience Now. Again,Stress is never gonna disappear from our life.
creativity is not gonna solve all your problems just by rolling a piece of clay in your hand. No, but it's going to help you. Settle down and, and find that resilience that will allow yourself to think clearer.
[00:22:00] so you will learn that you have more control of your emotions and your reactions when stress smacks you between the eyes and that it all can begin with small mini acts of creativity.
So if you are feeling overwhelmed or stressed or anxious by our world's breaking news that is happening right now, or politics that are screaming at us daily or by extreme weather that is happening in your area right now, or a medical crisis in your life, or one that is happening to one of your loved ones, if that is happening.
Right now to you, You are not broken, my friend. You just need to start giving yourself moments that will calm your worries and stress. And it will help you be able to think clearly [00:23:00] about what you need to do next.
So try incorporating a mini creation in your life today with no expectations and no judgment.
Just go through the motions that your creativity asks of you. Whatever that repetitive motion is, concentrate on that repetition and allow your stress to begin to melt. And if you would like to explore more about this path to better creative health, come back to me and check out more of the podcasts and check out the offerings that Create Today has for you today.
Check out the show notes. It will tell you what else you can do with me today. And if you found this particular episode really helpful, if it's resonating with [00:24:00] you, it's probably gonna resonate with someone else that you know and love. So please share this creative goodness with a friend or a family member because we need to share that gift that creativity has.
For you and for the world to become happier and healthier in heart, mind, body, and soul. So what? What is your choice for a mini creation that you can create today? Whatever you decide. Remember that my wish for you is to, as always. Stay creative my friend.
