E112 - Want to feel better? Create!
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As mentioned in the episode: When you're ready for guidance with your creativity!
Join the Sylva Sessions Wellness Membership:
https://www.bdi-create.today/offers/TYb6qQtg/checkout
Hello, my creative friend. Welcome back to another episode of Create Today with Beth Buffington.
A lot of people right now are really just searching for ways to feel better. Many people are waking up thinking, you know, I need to sleep better. I'm tired and sleeping isn't fixing my fatigue, or, I need to have more energy. I, I'm getting stuff done, but I'm not feeling passionate about much of anything these days.
Or, I need something because lately I don't feel like myself anymore. See, there's a lot going on in the world these days, and for many of us, life has been and still is [00:03:00] difficult. So here's a question for you. I want you to think, how many days do you wake up thinking I need to be more creative when it comes to ways to feel better?
Creativity is often not on the list of things that you would go to, to help yourself feel better, or it is way down at the very, very bottom as a fluffy, nice to have option. Rarely is creativity offered as a solution to help you feel better.
the typical advice that we are given is get up earlier, be more productive, exercise, more, watch your diet, get more sleep, and then folks are offered gym memberships, a plethora of mattress options, so you'll sleep better.
Productivity hacks, dietary [00:04:00] supplements, medications, and my friend. while all of this is a list that can bring relief, I mean, I just got a new mattress for my bed in December. There is a treasure brimming with goodness that is often left buried when you're trying to figure out ways.
To feel better. The human body and especially our brain, needs this treasure. And this is a treasure that we're going to talk about today. And of course, you will not be surprised to hear me say that this treasure is creativity. Your body craves creativity. Not for the fun and not for the results, but for the brain health and the wellbeing support that creativity provides.
It's like ice cold water in the desert. Creativity serves to our fatigued [00:05:00] and thirsty souls, sips of goodness, so that we can become stronger and we can survive the droughts of energy and sleep and happiness, and the hardships that we encounter in our lives. Today we're going to talk about creativity, not as art, not as self-expression, and not as a hobby.
As a biological process that supports brain health, emotional regulation and resilience, and I want to be very clear to reap the benefits that creativity can provide. You do not need to be an artist. You do not need to have any talent, and you do not need more time or money. What you do need. These are very important.
The two things you do need is, [00:06:00] number one,
you need to give yourself permission to engage that part of your brain, that modern life keeps undernourished. You need to let yourself do this. And then number two.
you need the commitment to dedicate to your creativity to allow the goodness that creativity can generate
So you need these two things, permission and commitment, and add those to your creativity.
My friend, if you do that. It can change your life. So first, let's talk about why feeling better is a brain issue, not a personal failure. And I wanna say that again. Feeling better is a brain issue. It's not a personal failure, it is not anything you are doing wrong.
So. Let's ground our chat today in facts, chronic stress, [00:07:00] emotional overload, and burnout. They change the brain. When you soak your brain in prolonged stress. This keeps the amygdala, the brain's threat detector overactive. And also prolonged stress reduces the access to the prefrontal cortex, where clarity and perspective and decision making live and function. And then chronic stress also disrupts the dopamine pathways, which affects motivation and pleasure and hope. And this is why people say. I know what I should do. I just can't seem to do it, or I can't seem to get it done, or I just don't enjoy things the way I used to, or I feel stuck, or I am burned out.
This isn't a motivational problem, it's a [00:08:00] regulation problem. When we are feeling these things caused by chronic stress, we numb out to facing these frightful emotions by letting time evaporate as we do things like doom scroll on our phones or watch video after video, after video time passes, and. the things that we try to help with as we numb out, well, we might feel momentarily better.
Those cat videos, we just kind of go, oh, and we feel momentarily better. But when we peel ourselves away from our phones, our tablets, our TVs, we still feel oddly dull. Unsatisfied, and this is where creativity can make a shift. Not as a cure all, it's not gonna take away all the things going on in our world.
It's not gonna solve all your problems, but it becomes a directed [00:09:00] neurological intervention. So to understand this, let's explore what creativity actually does in your brain
when you are engaged in a creative pastime like gardening, painting, sewing, knitting, cooking, you fill in your go-to creativity here. Here's what is important. When you're doing this, when you're being creative from a neuroscience perspective, creativity you see is not about making something impressive.
You don't want to worry about if your garden is amazing. You don't wanna worry about if your painting is going to hang in a gallery. It's not about finishing a project, it's not about being good at what you're doing. It's all about the doing of the activity and, okay, when I say doing, I mean the joy of.
[00:10:00] Pruning your plants, the joy of watering your plants, the joy of just moving paint around on a canvas, the joy of just singing in the shower. It's about the doing and the interest, the curiosity and the fascination you have in what you are doing. So do something that you love to do, something that fascinates you, something that you find enjoyable.
When you are doing the doing and you enjoy the doing, you integrate multiple brain systems all at the same time. While you're engaged in a creative activity. Several things happen simultaneously. First, the threat system calms down, hands-on, focused creative activity reduces the amygdala activation.
This is especially true for rhythmic, tactile, or problem solving tasks like cooking and gardening or sewing, or building something with wood or [00:11:00] Legos, or making a spreadsheet. You get the picture when your hands are busy. The brain receives a signal. I am here. I am here in this moment. I am engaged in this activity and I am not in any immediate danger.
You relax and this matters more than we realize. When you and your brain. Are engaged in creativity and you are fascinated by the activity you are, you've chosen. The second important thing that happens in your brain is that dopamine is released through this repetitive effort, and I want you to notice that this dopamine is not released as a reward.
Unlike watching a cute cat video, you get that little jolt of. Dopamine that makes you go, Aw, that is so cute. When you are, working on a creative activity, the [00:12:00] creative dopamine is released. Not when something is finished, but when we are making progress, we get those dopamine releases as we solve all the little problems that
arise when we are doing the doing.
Your creative activity creates a steady, sustainable dopamine response. Unlike scrolling or consuming videos where dopamine spikes and then crashes.
By the way, this is why you feel oddly icky after spending time doom scrolling. it just doesn't end with a happy ending for your brain. The dopamine response you receive from your creativity supports your motivation.
It supports mood stability, and it gives you a sense of forward movement, which gives you curiosity to continue. and the third thing [00:13:00] that happens in your brain that is really important is that your brain networks begin to integrate with each other as you are being creative.
this creative activity engages important parts of your brain. First, it engages the default mode network. This is the network in your brain that is active. When you're reflecting or daydreaming, you're remembering things or you're making meaning out of your experiences.
The default mode network helps you understand who you are, what you've been through, and how things connect. Together in your life. When the default mode network is supported and busy, people feel more grounded and emotionally integrated instead of scattered and foggy or numb. And the second thing that begins to engage is the executive network.
This is the part of the brain responsible for focus and planning Decision [00:14:00] making and self-control. When this network is working well, people feel clearer. They feel more capable, and less overwhelmed by everyday demands.
And the third piece of your brain that starts to network is the salience network. This network acts like the Brain's priority filter. It helps you notice what's important right now, and it shifts your attention accordingly.
When this system is balanced, you're less reactive and you're better able to respond thoughtfully instead of feeling pulled in a hundred different directions
So when your brain is happily ensconced in the networking of these areas, your wellbeing is lifted in several ways. First psychological flexibility.
This is your ability to adapt and arrange your thoughts and your emotions and behavior to cope better when life changes or becomes challenging. [00:15:00] Again, creativity doesn't make the world all blue skies and rainbows, but when you increase your brain health through committed creativity, you're strengthened.
Psychological flexibility means that you can encounter drama and you can hold discomfort without getting stuck in it, and you can adjust and bend rather than break under pressure.
And second, your wellbeing is lifted in emotional resilience. Emotional resilience follows, when you're able to become more flexible, this is the capacity to experience stress or disappointment or difficulty and still recover and get rebalanced and move forward.
And the third thing that happens when your brain is happily networking together.
You begin to experience improved coping capability, in simple terms, the [00:16:00] brain becomes more adaptable, and this means that you begin to have access to more internal resources to handle your stress,and the emotional load that comes with the things that pile on your plate during your day.
Coping. When coping capacity improves, everyday challenges feel more manageable, and you're less likely to feel overwhelmed or depleted in your energy. So my goodness, who doesn't want to experience more of these kinds of benefits?
Remember when I mentioned we would discuss creativity not as art, not as self-expression, and not as a hobby, but as a biological process that supports that brain health and emotional regulation and resilience? Well. Let's explore why successful creative wellness happens [00:17:00] when the brain doesn't care if what you create is art.
Okay? So that is you're doing stuff and you don't care if it's good. This, my friend, is one of the most important points of this episode. You see, your brain does not categorize creativity the way our culture does,
Our culture says creativity is all about the finished product.
We emphasize the perfection of a thing that will be appreciated as an end product or a mic dropping performance, but creativity that is created for your wellbeing, the kind of creativity that will make you happier and healthier, that will make you feel better. This kind of creativity focuses on
an entirely different list. You see, like I mentioned, the brain does not care if you're good at the [00:18:00] creativity you've chosen. You could be painting or cooking, gardening, designing a spreadsheet, rearranging a room, sewing or quilting, coloring in a coloring book, doing paint by number or any number of crafty crafts.
And please note that this list, my friend, it goes on and on and on
what the brain responds to that will ultimately help you feel better. Is this. Not the end product. It is looking for novelty, fascination in the choice you've made. pattern recognition, sensory engagement, intentional shaping of whatever it is you are making light problem solving. Nothing that's overwhelming and a sense of curiosity.
What happens if I do this? sensory experiences like textures, aromas, sounds, et cetera. This is why when people are successfully working on creativity that [00:19:00] enhances their brain. They say things like, you know, I feel better when I bake. I calm down when I organize things. I think more clearly when I am in the garden.
These feelings and emotions, they are not coincidences, they're neurobiological responses. So, okay. Sounds like all of this is based on facts, right? But you might be thinking, Hey Beth. I still don't understand how I can apply this to my life
So let's talk about who benefits from regular creativity. This matters especially deeply for people who are feeling emotionally scattered or foggy or numb, or people who. In their daily routines, they must be high functioning in their job or in their family responsibilities, but they might be feeling mentally [00:20:00] exhausted or if.
People who have the responsibility as a caregiver for others, and this can be parents or people caring for parents or someone who's caring for someone with health challenges, or someone who is caring for their own health challenges, or people who are managing a team and their responsibility is caring for these people in their job
The kind of creativity we're talking about right now also benefits people who feel disconnected from themselves. People who are having trouble with sleep because of a. Flighty, talkative critic that just chatters nonstop during the night, my friend, I actually do not know many people who don't or can't or won't find themselves somewhere on this list I just gave you.
So basically, I'm thinking if you're human, creativity matters.
And that's not fluff. [00:21:00] That's nervous system regulation, and that sounds amazing, right? And oh, it is. But here's the thing. To reap its benefits like we've discussed, you must do two things and you must do them consistently first. You must allow yourself to use creativity daily.
Speaker: Daily
Speaker 2: if your commitment is daily. You can find even one minute during an even crazy, crazy, crazy day to allow yourself to be just a little creative.
So have fun being creative each day. Sweet. Sounds easy, right? But here's the catch our culture and our frenetic pace that our world tends to set well. We've been taught to believe that creativity is frivolous. Creativity. It's something that you indulge in. Once you finish doing all the tasks and [00:22:00] chores and responsibilities your day requires.
So for many of us, creativity is something that we, we will try and get to if there's time. Or for some of us, creativity is something that has entirely fallen off our list or out of our thoughts. Or, Hey, do you even have a creative activity that you have done even in the past month?
So my friend, it's small wonder that creativity is something most of us think of as an activity that we did when we were children. 'cause that's, that's a thing that children do, but not a thing adults do on a regular basis. Or maybe it's something that we think, you know, I'll do that when.dot do when the kids start school, when the kids are out of the house.
When I retire, I'll do that on the weekend. It's something that we plan to do when, but if you knew [00:23:00] that having fun with creativity, it was going to make your brain function better, and allow you to react more positively to stressful days, and it would help you just feel better, might that make you reconsider about how you can be creative every day?
Yes. My friend. Your answer here should be yes. Then let's talk about the second thing that must happen in order for creativity to benefit your life so that you will feel better.
Creativity needs to be a practice that you allow yourself and your brain to soak into like a warm bath. you not only need to say to yourself, I will do this every day, but you must commit to it.
Permission and commitment. Those are the two things that are so important in order to make creativity actually successful and [00:24:00] empower your brain and to help you feel better. So let's understand how this transformation can happen. Well, the how. Ugh, this is so important.
we've just talked about this. But let's just go over this again because successful creativity. Something that you do not to improve, not to monetize not to give us gifts.
This kind of creativity is done just for the doing. No judgment, no focus on finishing, no focus on perfection, and for my creative professionals out there, this is creativity that you need to do in addition to what you are doing in your job. Because what you do in your job is. Is creating on demand and creating what others want you to make for them, or what you think others will want to buy,
The kind of creativity we're talking about today that is going to make you feel better. That is a creative pastime that [00:25:00] isn't about the finished product. So that's how you need to think about the doing in this successful creativity. And next, let's consider the what.
So you need to choose your creativity And this means that you need to think about. What is fascinating you, what you're curious about. This might mean preparing food with the attention to the actions needed in mixing and saing and chopping and baking.
this might mean you're tending a garden. and you need to be able to let yourself go out into your garden and forget about the rest of the world and just become the person tending the garden. And this could be sewing and embroidery, quilting, or even mindfully mending your clothes.
Again, as long as you're allowing yourself to completely soak yourself into the [00:26:00] repetitive movements that is sewing and embroidery, and quilting and mending, you could be organizing a space with quiet intention. You could be drawing or painting, or sculpting, or you could be making pottery as long as you're not thinking about.
The end results.
You might also think about building something, and this could be with wood or Legos, Popsicle sticks, or even some people, I know some people really get creative when they just make spreadsheets.
Just remember that whatever you choose. Pick an activity that you enjoy just because you think it will be fun
That is so important, and here's why that matters. When the brain begins a creative activity, it shifts into an engaged state, into creative flow. And the moment you start shaping something or building something, or organizing something, or baking something,
You're solving small problems. You're working with your [00:27:00] hands and the brain moves into that engaged creative flow state. So the attention narrows and the stress signals soften. You're gonna start feeling better. And multiple brain systems that we talked about, they start working together.
So instead of reacting to the world you are participating. This activity and that simple shift helps calm your nervous system, stabilize your mood, And this is how the brain learns. I, I am capable.
That is how resilience is built. And again, you need to remember to not only allow yourself to do that, but then give yourself permission to do it daily because this is only gonna make you feel better if you allow art to compound over time.
And then third, I want you to understand why creativity can be considered [00:28:00] a source for self-care We often think, becoming, he requires. Fixing something that is broken, but my friend.
What if becoming healthier happens when you realize that you need to tend to something that has been neglected? When you tend to your creativity, it helps us to.
Tend to other things like our emotional regulation, our cognitive flexibility, our focus. So you see creativity. It's not indulgent, it's not a nice to have, it's foundational. It is a have to have.
This morning when you woke up. How were you feeling? Were you tired in a way that rest doesn't seem to fix? Did you feel like you were coping but not really thriving? Were you looking for something that would help you feel steadier and calmer and maybe help you find [00:29:00] yourself again?
What if what we've uncovered today. That buried treasure that you didn't know about, that bit of creative health that has been left untended, your creativity is one of the simplest, most accessible ways to support your brain and your wellbeing to make you feel better. And creativity. It doesn't require a prescription, it doesn't require talent.
It doesn't have to be expensive or. Really time consuming, Creativity is engaging. And when you are creating, something in any form.
Your nervous system responds, your stress will soften, your focus returns. creativity may be one of the most important additions you can make To your self-care routine,
Choose what you will create, then [00:30:00] enjoy the doing of your creative activity and concentrate on the tending, the building, the repetitive actions, and don't judge and do not expect perfection. Just enjoy. Because creativity, my friend, in whatever form you choose to do, it's a beautiful science-backed way to care for your brain, your nervous system, and your life.
If you are ready to feel better using your creativity and you need some guidance, remember to join me inside Sylva Sessions. Check the show notes. There's a direct link that will take you there. So get yourself a coloring book. Get out those knitting needles, test out some new recipes. Tend to that garden.
Prepare a new canvas. Start a new procreate illustration.
whatever you choose to do for your creative activity, I want you to do it every day. And I want you to stay [00:31:00] committed to that doing every day. So give yourself the permission to be creative, and then I want you to remember to stay dedicated to that commitment so that you can stay creative, my friend.
