The Therapeutic Power of Creativity
Passive vs Active Hobbies
Every time I stop by Bookman’s, I am always surprised by what they have! If you’ve never been, they are a local secondhand bookstore on Southern Ave. and Country Club Dr., and beyond books they also sell secondhand games, movies, music, and all sorts of small items for entertainment.
I stopped and looked at the crafts, because it struck me as being different from the other forms of entertainment in there, but I couldn’t immediately tell what was different about them. As I sat on that thought, I realized that music, movies, and books are all relatively passive forms of entertainment.
More passive forms of entertainment are great when needing to wind down, and can be really helpful when you need something to distract your mind. With depression and anxiety, I find a lot of people dislike being bored, because that’s when their distressing thoughts and feelings creep in. Sometimes that isn’t enough though.
Active hobbies are ones that require your sustained effort to create something and participate, with both your mind and your body. This can be really helpful for entering into a state of flow; this is where your ability and the challenge of the task are equal. Being in flow feels free, and empowering. You might hear of athletes being “in the zone”, and they are also in this state of flow.
In particular, creative hobbies are wonderful in that there isn’t just one way to do something, and so your success isn’t measurable, but instead is felt. You might enjoy the repetitive motions your hands are making, the feeling of chalk or paint in your hands, the way that the colors blend or contrast, or the destructive nature of creativity. You don’t need to think it out, but you can feel what you are needing in that moment. Also, the very act of creating fills you with a sense of accomplishment, showing you that you are capable of changing something, that you shape the world in front of you. You may not think so literally about it, but it symbolizes the way you have power over your world, speaking hope and agency to your subconscious.
While sometimes creativity can alert the inner perfectionist, the right medium can be really healing. There is a reason why art therapists exist! Plus, when we really take in art, the results of creative efforts, we often feel emotions; art strikes us on a level deeper than talking can. Often we associate music with different moods, certain genres of movies and TV shows stir our hearts, and even the colors we surround ourselves with in our homes influence the way we feel. Creating art is a way to be an active part in influencing the way we feel; art is inner power.
