Year of Wellness: Finding Balance in Creative Wellness
How to Nurture Your Creative Wellness in 3 Simple Steps
Coloring is just for children, right? As we grow, we are given fewer opportunities and space to express our creativity. We are constantly met with priorities and often feel shame if we are spending time doing something that isn’t ‘productive’. Even those who pursue creative professions often experience burnout at different times because the obligation begins to outweigh the enjoyment of creative expression.
However, we have it all backward. Creativity is for everyone, not just children or those in certain professions. You don’t have to be an ‘artist’ to express yourself, and there are so many benefits to our overall wellness by doing just that!
But how do you start incorporating more creativity into your daily routine? And more importantly, how can you make it a consistent habit? Let’s explore how creative wellness can benefit your overall well-being, how to integrate it into your lifestyle, and some tools and products that can help support your creative wellness journey.
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Why Creative Wellness is So Important
Taking time to be creative is more than just a mental break. It helps to improve energy, mental well-being, mood, memory, immune function, and even physical health! Multiple studies show improvement in conditions related to chronic pain, hormonal processes, and metabolic conditions, among others, through creative outlets such as writing, dance, or music therapy.1,2
Okay, so now that I can see there are benefits, how do I incorporate more creativity into my routine?
1. Find Your Creative Outlet
First, you have to find what you enjoy. Choose something that you can do without obligation. This could be coloring, drawing, singing, dancing, cooking, photography, or anything else that allows you to express yourself.
This should be done without criticism or comparison. For many people, myself included, we tend to avoid things we aren’t ‘good’ at, or we get discouraged if we aren’t improving how we think we should. The benefits of creativity do not come from how we perform at something, but from just doing it. So, experiment! Try something new and have fun with it!
Not Sure Where to Start?
If you are in need of some inspiration or ways to stretch your creative muscle, try one of the resources below. These will encourage creativity and help you on your journey to find what creative outlet resonates most with you. Also, check out my resources page for more book recommendations.
This unique book has a range of fun and unusual exercises that help you get out of your comfort zone and try new ways to express your creativity. This is great for those who don’t know where to start or are stuck in a rut.
Try these cards if you are looking to get inspiration on a current personal or professional project, or if you are trying to find ways to be more creative.
2. Combine With Other Forms of Wellness
Although I suggest finding something that involves no other obligations, sometimes it is hard for us to justify making time in our schedule for this type of activity. To trick our brains, try linking this activity with another purpose until it becomes a habit.
Find something that helps with stress reduction, physical fitness, mental clarity, or self-expression. Try creating a yoga routine, painting self-portraits, craft nights with friends, or creating some jewelry. The more you pair positive emotions and outcomes with the activities, the more you will want to do these activities. This makes it easier to prioritize and build a habit.
3. Build a Creative Wellness Routine
Now that you have explored your creative side, let’s look at ways to build a routine around your creative wellness practices. Scheduling helps to ensure it doesn’t get deprioritized each week! (I am calling myself out on this one)
The best way to do this is to set aside some time on a daily or weekly basis that is non-negotiable for you. Set a timer on your phone, block time off on your calendar, or have an accountability partner to help keep you on track. Below are a few my my favorite tools that have helped me the most!
Tools to Help You Stick to Your Routine
Clever Fox has a wide range of planners to fit any need. This self-care journal has daily, weekly, and monthly sections to help you plan and reflect on your days. This helps you to schedule your creative wellness, along with everything else, and gives you time to see what is bringing you joy, or where to shift your focus.
If you are looking for something more simplistic, try a Habit Tracker. This one has daily, weekly, and monthly habits broken into month pages and has the ability to be hung up so it can be visible daily. Habit trackers help you establish your non-negotiables and see where you need to put more focus
Bonus: Utilize Creative Wellness for Goal Building
One of my favorite things to do for inspiration is to create a collage or vision board representing my future goals. I hang these up in my workspace to constantly remind me of my goals and encourage me to stay on track. Also, being surrounded by my art brightens my day and continues to inspire my creativity.
To make this process the most effective, it is important to first set your goals. Take a look at all the aspects of your life and analyze where you are and where you want to make improvements. Check out my wheel of wellness or any of my articles in my Year of Wellness series to learn more about all the aspects of wellness.
Once you have had time for reflection, you can create goals. I recommend creating a few long-term goals and then breaking them down further into yearly and monthly goals. For a deeper look into reflection and goal setting, check back next month as I wrap up the Year of Wellness series and dive into these specific topics!
After setting your goals, you are ready to create your vision board! Try creating a digital or physical collage and use anything from magazine clippings to pictures, drawings, or anything else that resonates with you!
Want to feel even more inspired? Try getting together with a group of like-minded people and build your vision boards together! Check below for a few items that I recommend for an easy vision board setup!
Tools to Help Create a Vision Board
Although a poster board and magazines will do, if you are looking for something more aesthetically pleasing, try this kit out. It comes with hundreds of pictures and quotes for the perfect vision board.
If you want something with a bit more structure or direction, try this kit. It has steps for goals and reflection, includes pictures and quotes, and a guided vision board poster.
Conclusion
Creativity comes in many forms and can be used in my ways. It has benefits across all aspects of life and can just bring a little additional enjoyment into your day. Use my tips above to start on your path to creative wellness. If you want to take a deeper dive, check out my resources page for my top books related to creative wellness!
If you are still looking for more support, reach out to me for a FREE consultation where I can provide you with some additional resources and discuss if Health Coaching is the right fit for you!
Good luck on your wellness journey!
- Suttie, Jill. “Doing Something Creative Can Boost Your Well-Being.” Greater Good, 2017, greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/doing_something_creative_can_boost_your_well_being. ↩︎
- “How Art and Creativity Can Improve Your Health.” Www.medicalnewstoday.com, www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320947#Physical-health-benefits. ↩︎
