3 Ways Creativity Isn't Just About Making Art

When I was a child, I used to carry a bag with art supplies around the house with me. It had everything I would need to explore my creativity - paper, markers and crayons, found objects, yarn, and whatever I needed in the moment for my projects.

When I discovered writing as I got older, this pursuit replaced my bag of artistic, creative objects. When I burned out as a professional writer, I revisited some of my childhood practices to get me to heal.

I not only healed from the burnout, but also experienced so many other benefits, some of them were related to mindset and wellbeing, and some of them were related to doing my day job more efficiently.

My conclusion? That creativity practices have a lot more benefits than just making us better artists and creators. Here are some of the biggest benefits I have experienced:

Increased Feelings of Wellbeing

One of my main tactics for improving creativity is through journaling, and an increased benefit of this is that the journal has become like a therapist to me.

Journaling has helped me clear away the brain clutter, especially through morning pages (freewriting in the morning), and this has consistently set the tone for my day by putting me in a much better mood starting when I first wake up.

To contrast that, on days where I skip the morning pages, I feel agitted and somewhat out of sources. When I do work on my creativity consistently I have less anxiety, I sleep better, and I feel a lot happier. These benefits alone are enough to make me continue with them!

Better Focus at Work

Staying focused at work is sometiems easier said than done. My brain darts around in different directions, and if I don't get control of it, I leave work with a lot of unfinished to-do list items. Some are better than others.

I didn't experience better focus at work at first, but as time went on, I notcie that I was able to concentrate much better, and my output at work increased. As I efficiently worked through my to do list, I realized that I had my creativity practices to thank.

How did I know the increased focus was due to my creativity? Simple. I went through a stretch of about a week of not doing any of my creative routines, and my focus was nonexistent. It only returned after I reinstated my creativity practices.

Ability to Generate More Ideas

As mentioend above, journaling, particularly morning pages are the backbone of my creative practices. After about a week of consistently writing in my journal in some capacity on a daily basis, it is as if a floodgate opened.

I started to get ideas as I was writing.

Now, every time I write in my journal, I am getting ideas like crazy. These ideas have to do with all aspects of my life, including my health, housework, writing, day job, and social life. I have more ideas than I have time to implement, and this is just fine with me. I can select the best ones and leave the rest for another time!

As you can see, creativity is about more than just creating art. This was something that I used to believe, as well, until I experienced these other benefits.

So, what creativity practices am I referring to? If you're curious, most of what I do can be found in Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. The process is different for everyone, but when you dive in, you'll likely notice some of the same things I have!