Indulging Your Creative Side is Good for Your Brain

Expressing yourself by creating something, whether that something is a pencil sketch, a flower garden, or an elaborate birthday cake, always makes you feel good, doesn't it? Time seems to fly by as well, with hours vanishing between the minute you begin your project and the minute you realize, with a deep sense of satisfaction, that you can create something no one else has ever created. 

Writing, painting, drawing, sculpting, scrapbooking, knitting blankets, designing handmade wedding invitations--anything that you create is a form of self-expression, a way to inform the world who you really are without struggling to find the right words to describe your thoughts, your personality, and your perception of life. When you create, you are exercising your brain in the best way possible. In fact, nearly all areas of the brain experience stimulation. That sense of relaxed euphoria you feel while creating something and long after you've finished is also due to increased levels of "feel good" chemicals, such as dopamine and serotonin.

Tapping into Your Creative Mojo

If you have ever daydreamed about winning the lottery, doodled on paper while bored, or invented your own dance style to your favorite song when no one was looking, you are now a bona fide artist! 

The daydream you had about what you would do with a million dollars could be written down and turned into a short story. The doodles you made could be re-imagined as an oil on canvas and sold on Etsy. And that funny dance you just devised on the spur of the moment could get you started on developing your own exercise class.

Creativity is mostly passion, not ingenuity. Da Vinci could not have finished the Mona Lisa without the irresistible desire, the driving compulsion, the passion, to complete this famous painting. Stimulating your creative side (and, yes, everybody has one) begins with exposing yourself to different forms of creativity and learning which form energizes your desire to create.

Ask any creative individual what they need the most to create, and they will inevitably reply "solitude". Try experimenting with creating something while you listen to the television versus sitting in a quiet room with only the tools you need to create. It will be obvious to you that an undistracted brain is an imaginative brain.

The Internet is a great place to start getting ideas for your next creative endeavor. Just enter "creative DIY projects" in Google search and find your passion!

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