Creativity - The hidden health pillar
===
[00:00:00] we all know about dieting, working out mental health to live in a healthier body.
There's a fourth pillar of health called creativity that nobody really seems to talk about?
Creativity is often overlooked when we talk about health,
but it plays such a critical role in our overall wellbeing.
Today we're gonna explore why creativity matters.
How it impacts your health,
and simple ways that you can bring more creativity into your life, even if you think that you don't have a creative bone in your body.
We all know that if you Google how to get fit and lose weight, all that comes up really is diet and exercise. And to find anything creative like you have to really, really dig and dig and dig. What's up with that?
And for whatever reason, if it doesn't make any [00:01:00] money, like we almost feel like we have to hide it. Like it's our little secret. And maybe if we don't think we're good at it, it might even be embarrassing to show other people.
And then because we have it as our little secret, it becomes this thing that we only do, we give ourselves permission to do only when we have time or extra money. What if I told you that it's something that is just as important as a gym membership tapping into the creative. Outlet that you are.
Welcome to the Creative Life in Motion Podcast. This is episode number 63, I think already, and I'm your host, Karen Wilson.
If you're ready for real encouragement and motivation and practical guides and tips to move your creative life forward, you're in the right spot. 'cause that's what we do here on the Creative Life [00:02:00] in Motion Show. And we don't wait until we reach our goals to be happy. It's all about how and who we are being on the way there.
Alright, so stick around. We got a lot to talk about today.
Let's talk about the word creative for a second, because if you're thinking, I'm not creative, I don't know how to do arts and crafts, creativity is a lot more than arts and crafts. We were born creative beings and everybody has some sort of interest that they, and some sort of creative spark that they have that. Probably if you don't identify in the arts and crafts, you might identify somewhere else.
Maybe it's problem solving, maybe it's thinking, maybe it's writing like myself. Maybe it's having a YouTube channel and talking about things and putting together, you know, nice visual arts. Maybe you like to sketch, but you don't [00:03:00] tell anybody or don't share your work because you don't feel like it's good.
Hello, creativity. You were born to create things. Maybe you're a cook. I'm definitely not creative in the kitchen, but that's just my own thought process. Saying that if somebody came over to my kitchen and I put something together that you know, is one of Karen's concoctions, which I do a lot of that by the way.
Uh, you might think that I'm actually quite creative in the kitchen, but we are our own worst critics, so stay with me on this.
When you indulge yourself in your creative side.
You build this mental capacity in being able to problem solve on a completely different level, you'll begin to think in new ways.
This flexibility is also gonna help you [00:04:00] with emotional resilience, which that falls into the mental health category, right?
What does science actually say about creativity and health? Research shows that creative activities can reduce stress, can improve brain function, and help balance emotion. For example, studies have found that people who regularly engage in creative hobbies have lower levels of cortisol, the stress hormone and better memory and focus.
The first time I discovered this self-awareness capacity in myself, like almost like you, you look at the scientific evidence and then you can kind of take that scientific evidence and layer it over your life. You know, so if you, you take what we just talked about and you put a layer of that over your.
Lived life lived experience when I started [00:05:00] diving deep into this, I was actually able to make this timeline of times that I was living in my creative zone and times that I wasn't. And it was super interesting to me because the times that I wasn't. Sparking my writing for me and my, my outlet is, is writing and speaking the stories that I write, that's my creative outlet.
I was like in really dark. Dark periods of my life, whether it was emotionally or physically, or sometimes a combination of both. Actually, I have it right here. Uh, so if you're, if you are listening, you might not be able to see this. Like it's, it's like literally a lifeline, right? And I have little notes in all of the lifeline [00:06:00] stuff.
Right. And I could see, you know, young when I was like five years old, you know, I, and, and, and you can, you can think about that as well. Like when you're, when you're reflecting on your self-awareness and when you are five years old, you are probably, you're healthiest. Ever. Right? You have, you're full of spunk, you're full of energy, you're full of ideas, you're full of vibrancy, your health is in check, and you have not yet been conditioned by the outside world that whatever you're creative at, like if you made stick figures, you, you thought they were the best.
If you made, you know, like, um. Pretend Barbie clothes, like, do you remember those like little paper dolls if you like, made your own little paper doll clothes. Even if they didn't fit, it was like, woo-hoo. You know, I'm the best. You did not [00:07:00] judge your creative, creative side. What happens is, is we're told. We start to get conditioned that if it's not something that we can earn income with or that, you know, we can go along that path.
It's not, it's not money making. And if you come from the Gen X generation, our parents really wanted us to get jobs and have careers that were safe. So I remember. Being like excited about, um, you know, telling stories. And then of course in grade two I told a story and got laughed out of the classroom.
Never again. I'll keep those stories in my diary. Thanks. And then, you know, later on, as I got older, I got to shop in like the pretty plus section and the husky section and [00:08:00] I'd see the mom and dad, you know, um. I really want to be a motivational speaker because they were telling me I should be, and I wanna be on tv.
I wanna be like Oprah. Well, they don't put people like us on tv. And you know, I don't think that that was told in a place of We wanna hurt your feelings. Or we don't think you're good enough. I believe that that was just a response of they want security for me and to have a job that's gonna gonna pay well.
And you know it, in those days, it wasn't very often that you'd hear of, um, you know, writers and speakers and TV people coming out of small town BC [00:09:00] and. You know, so I, I chose, I chose to listen and put my creativity at bay for years, and then I stopped doing that.
This is a great time for you to add to this conversation. What is something that. You love to do that you might not think that you're very good at, but it brings you joy and that you know you can do and, and you kind of lose track of time and you could, if you weren't getting paid, you would still do it.
And what is that thing and is it connected to creativity? And at some point in your life were you told that it's, it doesn't really. Mount up to anything, what I am saying is that it's time to take that out and start to do it every day as a health routine. You know, we're told to do [00:10:00] these things like, um, you gotta walk every day, you gotta meditate, you gotta do this, you gotta have your perfect morning routine.
What if your creative outlet was part of your routine so that you could ignite that internal part of you that's going to bring confidence, serenity, mental health, and guess what? All the other pillars of health just get better. Just because isn't that, isn't that wild? It, it works. It totally works. When you take your brain out of the fact that I need to do 10,000 steps a day, I need to weightlift, I need to watch all my calories and shift that to say I need to do my creative outlet.
That is a very important thing to do. It is important, and I got more to share on [00:11:00] that.
What does creativity do for my body? It can lower cortisol, right? And everybody's got a, you know, a system or a hack for you. We're not working on with hacks here. We're working with our internal systems. So if you have too much cortisol in your body just because you're in a different phase of life or you're in a high stress job, usually what happens is we get what's called the cortisol belly, and everybody has a diet or a fitness plan to reduce that cortisol belly.
And if you choose the wrong one, guess what happens? The cortisol belly gets bigger because it's someone else's plan. It's not your plan. So what would happen if for 30 days, instead of searching for that next hack to get rid of the cortisol, you just tapped into whatever it is that you're creating that with no expectations.
So [00:12:00] like if you are a video creator on YouTube. What we have a tendency to do is go and look at like what's trending and what's this and what's that, and what are they posting and what are they posting and what kind of content should I post? And instead of looking inside, like, instead of allowing yourself to be the thought leader and the the navigator of what you actually wanna put out in the world.
You're allowing the YouTube algorithm to pull you in the direction that it thinks you should go. And then what happens is we completely lose ourselves. We completely lose ourselves.
Think about what it's gonna look like a year from now if you're letting the algorithm steer you, if you're letting someone else's program steer you, you have to come back to [00:13:00] why you're doing it. Be really good with your intuition or else you're, you're, you're gonna just not be happy.
Which again, that's gonna add to the cortisol pot when you're in your creative outlet. The whole idea is to know why you're doing it, and if it's just for pure joy, there's no shame in that. For whatever reason, we have this conditioning response to not be allowed to do anything if it doesn't have some sort of perceived value that you're getting paid for it, you're getting adored for it and whatever, whatever it might be.
I'm saying just continue to be you and take that creativity the way it's inspired by your brain, not ai brain, your brain, because AI [00:14:00] is not going to be able to write the story that you need to tell. It's not going to be able to paint the picture that you were born to paint. Okay. That might be a little bit of a rant, but I've been sitting on this topic for a while another episode coming out on the heels of this to share with you my biggest mistakes on YouTube and creative in the path in, in just this 2025. And I think that you will find that episode very, very interesting, uh, as well. Because this is Creative Life in Motion, I do my best to share with you.
What's going on inside of the process of my life as a creator, as it happens when it happens. So, so we can keep the conversations alive,
let's touch [00:15:00] again on creativity and mental health.
Creativity can be like a lifeline when dealing with anxiety burnout. It's actually used a lot of times in addictions counseling. Back in the day when I was a health and fitness coach.
I had a client that came to me and talked about how she. Was struggling with not being obsessive. And I asked her, you know, like, what, what are some other things that you like to do that have nothing to do with what your body looks and feels like? And for her it was painting. And I said, so. What's stopping you from painting?
And of course there was the long list of things. Well, I have to get an easel, then I need a space, then I, then I need, you know, [00:16:00] time to, to do it in. And then I asked her, how much time are you using researching diets and exercise and recipes and perfectionism? You could shift over in going to get that easel because there's time and money in that trying to find the best supplements that are gonna do the best hacks.
There's not really a supplement out there that's gonna help, like let's just keep it real. But a superpower is allowing that creativity to ooze out of you in something that you feel as though might be selfish. It's not, we need to reframe that and just do it. So she went out, she got her equipment. She was very delighted at how inexpensive it [00:17:00] was.
She told her husband that this is what she was doing. So their anniversary came up and he went out and got her a couple of beautiful canvases so that she could go ahead and. Make this art. And then she started looking at some of her childhood photos and some of the family photos from when they were out and when they were camping.
And because that was one of the other obstacles is she has no idea what to paint. And so she started recreating these things from pictures, recreating the memories and gifting them away to family members. Beautiful example of that, and to her surprise, she was really good at it. That led to taking some more painting classes and really enjoying the process.
And guess what happened? Go ahead. Guess. [00:18:00] Yeah, she became healthier, more vibrant. She lost the extra 10 pounds that she had wanted to use, and she didn't add more exercise. She didn't add more dieting, which she did was added a purpose and a passion that didn't have to have any other outcome other than making her happy.
So that's when I started, you know, really diving deeper into myself and looking at, like I said, the lifeline and when I felt like I, I was in my purpose. This is actually a great time to talk to you about Steven Pressfield. He's one of my favorite authors. . The War of Art here by Steven Pressfield.
You need this book. I mean, he's, he's a writer and he talks to writers, but he talks to [00:19:00] all creatives. A lot like about resistance and it's just, it's just so good. Every day you can just open up a page and it's like a hit in the solar plexes. Like he, it, it, it's not, you don't have to read it in order.
It's like a beautiful message. It gives you something that you need to hear every day. Um, I'm gonna read you, uh, resistance and self-doubt. Self-doubt can be an ally. This is because it serves us as indicator of aspiration. It reflects love. Love of something we dream of doing, and desire. Desire to do it.
If you find yourself asking yourself and your friends, am I really a writer? Am I really an artist? Chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death, [00:20:00] so if you are scared to death to share your stuff, you're an artist. I, I don't know anybody that has shared their stuff, including myself.
At some point has not like held their breath. Like, is this, you know, when, when you open yourself up to that vulnerability? One of the last pages. I have this etched in my brain, but I'll read it from the book.
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you got. Okay. So if I haven't given you permission and motivation to add creativity as the fourth pillar of your health, we still got a little bit more here
here's how we're gonna cultivate [00:21:00] some time for creativity daily. Okay? I'm gonna give you some action steps. This is fun.
You don't have to identify as an artist to be creative. Okay? We get that. We've discussed that already, right?
Here are some easy ways to bring creativity into your day. Let's do it.
Set aside a few minutes for a creative hobby. That's number one. Stay curious and try new things without worrying about being perfect. It's not about the outcome. Experiment with simple exercises like doodling, writing a short story or cooking a new recipe.
Let's try a quick exercise right now. Okay. Are you ready? Okay, so I wanted you to take out a paper and pen unless you're listening to me on the go. Then obviously you're not going to do this while you're driving. We're gonna set the timer for 30 seconds.
Are you ready? I'm going to do [00:22:00] something on my board behind me here. I'm just gonna like doodle something. Okay, so I'm doing this with you. Here we go. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Go.
Did we do it? Was that 30 seconds I think it was. So I doodled like a sunflower and a couple of hearts. What did you do if you wrote something? Tell me what you wrote in the comments of the YouTube video here. If you're, if you're just listening, uh, you can go to the vi [00:23:00] the video on YouTube and we can actually, it's kind of like we're having this conversation together and you can comment on the video, and that's, that's how I, you know, we can connect with one another.
I love the fact that I'm able to upload this to Apple Podcasts and, you know, other listening podcasts and that you can hear it and that you are downloading it. But unless you like email me, I, I, I don't, I don't know. I can't get to know you a little bit more. So come on over to YouTube and put in the comments.
Or if you're here right now, put in the comments and let me know what you wrote or what you doodled. I mean just, just for fun, right? You see how easy it's, you don't have to do what I told you like about the client that I did. You don't have to go out and get all this equipment and blah, blah, blah. You can keep it simple.
Um, in fact, how I wrote my book was [00:24:00] I basically started the process of just doing 1 25 minute writing sprint. Per day, and that was it. And then it built up to two or three, and I ended up having the full book written within 90 days unpublished because I had waited so long. I had had this book in my head for so long that when I sat down and wrote it, it just woo.
Came outta my brain and that's how creativity works. You know what? And it wasn't done by AI research, it was done by thinking, think, do you remember if you're from Gen X, have your parents, do you remember ever your parents saying to you, think I was like in the grocery store the other day. And, uh, I was, my husband is allergic to our dog.
Okay? So a lot of people don't know that, but we have big, great Pyrenees. She, he wasn't allergic [00:25:00] when we got her. But I was at the grocery store and my husband had been outta town for work, and the clerk said to me, what are you going to, what are you doing this weekend? It was, it was a nice weekend, and I'm like, I'm just getting rid of all the dog hair so that, you know, my husband will come home to, you know, he won't have to take his allergy meds right away.
And so that's, you know, vacuuming and doing laundry and stuff like that. But I'm just doing it like nice and slow and in my own pace and kind of puttering, and I'm having a beautiful, relaxing weekend. And then she's like, ah, you know, kind of looked at me like awkwardly. Like that's, that's kind of weird that you're enjoying that.
And what I didn't say is that's kind of in my creative zone outlet. Like I'll listen to music, I'll think about things. I'll use my voice recorder, I'll get new ideas [00:26:00] because I'm doing something outside of, um. Creativity, right? I'm doing something that's using the other part of my brain. I said, huh, you know.
I wonder if we'll be telling our grandkids, you know, when I was your age, I had to take out the trash myself. I had to like wash the floors all by myself by hand and vacuum. And now we have these robots that do it for us. Just a thought. This is where. Our technology is going and it's happening fast. So I wanna just end this by saying we need your creativity as a [00:27:00] world, as a society, because you remember the difference.
If you are here right now and you're listening to this, and you're watching this video or listening to this podcast, you. Part of the generation that remembers the difference before ai. Do you remember? Google? Okay. Well, this is on a whole other level. We have to continue to allow what is coming from our bodies to come out and be part of the world, because if we don't do that, our generations.
Are going to forget. They're going to forget. Just like we were told in grade school that we needed to learn math because we weren't gonna have a calculator in our pocket. Oh, well [00:28:00] I think I have a calculator in my pocket twenty four seven. It's called my cell phone. Right? So now we have a generation.
That can do math just like on the fly without using that long form that we all had to agonize through. But we know it, we can do it. We have access to that thread in our brain. And the important part, part of this is when we have access to those brain stems that are like. Making and wiring new things.
Once it gets activated, it's wiring other parts, right? So it keeps everything healthy. It keeps the body healthy, it keeps us feeling purposeful. We need you. We need your art. The world needs it to come from you, so keep doing it.
The creativity is in you and it is a super important of your holistic health.
Now, if you're still trying to [00:29:00] figure out how to tap into that creative piece or how to really unplug and. Allow your brain to just be quiet from the noise so you can access the creativity. You know what I'm gonna say, right? I want you to go for a walk. I want you to get outside, take the earbuds out, get in nature, as close to nature as you can.
Even if your nature is concrete, but it's outside and you're, you're listening to nothing but the white noise. Allowing yourself to be in the moment and move. 'cause getting that all that energetic flow is what's necessary to, to help the creativity filter out. So I've queued up a playlist here all about, you know, all these my best tips on walking make sure that [00:30:00] you watch out for my next episode where I'm gonna talk about my YouTube creative mistakes, uh, because I, I think it's really important. We're in a very unique time here. In, just, in just the world, right? And, uh, I just, it, I wouldn't be me if I wasn't sharing with you all the good, the bad, the ugly, the ups and the downs.
And, uh, that's what we're here for. So
thanks for watching. Take care of yourself and your creativity. I'll see you in the next video.
