[Caption: In a light blue background there are several shapes of flowers at the edges of the image, there are light red, yellow, purple, white and orange flowers, as well as black outlines of flowers. There are also leaf-shaped objects between some of those flowers along the edges. In the middle, in a script font, are the words "Creativity is Intelligence Having Fun!"]
Did you know that Creativity is positively associated with well-being?
Previous studies showed that feeling happy can make people more creative, but not much research has looked at how being creative can make people happier. However, this study, took a look at how being creative affects how happy people feel. They did two studies. The first study looked at both college students and adults with jobs and found that being creative is linked to feeling happier. The second study used an experiment and found that being creative actually makes people feel happier. Even when they took stress into account, the people who were encouraged to be creative felt happier than those who weren't. This suggests that encouraging creativity can make both young people and adults feel happier. They also found that a task designed to make people think creatively was effective in improving their creative abilities.
How can you include creativity in your day?
- Connect with your 5 senses - Part of being creative is being aware of the world around you. To do this, we recommend connecting with your five senses while being in nature or around your neighborhood. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? You can take this a step further by responding to what you sense. You could do a small dance in response to a smell. You could journal about what you hear or draw what you see. (Click here for more)
- Try out the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding tool to get started!
- [Caption: This image in an infographic that displayed the 5,4,3,2,1 grounding technique, it shows icons of an eye, a hand with a raised finger, an ear, a note, and a mouth with a tongue sticking out. Under these icons there are words that explain the steps, they are as follows. The eye, "Acknowledge 5 things you can see around you", the hand "Acknowledge 4 things that you can touch around you", the ear "Acknowledge 3 things you can ear around you", the nose "acknowledge 2 things you can smell around you", and the mouth "acknowledge 1 thing that you can taste around you".] -- Note that this technique makes the assumption that everyone is able to engage these 5 senses, if there are senses that you cannot engage, consider the prompt of "Acknowledge x-number of feelings that you are feeling in the moment".
- Generate Way More Ideas Than You Think You Actually Need -
- Surround yourself with art - Spend some time looking at the colors, the lines, shapes, think about how the art makes you feel, what it is about that artwork that makes you feel that way.
~ Remember, we may not all be artistic but we can all be a little more creative! ~
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