Time to get creative for your mental health!

The science behind the benefits of reconnecting with your passions for your brain, health and chance of success.

Why is creativity good for your mental health? How can painting a picture reduce anxiety?

We all have something creative inside us. Painting, cooking, gardening, dressing creatively, fishing or sports; you name it- we all have some passion that makes us feel happier, more focused and calmer. As we age and life becomes busier, more complicated and we get more and more responsibilities, these passions can become deprioritised in the hunt for achievement and success. However, is letting go of our creative inner child instead diminishing our chance of success? What are the consequences of losing these healthy coping mechanisms on our mental health? What is the science behind it, and can our brains function at their best capacity without it?

Brains have taken millions of years to evolve, and our brains are the same brains as our caveman ancestors. When our cavemen ancestors saw a threat such as a predator like a sabre-toothed tiger, their brains went into defence mode. In defence mode, their brains increased the hormone and neurotransmitter Adrenaline to give their bodies energy to run from threats, and Cortisol, to help them de-prioritize any non-essential body functions to prioritise escape functions. Now, we have the same brains, but different threats. We see threats to our social, financial, relationship and nutritional status and our own internal fears, ruminations and worries, the same way our caveman ancestor saw a sabre-toothed tiger (Godoy et al, 2021). We go into flight, fight, or freeze mode and trigger the sympathetic branch of our autonomic nervous system. This locks us into defence mode, changing our appetite, causing mood swings, making us selfish (so we can focus on our own survival as part of survival of the fittest), inhibiting our immune system and making us hyper, unable to sleep, anxious and depressed. Our brains switch from Pre-Frontal Cortex (the logical, problem-solving brain) dominant, to the Amygdala dominant (the emotional, non-empathetic, judgemental, black-and-white thinking brain) and (Chu, Marwaha, Sanvictores & Ayers, 2021) the Cortisol produced reduces synaptic plasticity (our ability to change habits and learn) and causes an inflammatory response.

When we mindfully engage in a passion for a fixed period, we achieve tasks that bring us pleasure and have a sense of accomplishment (Khalil et al, 2019). We calm our brains, helping to switch off the sympathetic nervous system, hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) stress response and switch from an Amygdala focused to a more balanced Pre-Frontal Cortex focused brain. In this state, we switch on the parasympathetic nervous system (Alshak & Das, 2021) and release Dopamine, which increases pleasure and motivation and release Oxytocin which helps with decision making, empathy and love for others. We are our kindest and most rational when we are creative. Our passions make us more passionate. Getting creative makes you more creative! Engaging in our hobbies can help us be the best version our ourselves.

Therefore, the next time you decide that you “don’t have time” to finish that painting you have been doing or that “I am too old to be making jewellery,” ignore your inner adult and listen to your inner child and get creative. Your physical and mental health will benefit, and you may find you become better at your job, are more personable with family, friends, and colleagues, are better able to make good decisions and are more likely to succeed. Get creative for your mental health!

References

1. Khalil, R., Godde, B., & Karim, A. A. (2019). The Link Between Creativity, Cognition, and Creative Drives and Underlying Neural Mechanisms. Frontiers in neural circuits, 13(18). https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2019.00018
2. Godoy, L., Rossignoli, M., Delfino-Pereira, P., Garcia-Cairasco, N. and de Lima Umeoka, E. (2021). A Comprehensive Overview on Stress Neurobiology: Basic Concepts and Clinical Implications. Frontiers of Behavioural Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00127
3. Wiggins, G. A., Tyack, P., Scharff, C., & Rohrmeier, M. (2015). The evolutionary roots of creativity: mechanisms and motivations. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 370(1664), 20140099. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2014.0099
4. Chu, B., Marwaha, K., Sanvictores, T., & Ayers, D. (2021). Physiology, Stress Reaction. StatPearls Publishing. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK541120/ (Accessed 1 August 2021).
5. Alshak, M., & Das, J. (2021). Neuroanatomy, Sympathetic Nervous System. StatPearls Publishing. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542195/ (Accessed 1 August 2021).
6. Thau, L., Gandhi, J., & Sharma, S. (2021). Physiology, Cortisol. StatPearls Publishing. Available from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK538239/ (Accessed 1 August 2021)
7. Martin, L., Oepen, R., Bauer, K., Nottensteiner, A., Mergheim, K., Gruber, H., & Koch, S. C. (2018). Creative Arts Interventions for Stress Management and Prevention-A Systematic Review. Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland), 8(2), 28. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs8020028
8. Stuckey, H. L., & Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: a review of current literature. American journal of public health, 100(2), 254–263. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497
9. Hedblom, M., Gunnarsson, B., Iravani, B., Knez, I., Schaefer, M., Thorsson, P., & Lundström, J. (2019). Reduction of physiological stress by urban green space in a multisensory virtual experiment. Scientific Reports, 9(1). doi: 10.1038/s41598–019–46099–7