This is a completely random post, but creativity seems to happen to me when I’m at my most stressed. Of course I mean that creativity can take over my mind, it becomes all encompassing and somehow I can produce some pretty impressive work and meet insane deadlines. It’s like my mind just goes into a completely different mode, where I’m focused, unstoppable and somehow managing to actually make logical, coherent pieces of writing.

Yet of course I feel more related, and in control of the creative stuff I produce when I’m relaxed or taking things easy, or just generally making things – which I think really does prove the relationship between creativity and well-being. (For me anyway).

I’m a creative person, I always have been – but I can remember the specific moment of realisation. It was actually a weird a-ha type moment – I was in my final year of secondary school and I’d taken one of them weird personality/character quiz type things (or something similar) and this random guy told me I was a ‘creative person.’ I found this hilarious… the past three years of my life had been dedicated to the Air Cadets, and planning a career in the Royal Air Force. (Though I also had the undying passion to become the world’s next Whitney Houston).

Then, on the same day we was asked to create a product type thing – formulating a mock campaign and all the related stuff needed for a presentation. I can remember the product now… it was called ‘Chineasy’ – a game designed to teach you Chinese in an easy way (groundbreaking stuff). But I can remember coming up with the product concept, and name… then letting my group members do all the budgeting stuff and admin side. And voila, that was the day I decided the random thoughts in my mind, and my weird imagination could actually be useful. 

It’s definitely not the world’s greatest story, and to be honest it doesn’t really hold much significance to the work I do now, but it’s always stuck with me. I found it strange to be told I was creative – the stuff that had defined me as creative was innate. It was just me, it was the way I functioned…

Now I’m studying my Masters, and a few months back I read into the whole notion of creativity, arts and culture promoting and enhancing your well-being. For me being creative, or doing any form of art – mainly singing and music for me – does me a wealth of good. Singing is the be all and end all for me. It’s what I do, it’s what I love and I can’t stop myself from singing. I can tell when I’m having a real rough time of things because I’ll stop singing – or I’ll pour my heart and soul into every song that I stumble across. I’ve also heard a lot about art therapy, though I’m not too familiar with it (I guess it’s what it says on the tin) but I’ve never had the chance to try it! I did dabble at sketching… but I’m rubbish at drawing and it just frustrated me! (I prefer looking at other people’s awesome illustrations etc.) If you follow me on Pinterest you’ll see that I always pin sketches, illustrations etc…

• Doodles (Pinterest board)
• Illustrations / Art (Pinterest board)
• Mental Health Creativity (Pinterest board)

I’ve gone off on a tangent here, and apologies for the lack of direction in this post, but it occurred to me how much creative tasks affect me as a person. The past week I’ve been working my butt off on a project, and have been juggling other creative works alongside it – and I just had one of them ‘how on earth did I manage that?’ moments…

I am stressed like crazy at the moment, I can’t even give enough attention to the TV or reading a book, yet when I’m required to complete a piece of writing or sing I switch into a different mode – creative mode / or robot mode.

Either way, I just thought I’d try and express this – but my creativity hasn’t done me a wealth of good with the articulation, and coherency of this post! Haha! Sorry, but I’m tired!

Let me know what you think of the links between creativity and well-being! (If there are any…) 

Here’s an insight into the ‘messy’ creativity that encapsulates me:

‘Creative Minds are Rarely Tidy’ – one of my favourite quotes 🙂