It’s only since relaunching my business and my return to creative practices that i’ve realised the links between creativity and mental health. Writing, drawing, painting, sewing, knitting etc, whatever your creative passion, can have a powerful impact on your mental wellbeing.
Creating allows us to disconnect from stress, thoughts and worries. I suffer with some anxiety and have a tendency to allow worries to take over my mind, I personally noticed that when I was at my dance class or practicing at home, anything I was worrying about just disappeared as I concentrated on learning and performing the steps and losing myself in the music. Likewise when I started drawing mandalas I noticed an almost meditative state and a feeling of calmness and happiness when I had finished drawing. It actually felt like such a relief for my brain.
Practicing our creative passions requires us to focus and concentrate and we become completely absorbed in what we are doing. This “flow” is like a form of meditation and has the ability to improve our mental health, this is great news if you are anything like me and really struggle to meditate for any longer than about 2 minutes.
Now I know many people don’t see themselves as being creative, they think they can’t draw, paint, play an instrument etc. I personally believe that there is creativity in each and every one of us and sometime it might not appear in the traditional sense but it’s definitely there. There are so many different ways to be creative and expressive and actually sometimes we might think we can’t do something but actually we can and it’s down to repetition and practice (if you could see my first mandalas lol).
So I challenge each one of you who thinks that they lack creative ability to really think about what you might enjoy, then just go for it, practice, practice, practice! Look up a youtube video on how to do it, learn it and just keep at it. I promise you you will start to see improvements and the whole process will be so amazing for your mental wellbeing! 
