How Creativity Fuels My Motivation To Live My Best Life
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ve probably figured out by now that I have a ton of health issues. It’s actually kind of ridiculous how much my health can set me back, but even when I’m at my worst, I’m doing or creating something.
The one thing I value most is time; having the time and space to express the inner workings of my whole self and sharing them openly and with no regrets. I’ve made a career out of being honest and transparent about my health and limitations while ensuring that I don’t limit myself in the process.
This has been my theme for the last couple of years — creating and then sharing, regardless of whether I am up or down. However, I create something every single day: an article, a drawing, a painting, or I’ll film my creative processes.
It’s during these artistic and creative processes that bring me the most happiness. Art has taught me to let go of outcomes and embrace the now, this very moment, and make it wonderful.
Art has been the connective thread carrying me through the darkest and best times.
Drawing, specifically, benefits our brains and minds in hundreds of ways. From reducing stress to improving mental health issues, I’ve witnessed firsthand the healing powers a pencil and a sheet of paper can offer.
Today, I use art as both a tool for documenting meaningful moments and embracing challenges and adversity. Art has continued to pull me out of the most terrifying circumstances and health scares.
It wasn’t until recently when I learned to appreciate the adversity I’ve endured, despite the strong grip fear has had on me at times. Art reminds me that I am much stronger than the sum of all the symptoms and health issues I felt held me back. Doing something creative propels me forward and makes me feel like I’m moving on from life’s brutal curveballs in a healthy way.
At the turn of the New Year, every year, I used to always beg a higher power to stop having health issues. Even just last year, I said,
“My New Year’s resolution is to stop having health issues.”
The absurdity in this was that, deep down, I knew this wasn’t a reasonable or logical resolution. I will always have health issues, but the difference now is that I accept them and do my best to support them and my whole self.
Those periods when I’m bedridden, I write more or produce a drawing or another art piece. I can create when I’m down, usually.
Being productive also fuels me the way gas keeps a car going. It gives me energy and it doesn’t matter if I’m not at my best in the slightest. Creativity also instills inner peace and a sense of serenity. Writing, sewing, and engaging in artistic activities is like an exercise for my brain and rewires my mind and thought processes.
The act of making is what will bring you peace and joy as nothing else can.
Concluding Thoughts
Creativity is how I infuse meaning into my daily life from the start of my morning to the end of my evenings. Making something, whatever it is, can serve you as a mechanism carrying you through whatever life throws at you.
When I feel anxiety or depression creeping its way in, I stop whatever I’m doing and will either write about it or produce an art piece. Checking off my to-do list each day and accomplishing even the smallest goal boosts my endorphins as exercising does.
I view every new day as if it were a blank canvas. There is so much anticipation and thrill knowing that I can add whatever I want to it, to my life. I get to color my world with my own ideas and visions.
We are the makers of our happenings and outcomes, typically. Granted, sometimes things happen that are out of our control and hands. I’ve been in those situations a lot, so I make the best of them by making something. It doesn’t matter how good or perfect or bad it is; the process of creativity fuels my motivation to live my best and healthiest life.
I’d like to shout out to T Mann for a piece in which she wrote: “All too often, we become a servant to an outcome when we should be engaging with the process.” Check out her fantastic article titled: How to Find Success When Life Throws You Curve Balls.
