Creativity is for you.

Creativity is for you. Singing. Dancing. Making art. Not just for people with 'talent'. Not just for professionals. For you.

There's a meme floating around the internet that says:

Pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviours. So now it's like "the point of doing them is to get good at them" and not "this is a thing that humans do, the way that birds sing and bees make hives".

I've been thinking about this a lot. People often say to me "oh, I couldn't do art therapy, I don't know how to draw" or "well, that wouldn't be for me, I'm not creative" and it always makes me feel sad, and I think that meme kind of explains why.

I believe that humans are inherently creative, but many of us have been taught to believe that 'creative' means 'able to paint a masterpiece that will end up on a gallery wall', rather than a felt experience that happens as you create something, whether it be a song about making a cup of tea while you stand in your kitchen waiting for the kettle to boil, a dance to shake off the frustrated energy after being stuck in traffic for an hour, or a little pattern doodled in the margins of a notebook while you talk to a friend on the phone.

Creative activities help us understand ourselves and the world, they give us a means to get out of our heads and give our overthinking brains a rest as we slide into a flow state that eases stress and anxiety and promotes a sweet sense of wellbeing.

Creative practices also help us process emotions and the stuff of life so we don't bottle them up or try to think our way out of them and end up endlessly spinning. I think humans are meant to do it automatically - if you look at children playing, they create in order to help them understand the world around them. They make up songs, they move their bodies, they are endlessly inventive. Adults learn their way out of it, but it's possible to learn your way back in. To remember.

It just takes a bit of courage, and a willingness to enjoy the journey - another overused phrase that's overused because it's true. Creative activities are about how it feels to do the thing, more than the end result. Take dancing - when we dance, it's an in-the-moment experience. We don't finish the dance and say this is a good dance, I'm going to hang it on my wall. The point of the dance is the dance. The point of the song is the singing of it.

The point of making art is the making. And it's hard sometimes to let go of the need to make something beautiful, but if you can let go of the pressure to produce something that 'looks good' (or give yourself permission to make ugly art… or actively try to make ugly art) and notice how it feels while you're doing it, perhaps you'll reconnect with something ancient, something innately human. And if you're anything like most of the people who come to my workshops or do art therapy with me, perhaps you'll find that what you create might not look pretty, but it will feel deeply meaningful, because it's connected to the experience you had as you made it. It's the visual representation of the creative journey you took.

So, what if singing, dancing, and making art were just things that humans did?

How might your life be different if you knew in your bones that these things aren't just for professionals or for people with 'talent', they are for you?

Sing in the car, or in the kitchen.

Dance in the rain.

Make art, just because.

Do all these things because they're what humans do.

Let go of the need to be good at them - birds don't seem to worry if they're good at singing, they just give themselves to their songs. I used to watch a bunch of butcher birds sitting on the tv antenna on the roof next door and it always made me smile how they sang with their whole bodies. While they sang, they were the song. What if we sang like that? Danced like that? Made art like that? Not for any reason other than that's what humans do.

Imagine that world. Hold that thought. Create.

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And if you'd like to dip a toe in that water (or jump right in) in a friendly creative community, come along and experience it for yourself in the next Online Art Group. I run these with my good friend and art therapist colleague Rose every other week - you'd be very welcome if you felt like joining us.

Click here for more info about the next group, and to book your spot.