PsychCentral: Mindful Moment: The Healing Potential of Creative Self-Expression

Human beings are born creators, whether we consider ourselves artists or not.

Mindfulness can be a powerful tool for enhancing creativity since both practices require present-moment awareness. Research from 2020 shows that mindfulness and creativity go hand in hand.

Like mindfulness, creativity can be cathartic and healing — no matter how small or great the end result may be. Tuning in and channeling the muse connects you with a deeper, more authentic part of yourself to bring forth something fresh, new, and original.

Anne Cushman, a writer and yoga and meditation teacher in Fairfax, California, told me that creativity and mindfulness support the art of paying attention.

Cushman explained that both creativity and mindfulness are about seeing our inner and outer worlds with fresh eyes and looking deeply into our true nature and the interconnectedness of all things.

Can anyone be creative?

While it can be easy to believe that only bonafide artists possess creativity, research from 2022Trusted Source suggests that anyone can learn to be creative.

Creativity can come in many forms, too. For Cushman, the process is about tapping into the senses and moving and expressing from a place of deep connection.

“It could be a story, poem, or painting, a dance or a play, but it could also be a new or fresh approach to a problem, a new recipe, or even a fresh approach to an impasse in a relationship,” she said. “It’s seeing outside of the box and then taking action through expression.”

Research from 2021 suggests that art therapy may be a complementary treatment for mental health conditions, allowing individuals to open up and share their feelings and experiences. The findings show that art therapy may be beneficial for mental health conditions such as:

• anxiety disorders
• depression
• cognitive impairment
• Alzheimer’s disease and dementia
• schizophrenia
• autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

According to Cushman, creativity should have a healing quality — and a focus on the process rather than the product.

“Focusing on the process of aliveness and trusting the inner impulse and accepting what emerges is where the creative process is at its most healing,” Cushman said.

“Part of the reason that it’s so healing is it involves learning to trust, attune to our creative impulses, honor them, and let them emerge rather than judging them and crushing them.”

“Another aspect of the healing is that it gives us somewhere to put our emotions,” Cushman said.

“Instead of just being stuck and tied up inside, creativity gives the emotion somewhere to flow and it gets transformed into something that can be shared that could touch the hearts of others.”

Whenever you sit to meditate, you connect to a deeper level of your experience. The same goes for mindful creativity — you’re connecting to a deeper part of yourself rather than crafting from the superficial part of the ego.

“Mindfulness helps us tune in to life as it actually is,” Cushman said. “When we connect to what’s real, we cut below denial and can express ourselves from that place of truth.”

Channeling the muse