We spend a lot of our lives consuming our worlds. Information, learning, conversations, content - words, both online and in real life.
It can mean our thinking brains are on the go a lot - interpreting, digesting, processing. So when we want to relax, it can be hard to step out of that mode. We can turn to more words, on a screen or on a page.
I’m one of those people - I always have a book on the go - but sometimes I already have enough words in my head!
This is when I reach for a puzzle.
There’s no need to think in words. It’s visual, and manual, and engages my brain in a different way. I can get lost for hours - often someone has to extract me!
I can completely recommend it - and not just for relaxing and winding down - although that’s a part of it.
Finding a creative outlet is often something that comes up as a useful action from coaching. And it’s powerful.
When people add a creative outlet to their lives, everything improves.
By spending time making and doing something, they connect with a different part of themselves - and it gives them more energy for the rest of their lives.
The extra bonus?
While we’re creating something, our thinking brain can be quietly processing and digesting in the background. I’ll often finish a puzzle and have an idea, or a way of solving a problem I hadn’t thought of when I was trying to.
And we don’t need to get hung up on the creativity word! As long as we are creating something as a result of our actions - a cake, a puzzle, an image, anything at all - it’s a creative outlet.
What’s your creative outlet?
And how does it help take you out of your thinking brain, and into a different way of being?
Wishing you all a week of relaxing creative energy,
