Want to Help Your Brain Function? Get Creative!

Here's what's happening on the HealthyPlace site this week:

• Want to Help Your Brain Function? Get Creative!
• Brain Benefits of Creativity
• From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs
• Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans
• Mental Health Quote

Want to Help Your Brain Function? Get Creative!

Creativity is often touted as a positive mental health coping skill. Engaging in projects and activities that foster self-expression leads to stress relief and the experience of pleasure. If you live with depression or any other mental illness, personality disorder, or general mental health challenge, you might agree that these are rare treats.

Brain Benefits of Creativity

It’s well known that doing something creative brings a welcome mental health boost. The reason lies in the way the brain functions when you’re creative:

• Creativity quiets the areas of the brain involved in checking and judging.
• When you’re creative, your brain’s sensory regions become more active, taking in information from all the senses more deeply than usual.
• Doing something enjoyable and self-expressive helps the brain achieve a state of flow, in which it lets go of the need to overthink and analyze so you can be fully present in your moment.  

Creativity’s benefits to the brain are quite similar to the positive changes induced by mindfulness and meditation practices. Are creative activities a form of mindfulness mediation? It’s certainly possible. Regardless of the words you use to describe what you’re doing, release your inhibitions and get creative!

Related Articles Dealing with Creativity and Mental Health

• Creative Outlets Enhance Your Recovery from Mental Illness
• Is There a Connection between Creativity and Mental Illness?
• The Connection between Creativity and Mental Illness
• Being More Emotionally Resilient to Reclaim My Life
• How to Remain Creative with Anxiety
• You Can Use Creativity to Reduce Anxiety

Source: Hitti, M. (2008). Your brain on creativity. WebMD. Retrieved July, 2019 from https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20080229/your-brain-on-creativity

Your Thoughts

Today's Question: How does being creative affect you and does it help your mental health? We invite you to participate by sharing your thoughts, experiences, and knowledge on the HealthyPlace Facebook page.

From the HealthyPlace Mental Health Blogs

On all our blogs, your comments and observations are welcomed.

• Taking Bipolar Medications to Please Other People
• How Sexual Abuse Continues to Impact my Sex Life
• Mental Illness in Pregnancy: Is It Me, My Illness, or the Hormones?
• Those Struggling with Mental Health Are Trying to Get Well
• You Are Not Alone: Kristen Milstead Says Goodbye to Verbal Abuse
• How Mindfulness Affects Self-Esteem
• I Feel Afraid to Drive Because of Schizoaffective Anxiety
• 3 Coping Skills Activities to Reduce Anxiety and Stress
• Enjoy a Summer Vacation Without Your Eating Disorder
• Daily Activities for Lessening Depression-Caused Anger
• I'm a Different Person with My Mental Illness Than Without It
• How to Be a Mental Health Ally: Don’t Be Selfish

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments at the bottom of any blog post. And visit the mental health blogs homepage for the latest posts.

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Most Popular HealthyPlace Articles Shared by Facebook Fans

Here are the top 3 mental health articles HealthyPlace Facebook fans are recommending you read:

1. Why Ignorance Isn't an Excuse for Mental Health Stigma
2. Generational Silence Contributes to Complex PTSD
3. How Verbal Abuse and Anger Combine to Trap Victims

If you're not already, I hope you'll join us/like us on Facebook too. There are a lot of wonderful, supportive people there.

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Mental Health Quote

"You’re going to be okay. Breathe and remember that you’ve been in this place before."

Read more anxiety quotes.

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That's it for now. If you know of anyone who can benefit from this newsletter or the HealthyPlace.com site, I hope you'll pass this onto them. You can also share the newsletter on any social network (like facebook or stumbleupon) you belong to by clicking the links below. For updates throughout the week, follow HealthyPlace on Twitter or become a fan of HealthyPlace on Facebook. Also, check out HealthyPlace on Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, where you can share your mental health pins on our Share Your Mental Health Experiences board.

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