Episode 31: Creativity Matters More Than You Think

Description: Creativity isn’t just for artists, it’s something we can all access in small, everyday ways. In this episode, Tina explores how simple creative moments can help calm your mind, reduce stress, and bring more joy into your day. This invitation encourages you to step away from constant consumption and reconnect with creativity in a way that feels easy and personal.

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Resources: 180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators from Amazon, Solution Tree, or Marzano Resources.

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Transcription: Hi everyone. I'm so happy you're here. This is episode 31 of this season of Everyday Wellness with Dr. Tina H. Boogren, and I am your host, Tina Boogren. I'm so happy you're here. Ah, let's take that deep grounding breath and get ourselves really, really here for this moment. Let's just kind of pause. If you can, maybe get your feet solidly on the ground. Relax your shoulders, unclench your jaw, and just take a really nice deep inhale through your nose and exhale out your mouth.

Good. Okay, this week I'm excited because I want to talk about creativity. Now listen, before you think this is not for me because I'm not a creative person, stay with me here for a second because that's really kind of what I want to talk about. Some of us, myself included, have told ourselves a story that, uh, creativity belongs to certain people. We think about artists and writers and designers, people who can draw well, but here's what the truth is. The truth is, is that creativity shows up in a lot more ways than we tend to recognize, and it's so good for. I talked about this in 180 Days of Self-Care for Busy Educators, and I feel like it's one of the invitations in that book that kind of gets missed. And so I want to pull it up and really talk about it this week. 

So creativity can be these small, tiny little things that we do that are out of the norm. So for me, I'm going to share with you what I've been playing with lately. Watercolor. One of my best friends kind of picked up watercolor during COVID and she has a commitment that every single morning she paints watercolor in the morning before she goes to work, and I could not love it more and she's still doing it- that has continued. 

And I just kind of stumbled into this. So where were we? My husband and I, oh, we were out on kind of a day date in our neighborhood and we have a couple cute little shops with great, like I don't, gardening stuff and little gifts. And they had this teeny tiny little travel watercolor kit and on a whim I just bought it. And it comes with this little palette and this little pin that you put water in, that the end is a brush that you can use and I have no idea what I'm doing, especially when I started and I just pulled out my regular journal and I just started painting hearts. And some were great and some were awful and I was figuring out too much water, not enough water, that my journal is not the best place to do that. You need actual special watercolor paper. But you know what? For, I don't know, about 10 minutes, I wasn't doing anything else. I was just drawing all sorts of hearts and it was bringing me so much joy. So much joy that I actually bought a watercolor journal so that I could do watercolor where the watercolor goes. And both of these are teeny tiny, which matters to me because I travel, and so I can carry this little watercolor kit and this little journal and my regular journal. It doesn't take up a whole lot of room, and I take it with me and it brings me so much joy. 

I've just been playing around. None of it's good. Drawn lots of hearts and circles and just messy blobs of color and experimenting. Some look good, some look terrible. It doesn't matter. Some of them came out muddy. Some of them are bright. Been working on flowers. The point being though, it doesn't matter what it looks like, it just matters that for those few minutes, I am completely absorbed in that thing. I'm watching that paint spread. I'm adding water, I'm removing water, I'm watching those colors blend. I'm letting that page fill up with those hearts and imperfect marks. 

And what I noticed is that when I got done, I felt different. My brain felt less chaotic. That stress that I tend to carry with me all the time had just kind of softened. My shoulders softened, my jaw softened. Something had shifted and that felt really good. In this age of consuming, you know, last week we talked about social media, and when we are just scrolling all we're doing is consuming, and that's the part that bothers me so much. When we just consume, we don't have kind of control of our own narrative, and so there's something about creativity that puts us back in the driver's seat that feels really good. And since we're so easily distracted by our phones and our devices, many of us have gotten away from creativity, and so I want us to come back to that this week. That's what I want you to do. I want you to think about what could you engage with that's creative? 

It doesn't have to be watercolor. It could be maybe you hear this and you're like, ooh, that sounds kind of fun. Maybe it's writing. Maybe it's just coloring a coloring book. Maybe it is doing a puzzle. Remember we all did so many puzzles during COVID and some of us maybe got away from that, so maybe it's coming back to that. Maybe it's drawing. There's just no end to things we can do. Maybe it's baking. Maybe it's cooking. Maybe it's knitting, gardening, photography, playing music, rearranging a room in your house or redecorating, maybe it's just doodling in the margins of a notebook.

It doesn't have to be something that you post on the internet. It doesn't have to be that you're starting a whole Etsy shop. It could, maybe you get really into this, but the whole idea is that it pulls you into that moment and you're completely absorbed in it. That's what I love when I am writing or I am playing around with watercolor. It's a little bit unpredictable, but I'm totally absorbed. And it feels so good to be creating rather than consuming. So I want you to think about when was the last time that you did something creative just for the sake of it? And could you pull that into your life in more ways? 

I love the idea of doing this with other people. Maybe you are all getting together and doing something creative, your own creative projects or something the same. Maybe you do this with your family, with your kids. And maybe you do it completely on your own. Again, no right or wrong, make it work for you, but maybe you go pick up a cheap little watercolor set. Maybe you buy yourself a new journal or some new pens. Maybe you find a couple new recipes. Maybe you take some photos on your next walk. I just want you to let yourself experiment a little bit. Let it be messy. Let it be imperfect. Let it be playful. Because what we know is that creativity, it's not really about the end result of what we're producing. It's about that whole experience, that absorption piece of it. And those little moments can feel really, really good, especially in the middle of a crazy day. And so that's it. That's my invitation for you. I want you to find a small way to reconnect with your creative side this week and see what happens. You might be surprised how good it feels. I know I am. 

Thank you so much for being here. Thank you to Adrienne, to Solution Tree, to Marzano Resources and to you, my incredible listeners, this Badass Wellness Squad. I'm cheering so hard for you. Make it an amazing week. Go play, go do something fun and I'll see you next week. I love you.

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