E Eight Ways to Nurture Your Creative Self Managing Stress and Boosting Imagination 

Eight Ways to Nurture Your Creative Self

The creative self is not something exclusive to creative writers only.  Scientists, lawyers, computer personnel, information technologists, teachers, politicians, and ordinary people must be creative.  Be creative is a buss word of the present time to be progressive and futuristic. 
 Our brain drives everything we do and most of us take this for granted and do not realise it going ineffective until it happens.  By that time, it may get too late to fix it.  But there is hope in turning things around?  There is a mix of modern and ancient mental health techniques to assist you. 

Eight Ways to Nurture Our Creative Self

1. Manage Stress

The first among them is managing stress. According to experts, stress is a natural body reaction to deal with pressure, fear, and threat and deal with the unfamiliar.  It helps us to keep in the loop to reach the target.  Usually, your stress hormone levels return to normal immediately after the pressure or threat gets passed.  But it is not a guarantee.
  • Stress and tension make our brains less smart and go hard.  At times of excessive stress, our brain takes a 'fight or flight mode' making us take hasty and impulsive actions, shutting down 'smart thinking.'  "Prolonged stress can weaken our brain so much that it can become difficult to think clearly and creatively in general." 
From my Personal Experience
I was a victim of losing track of my creative self, resulting from excessive stress and tension from mounting responsibilities in dealing with issues at a personal level.  As a blogger and an author, I could not pen a word in the past five months.  And what I am writing here is based on my slow recovery journey. 
The primary thing in stress management is recognising and accepting the problem and reaching out for help.  I sought help from experts' suggestions online.

2. Do Things Differently

Take a fresh look at your life and learn to do things differently.  
Go for a walk, jog, and perform simple tasks like cooking, kitchen chores, and gardening. 
The benefits are considerable when you practise them consistently.  Regular exercise reduces the level of stress hormones and improves your mood and confidence.

3. Connect with nature

Take time to go outside blessed with nature's beauty and colours, listen to the birds flittering in and out of the green bushes and tree branches, and feel the scent of flowers lifting you to a world of emotions and memories.   I found it calming and freshening me and connecting to my creative persona.   

4. Journalling

Studies have shown that journalling is a productive method to keep your mental and creative self in order.  There are various approaches to journaling.
  • Give expression to your fears, hopes and expectations through writing them.  Write down your fears and overwhelmingly negative thoughts on paper and tear them down and do the same with positive thoughts and keep the writing with you.  
  • Write a gratitude journal, a success journal, and a letter you won't send. 
  • I found this extremely helpful. 

5. Listen to soothing music

Listening to soothing music is an effective way to manage your stress level.  It slows down your pulse and heart rate and reduces blood pressure and mental well-being.  

6. Connect with friends.

In the digital age, we are tempted to replace our association with friends with phones and gadgets. But humans are socially connected, we crave feelings, support, connections, and value.  

7. Meditation and Breathing

Keeping a routine of meditation for 15 to 20 minutes a day can clear your mind.  It is a powerful technique to calm you and dredge the pile of unnecessary thoughts clamouring your mind.  
It is an able stimulator of the hippocampus, the part in our brain for memory and involved in our imagination into the future.  There are two kinds of breathing- Chest breathing and Abdominal breathing.  Always practise abdominal breathing.  

8. Boost your imagination

Imagination and creativity often confuse one for the other.  The two are different- imagination is the gateway to creativity. 
 We are born with the ability to imagine but lose the edge as we grow up in a structured, dogmatic world, so we must train ourselves to sharpen it. All the steps mentioned in the case of stress management can boost your imagination.

This post is part of Blog chatter Blog Hop for the week.