Habitualize Creating Health and Happiness

The Maximal Life

Our lives are spent either in consuming or creating. When we engage in activities like writing, setting up a business or fleshing out a new idea, we are creating. We are engaged in activities that are rewarding for us and others around. When we watch TV, eat a packaged meal, surf the web or social media for celebrity gossip we are merely consuming. Societal conditioning and expectations have made consumers out of us when we were meant to be creative, inventive individuals. We are meant to be actively experiencing and producing and making; not just absorbing and consuming!

Consuming is necessary, but creating is uplifting!

Numerous studies have demonstrated how creative pursuits are not only enjoyable and rewarding but also good for health and brain function. Researchers demonstrated how emotional writing helped improve disease parameters for HIV infected people and how expressive writing helped trauma survivors in psychiatric settings. While most people have experienced the uplifting and stress relieving properties of creative pursuits such as creating art, immersive musical experiences or drama, researchers have proved that engagement with the arts results in healthy outcomes. Visual arts therapy, music, expressive writing and movement based creative expression can in fact help improve health and slow down cognitive decline. Participating in creative activities during middle age and later in life lowers chances of developing mild cognitive impairment by as much as 71%.