Why you should pick up that guitar, paintbrush, or pen, and get creative!
Chris
Nov 7, 2019
You wake up, drink your coffee, check the headlines, head to work, come home, make dinner, absorb more news, maybe take the kids to practice, and fall asleep on social media only to do it all again tomorrow. Life gets busy. It’s why many Canadians don’t pay attention to more than just mainstream news and social media to get their political news (if they even pay attention at all). It is difficult to recognize inconsistencies, issues, and scandals suppressed by the mainstream if your mind is tired and lacking the dedication to seek out that information and think critically about what Canadians are being told is “News”.
Every Canadian should exercise creative expression in order to maintain a clear mind that is able to problem solve and think critically. There are many benefits to expressing creativity that goes beyond childhood years. Feeling foggy/tired/stressed/anxious/overwhelmed? There are mental and physical health benefits to creative expression that include the ability to relieve stress, reduce anxiety, and minimize stress-related health disorders that can be debilitative.
Contributing to success at work, home, in social circles, and increasing your political IQ, hobbies that involve creativity will improve your thinking, allow you to develop "outside the box" solutions, and promote an inventive mind. Creative hobbies additionally aid in decision making, enhance your memory, and even ward off diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s, keeping your brain active and healthy.
Creative expression also improves language skills, math skills, spatial understanding, motor skill development, and cultural understanding. These are benefits often observed with young minds supporting the argument that creative expression should remain in children’s daily routines through education, but as an adult who no longer seeks formal education, creative expression can help grow the capacity of your mind helping you to learn and process new ideas.
In an era where information is often molded, strategically-worded, or even censored, it is more essential than ever that Canadian adults find ways to express themselves through activities like music, art, or writing in order to gain perspective and build tools to process difficult emotions, possess skepticism, and participate in introspective reflection and thoughtfulness. Initiating a hobby with other creative individuals can also introduce you to an environment where you are free to express and communicate any emotions, self-exploration, or ideas in a like-minded and supportive community. Communities are integral to a sense of belonging and provide encouragement to work on your craft.
There are a few ways that I choose to express myself creatively. Playing music with friends gives me an emotional output, helps my development of keeping rhythm, and gives me a sense of belonging with a small group of individuals who have the same passion for playing music and entertaining friends and neighbours. When the stresses of everyday life, general anxiety, or thinking about Canada’s political climate affects my mental health, picking up a guitar and singing some emotional lyrics is meditative to my system.
Keeping busy in the kitchen is a guilt-free hobby that allows me to be creative while performing a household duty that my family enjoys. I believe in healthy eating, cooking from scratch, and going “off script” with recipes so I spend a lot of time in the kitchen cooking and baking and enjoy teaching my kids about the importance of healthy eating and the fun of discovering new flavours. I also do a lot of my research while I am in the kitchen as I listen to news articles and informative videos that contribute to the third way I express my creativity, blog writing.
I don’t think I would be able to effectively do the latter without the former. After I have meditated my mind with music or cooking, I feel more capable of developing critical and individual thought, inspired to do the research required, and have the discipline to form my thoughts into a format that can be educational and entertaining to readers. I also feel like creating music and practicing my culinary skills is a boost to my self-confidence, allowing me to be able to stand up for the opinions I write about in my sometimes-controversial blog articles. I also recommend having more than one creative hobby so that when one starts to feel like a chore, you can take a break and still practice the art of expression.
If Canada is going to wake up to the propaganda being served through mainstream media and social media sources, and participate in discourse in order to change the trajectory of our current path, we are going to need passionate Canadians with the mental capacity to be able to intelligently communicate the issues and contribute to solutions to make this the country we can all be proud of. I encourage all Canadians to produce something creative (art, music, dance, writing, scientific or mathematical creative thought). Get those brain juices flowing, contribute to your own well being, and be strong enough to stand up to the injustices being practiced in our current political system and have the communicative skills accessible to make a well-formed argument and initiate a solution.
Without those vital skills, Canadians will continue to hear sound bites, read headlines, and keep the wool over their eyes. Without Canadians standing up, we will not see real change and before you know it Canada will wonder how it ended up so far from where it began. Look beyond the mainstream sound bites and headlines, because they are relying on Canadians to be too tired, too distracted, too mentally exhausted, too busy, to notice our freedoms being altered and taken away.
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