Creativity is self-care — a little on why

We tend to think creativity is for talented people who can produce something good at the end. But the kind of creativity that actually helps you has little to do with talent, and often leaves you with nothing you feel the need to keep. It’s simply about making something that helps you feel more like yourself — and it’s one of the kindest, most underrated things you can do for your mind.

Studying art therapy helped me put words to something I’d felt for years. When you make marks on a page, you engage a different part of yourself from the one that worries, plans and narrates. For a while, that busy inner voice grows quieter. Your shoulders relax. You’re simply moving colour around, like a child sitting at a table.

Part of what makes creative expression meaningful is that it doesn’t always rely on words. Some feelings are difficult to put into language — you may not be able to think your way through them, but you can begin to explore them through colour, line and shape. That’s the quiet magic of it: sometimes, the materials express what words can’t quite hold.

And it doesn’t have to involve paint. It can be a clumsy drawing, a page nobody will read, dough you knead, or a song you hum off-key. The medium isn’t the point — the permission is. Permission to make something without planning to sell it, post it, or even be good at it.

Here are a few gentle ways to start, if you’d like to try: scribble along to a song and let the colours follow the sound; fill a page with the same shape repeated until you notice your breathing slow; or paint how today felt using only colour, without trying to create a picture. None of these activities requires artistic skill. You might find that each offers a small moment of calm.

That’s really the heart of it. A small, regular act of care that says: this inner life of mine is worth ten minutes and a bit of mess. It won’t fix everything — but it may soften the edges, and some days, that’s more than enough.