It’s no secret that nine months of a world-wide pandemic has changed our lives in many ways. Perhaps, for the first time, we are working from home, limiting our social contact, eating out less or not at all, watching church services on TV, and canceling theater or art outings.
And, in the silence, how have we personally changed? Perhaps some of us have embraced the downtime to rethink our priorities and negotiate what is really important to us. But could it be that we each have a creative gear that we have not used before? Perhaps unaware, during the past few months, have we been building more emotional strength than we realized, gaining resilience that we lacked before being sequestered for most of a year?
Think about the juggling you have had to do since March — figuring out how to work from home, entertain the children, teach them, manage meals, and deal with illness or elderly parents. Or just learned how to fill your days without falling prey to excessive loneliness or depression. So many challenges!
Is it possible to build resilience and internal strength when the world seems to be falling apart around us? Of course it is. Whether you’ve learned to use yoga to soothe your nerves, long walks to replenish your spirits, or chats with friends to bolster your mood, it’s all important self-care. We can create little areas of hope to give us strength and keep us afloat until this time of pandemic has passed.
One thing we can do is use our innate creativity to bolster emotional strength. Creativity stimulates the brain and releases alpha waves and serotonin, which relax us and decrease anxiety. Psychologists know that by expressing ourselves creatively, we can reduce our stress and nurture our souls. When indulging in creative skills, attention is shifted beyond ourselves, lessening loneliness and depression.
Creating resilience helps develop a sense of optimism. Optimists see problems as transient and solvable. Resilience helps put things in perspective and helps find purpose in life, even in scary times. Practicing resilience, the ability to bounce back, helps us overcome adversity, aids in learning from past experience, and develops new coping strategies.
Resilient people are more likely to be innovative and resourceful, skills that carry over for a lifetime. People who are resilient are more often the problem solvers who tend to see a situation in a different light than others, a trait that can be most helpful in time of crisis.
What if a person isn’t naturally resilient? Scientists believe that resilience is a habit that can be learned, nurtured, and developed. By using our creativity to build new habits, we can generate and act upon positive solutions, shifting our perspective to include new possibilities.
This new habit is easily begun by creating artwork, music, needlework, poetry, woodworking, etc. By indulging in hobbies we enjoy, our minds are freed up to relax and open up to new ideas and experimental curiosity. Creative expression frees up our minds to other, life affirming things.
