When you imagine starting any kind of creative project, does a little voice pipe up in your head that says something like: “I'm not artistic,” or “What if it looks terrible?,” or “I wouldn't even know where to start” or “But I won’t finish it”?
If so, you're in very good company! But also, according to Dr Emily Musgrove, that voice is the single biggest thing stopping us from experiencing the wide-reaching benefits of creativity.
When we’re unable to let go of that “unrelenting standard, perfectionistic mindset”, Dr Em says, we lose all of the “great gifts” that come in the process.
The win is in the process… not the finished product. This is something intrinsic to kids, but somewhere along the way, us adults lost our connection to the playfulness of doing the thing. We started needing a result to justify the time.
Clinically, taking action to engage with the task is where the benefit is. Dr Em explained it's the concept of “behavioural activation”.
“In therapy we will do lots of different processes, but one of those, which is really evidence-based, is what's called behavioural activation.”
“That is engaging in a behaviour that is really going to shift your mood, and part of that is absolutely engaging in hobbies and creativity.”
It comes back to the sense of generativity and mastery we talked about last week.
“In a state of depression, for example, or anxiety, we're kind of sitting in this state here often of helplessness. When we shift our attention to creating something we start to move, even just slightly, shifting the needle from helplessness into a feeling of agency and I think that's incredibly powerful.”
So if the voice tells you you're not good enough to bother, you have my full permission (and Dr Em's!) to thank it for its input and start anyway.