Creativity is a weird thing. On the one hand, it’s critical to our survival as a species. Without creativity, we may still be living in caves or grunting at each other from behind bushes. Human ingenuity has led us through some pretty dark times and pushed us toward new frontiers.
And on the other hand, creativity can make us pretty miserable sometimes too. There are many reasons for this — some scientific, others more cultural. We may feel guilty for using our creative talents selfishly or worry that life won’t live up to our artistic expectations. And then there are those painful moments of self-doubt when all you want is to just stop being creative forever…
But these downsides are also part of the deal. So if the good outweighs the bad… why are we so darn creative? And can creativity actually make us happier?
1. Creativity Helps Us See The World In A Different Way
Creativity helps us to find new perspectives, both on the world around us and ourselves. This is especially important in today’s society, which can make it easy for us to become stuck within our social groups. Creativity helps break down social boundaries, giving us alternative ways of viewing the people we meet.
Creativity also makes us more self-aware. By understanding the limits of our creativity, we can learn more about what motivates and interests us — and this, in turn, helps us to understand ourselves better.
2. Creativity Is A Catalyst For Happiness
By definition, creativity makes something that wasn’t there before. So when you generate ideas or products that are useful to others, that’s incredibly empowering. It tells us, “Hey! I made this! And I know it might not look like much… but it means something! To me anyway. And maybe you too?”
So there’s a greater feeling of personal empowerment when you get creative. You can take ideas, form them into something tangible, and put them out there for the world to see. Creative people are makers in this sense — they want to leave their mark on the world. And that gives us all a greater sense of happiness and purpose in life.
3. Creativity Lets Us Say ‘Yes’ To The World
Creativity lets us go deeper with our experiences in terms of how we think about the world. We use creativity when we reflect upon our experiences, especially when these moments are positive or exciting. This means that creativity might be one way of increasing our happiness levels by encouraging us to say ‘yes’ more often, rather than automatically saying ‘no’, as we do from time to time. This is a controversial theory in happiness science. Some psychologists argue that we can only be happy when we’re in a state of ‘flow’ , which is often associated with increased creativity. But this doesn’t always ring true to my own life experience. Maybe this is because creative people are happier naturally — or perhaps it has more to do with the way we approach those experiences.
4. Creativity Brings Our Dreams To Life
Creativity helps us to see that our dreams are possible. Time and again, research has shown us that creative people have a greater sense of optimism about their future, which makes them more likely to find happiness at the moment. With the help of Photo Vibrance, you can unleash your creativity and create mesmerizing animation pictures. But this is not necessarily a function of the product itself — it may be because creativity represents a “leap of faith” into a new world. A world where anything might happen! Perhaps happiness isn’t quite the right word here, but you get what I mean…
5. Creativity Sparks Euphoria In The Brain
When people hear the word ‘creative’, it’s easy to think of the happy-go-lucky type who bounces around at the fringes of society. But this is misleading. Creativity can actually be linked with some pretty ‘heavy’ psychological states, including mania, and more rarely, psychosis. And on a neurochemical level, creativity may also be associated with feelings of euphoria in the brain. This explains why we experience a ‘rush’ when we do something creative. And this, in turn, can increase our happiness levels too…
Conclusion
So, where does this leave us? If creativity makes us unhappy sometimes… then why do it? It turns out that there are many ways to increase your levels of happiness — some are bizarre, others are sensible. But thankfully, for those of us who crave an artistic life, being creative seems to have a role to play here too. Perhaps it’s not surprising that a life of happiness and creativity would make us happier people.