The Most Underrated, Fun Way to Build Emotional Resilience

It beats all the others, hands down.

So you want to be more resilient.

Fair aim. Everyone does. Especially now, when a stubborn pandemic has smashed us with a reminder that life is about living alongside uncertainty.

It always was, but the pandemic’s arrival gave it a 21st Century spin. It made it up-in-your-grill real.

A lot of my work as a psychologist involves helping people to build resilience. With tools, yes. But also through identifying and tapping their own internal resources.

Trouble is, you have to be careful how you talk about resilience — especially with young people. Get it wrong, and you’ll get the OMG-how-boring eye roll.

So here’s a way of building resilience that works. Because it’s fun.

Creativity: It Doesn’t Matter if You Can’t Draw

Creativity is often over-looked as a means of building resilience.

That’s because many people still believe that creativity refers to your ability with a pencil or paintbrush. But it’s so much more than that — well used, it’s a way of life.

Many studies on resilient people identify creativity as an key trait; it can unlock inner resources for dealing with stress, solving problems, and enjoying life. When we tap into our creative sides, we are resourceful; we can look at, and solve, problems in new and original ways.

One of creativity’s key benefits is that it gets us out of our heads and into our bodies; it puts anxiety up on a shelf so we can get on with other things.

But creativity needs to be encouraged out of its cave and developed. For some that comes naturally. For others, it’s a stretch. If that’s you, here are some ways to help.

5 Ways to Use Creativity to Build Resilience

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

1. Know you are creative.

Over the years I’ve had so many clients tell me they were “not creative”. Often that’s because they’re carrying art scars from childhood, been dismissed or embarrassed in their youthful attempts to make things.

I say, can you appreciate beauty? Do you like looking, listening, smelling, touching, tasting anything? Does anything in the world interest you? (Everyone says yes). Point made. If you can appreciate the world around you, you are creative. Reframe yourself as a creative person. The world will be the same but you will start to see it differently.

2. Collect stuff.

Do you collect anything? Scrapbooks. Coins. Salt and pepper shakers. Motorbike parts. Trading cards. Toys. Comics. Star Wars figurines. Anything. Collections are cool because they provide a springboard for creative thinking. And creative thinking encourages positive emotion. So if you’re a collector, keep collecting. If you’re not, start collecting ideas, leaves, crystals, interesting rocks, quotes, colour swatches, Pinterest boards. Collections help you to make connections in new and interesting ways.

3. Make bad art.

Had a client once who was a fantastic painter. She loved it too, it made her feel calm and happy. But she didn’t paint because she couldn’t work out how she could turn it into a business. Her creativity had to have an end game. It had to be good enough to make money. Her framing of creativity blocked her and robbed her of the pleasure of painting.

Don’t do that. Make bad, ugly art that the world has absolutely no use for. It frees you from perfectionism’s clutches and lowers your expectations. The process gives you time and space to reflect which is incredibly important in an uncertain world. It’s also fun which, right now, is a precious resource.

4. Ask more questions.

One of my daughters once woke her dad in the middle of the night to ask him: “dad, how big’s a salmon?” If you’ve ever spent time with a curious little kid, you’ll have been there. You’ll know how many random questions they ask because life, from that perspective, is full of wonder.

Adults curtail their wonder. Mostly because the great laundry-load of life gets in the way. Wherever you are, whoever you’re with, ask more questions. It helps to fill up your personal tank — especially when it’s feeling dry.

5. Weird forms of journaling.

Everyone knows about the value of journaling. But it doesn’t have to be words. It can be drawings or cut-outs or lists or comics. Just a way of trapping ideas.

Carry an Ideas Notebook. Or do it on your phone. Write down scraps of weird stuff that you come across. Or bits of conversations. Or problems. Or ideas for novels you’ll never write. Or anything. It keeps your brain alive. It’s said that Inventor Thomas Edison left 3,500 notebooks behind when he died. That’s a lot of notebooks to get a lightbulb going. But filling those notebooks with ideas, mistakes and thoughts helped keep him going, gave him hope.

If You’re Struggling Right Now…

Remember, creativity is an underrated way of building resilience — and the coolest thing is you can do it through your everyday actions. You can build it into your way of life. Why wouldn’t you take advantage of that?

“Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” — Bruce Garrabrandt

Thanks for reading! Come join my email list here if you’d like a regular dose of practical psychology for everyday life.