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It was raining this morning, but I went out first thing anyway. In the woods it was just me, the dog-walkers, my pen and a notebook.  Despite the rain, I felt my spirits lift a little:

walking through the wet wood

I notice how water runs slowly,

mushrooms blossom sideways,

my heart lifts lightly

and anything is possible

under cover of the rain

After a long, hot Summer it can be hard to get motivated to go outside as the colder weather sets in, but spending time outdoors is good for you, whatever the weather.  Often the first benefit to spring to mind is exercise and there definitely are positive physical health outcomes from getting out into the world and getting moving.  But there are mental health benefits too. A gentle, mindful walk might be all we need to clear our heads and get some perspective.

There is plenty of evidence that contact with nature and the outdoors improves our mental wellbeing. (If you’re interested, there’s a report by Natural England here into the benefits of nature based interventions for mental health). Best of all its free! So why not take a walk in the woods today, even if it’s raining just pop your raincoat on and head outside for half an hour of  relaxation and self-care. You might be surprised how good it makes you feel. If, like me, you find writing helpful, take a pen and a notebook with you and see where the sights, smells and feeling of the wild might take you.

 

 

 

 

I’ve been thinking about creativity a lot lately, what it means, and what it really means to live a creative life.  Put simply: to be creative is to create something.

I believe that being creative is central to the human experience. We are all creative, we just don’t always recognise this in ourselves. We create things everyday – meals, solutions, works of art – things that are sublime and things that are mundane. I believe creativity is an inherent potentiality in each of us, something to nurture and not crush. We need to treat it sensitively and honour all the products of our creative endeavours, acknowledging their place in our lives. Recently I wrote about the art of doodling and how this simple act of creation helps me to relax.  Doodling is not high art but it is an act of creativity and it is one that keeps me feeling grounded when I am becoming tense about everything I’ve got going on in my life.

Another avenue I find really helpful personally is writing in my journal, whether that is half an hour blurting on to the page everything that is running through my busy mind, or writing a poem or story, grasping to understand an idea or a feeling I’m finding it difficult to deal with.

When I had a number of friends and family die over a short period of time I found myself increasingly writing about grief and loss.  I did this mainly through poetry, in an unconscious way, these ideas just slipped in to my writing.  Reading back my poems afterwards, I saw that the feelings I had found so difficult to talk about in conversation with others, were easily expressed in the safety and privacy of my journal pages. It was really helpful to have this outlet as I struggled to both grieve and live my everyday life at the same time.

As someone who believes in the power of Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP), I believe that working with the creative self in this way is as much about working with people who don’t necessarily think of themselves that way, helping them to make a link with their already creative self, and become more flexible and open to options in the process.

I believe that if we can tap into it, our creativity can help us heal and live a fuller life. There is definitely evidence that writing can help us to achieve both physical and mental health – that is the well-being of the whole person, body and mind. I have been particularly fascinated by Pennebaker’s writing experiments in Opening Up (1990) and found his personal journey exploring scientifically the therapeutic benefits an extremely engaging read. Through these experiments, he and his co-researchers found there was a relationship between writing and health.

Reference List

 

Pennebaker, J. (1990) Opening Up. New York: The Guildford Press

Rogers, C. (1961/1967) On Becoming A Person. London: Constable

This is my new website for my new business, its the beginning of something new, and it feels exactly like I’m balancing on the edge of a precipice.  Maybe that is a precipice overlooking somewhere beautiful, maybe I have been building towards this for a long time, but it still feels scary-exciting.

So bear with me while I build my website. Things might look kind of funny on here for a while. I’ve been training as a counsellor, not a website designer!