Be Creative to Enhance Creativity!

A new research from the Department of Psychology, University of Otago, New Zealand suggests that involving in creative activities may cause an increased sense of wellbeing and creativity in young adults. This conclusion was the result of studying 658 university students over a period of 13 days.
This chapter considers creativity and its relationship to child well-being in educational contexts. It sees health and well-being as universal values and considers the role of creativity in working towards children’s fundamental right to health. The chapter confines itself to the ways schools can impact upon the psychological and social well-being of children 3 to 18 years. Whist emphasizing that creativity is found in all domains, it uses examples from the arts to illustrate creative projects, approaches, and relationships aimed at generating improvements in child well-being. Healthy child development and its assessment is discussed using cross-cultural and international perspectives.
These students were asked to record their experiences and emotional states in a dairy during this period. The research team under the leadership of Dr. Tamlin Conner analyzed their diaries. They identified that the participants felt more enthusiastic and flourishing (increasing positive growth) than normal on the days after they were more creative.
Although this particular study did not record the specific nature of the creative activities in which the participants involved in, an earlier research did. It identified that the most creative activities reported were graphic and digital designing, sketching and drawing, painting, making new recipes, musical performance, knitting and crochet, creative writing, and song writing.
Positive feelings such as enthusiasm, excitement, joy, happiness, and pleasurable engagement were reported. Dr. Corner and team concluded saying "Overall, these findings support the emerging emphasis on everyday creativity as a means of cultivating positive psychological functioning."

By: Saksham Gupta
Content: https://oxfordmedicine.com/view/10.1093/med/9780199688074.001.0001/med-9780199688074-chapter-25