When life is busy caring for others, when do you make space to simply create, without needing it to achieve anything?
Working in rural and remote healthcare can mean long days, unpredictable demands and carrying experiences that stay with you long after your shift ends. When so much of our energy goes into caring for others, creativity can be one of the things we put aside.
We can start to think of creativity as something just for people who are “artistic” or have a particular talent. But creativity isn’t just about being artistic or producing something beautiful. Creativity is about curiosity, play, self-expression, exploring what interests us and can invite us to slow down, notice and become absorbed in the moment.
Why creativity matters for our wellbeing
Creative activities can offer a welcome pause from the demands of work and help us reconnect with parts of ourselves that may get overlooked when life is busy.
For some people, creativity provides a way to express emotions or experiences that are difficult to put into words. For others, it offers a sense of achievement, connection or simply the freedom to do something without needing to be productive.
For rural and remote health workers, where work can be demanding, and opportunities to switch off may be limited, finding small ways to reconnect with creativity can be valuable self-care.
You don’t have to be “creative”
Try thinking of creativity as making space to experiment without needing a particular outcome.
You could:
- Draw, colour or doodle without trying to create a picture
- Take a photo of something that catches your attention
- Write a few lines about your day
- Plant, garden or arrange something in a new way
- Put on music and move your body
- Build or make something with your hands
- Experiment with a new recipe
- Collect natural objects and make something from them
- There is no right or wrong way to be creative.
Try it yourself – making space for creativity
Give yourself 10 minutes this week to make something with no expectation that it needs to be useful, beautiful or even kept! The point is the process, not the product.
If you haven’t done anything creative for a while, or you’ve never thought of yourself as a “creative person”, it can feel surprisingly difficult to know where to start.
You could choose one of these ideas and see what you notice.
Draw without thinking
Put pen to paper and let your hand move without deciding what you’re going to draw.
Make lines, circles, shapes, patterns or whatever emerges. You can change direction, press harder or softer, fill the page or leave it mostly empty. When you’re finished, look at the shapes you’ve created. You might leave it as it is, or colour in some of the spaces.
There is no picture to create and nothing to get right.
Notice what happens when you let your hand lead rather than your mind.
Colour how you feel
Choose a few colours that you’re drawn to today.
Instead of trying to make a recognisable picture, use the colours, shapes and marks to represent how you’re feeling right now.
What do you notice in your body as you become absorbed in this activity?
Create from your surroundings
Take a short walk outside and find something that catches your attention – a leaf, a texture, a shape, a colour, a shadow or even the way the light falls across the landscape.
Take a photograph, sketch it, write about it or simply sit and notice it.
What did you notice when you slowed down enough to look?
Make a “no rules” collage
Find some old magazines, newspapers, wrapping paper or other scraps of paper.
Without overthinking it, tear or cut out anything that catches your eye. Arrange the pieces on a page and stick them down. There doesn’t need to be a theme or a finished meaning.
What did you notice you were naturally drawn towards?
There is no “right” way to create
You might love one activity and dislike another. You might make something you really like – or something you never want to look at again.
The goal isn’t to create something good. The goal is to give yourself a few moments where you don’t have to perform, produce or get it right.
Creativity isn’t something you either have or don’t have. It’s something you choose to make space for. Sometimes, that small space can be enough to help us reconnect with ourselves beyond our role as a health worker.
So, what could you make space for this week?
Keep choosing connection – to yourself, to others, to what matters,
SJ Stratton
Senior Psychologist, Mental Health and Wellbeing
