The Importance Of Having A Creative Outlet

In my work as Founder of mental wellbeing charity Retune, we had the strap line ‘Creative Outlets For Mental Wellbeing’. What does this mean exactly? A creative outlet is ‘anything you can lose yourself in’. It’s an activity that we become fully immersed in, forgetting about the world around us and allowing us to reframe our thoughts.

For me, music is a hugely therapeutic activity and creative outlet. But you might prefer writing, drawing, painting, dancing, cooking, baking, gardening or any number of other avenues. Each of these enable us to get a little ‘lost’ in the most fun and productive way. We can fire up the imagination and set distractions aside.

The Creative string is one of the six strings that make up The SCALES Model. Out of all the strings, it is right up there with the most important aspects, allowing us to look after our mental health. Without having a creative outlet, we feel stifled and can be bogged down by our thoughts. Creativity is often overlooked or left out of mental wellbeing models, which is a huge shame as it is a fundamental part of staying well, having a focus and using our energy in a productive way.

As well as music fulfilling my creative streak, I am also a trained writer who has worked as a journalist for more than 15 years. Writing can be incredibly cathartic – you don’t have to do it professionally, you can just keep a log or journal and note down how you are feeling. Once it’s out in the open on the page it can remove it from your brain and free up valuable space. You can also look back over it in the future and see how far you’ve come.

It might be that you are able to harness your creativity in your work, though some people are not so lucky and may have to prioritise bringing money in to pay the bills. But if you can’t unlock your creativity professionally, be sure to do so in your spare time as a hobby.

Make it your mission to use your creativity, inspire the imagination and engage with activities where you can lose yourself for a while and be fully present and immersed in what you are doing.