“When I saw and realized that all this was a creation of my own hands, my whole nature began to change.” Booker T. Washington, Educator and Reformer. Your hands are excellent tools for creative self-empowerment and finding your uniqueness. You can create with your hands using them in meaningful ways, from planting flowers, to drawing, to making to cleaning, relieves anxiety. The discovery of your creativity with using your hands will help you take your imagination outside the mind, through the body, and into the world. When we turn abstract thought into concrete action, we feel a sense of accomplishment. Most often we use crutches like caffeine to get us through stressful situations. This can, however, lead to further stress with elevated levels of artificial stimulation. There are some simple things that we can do with just our hands to center ourselves and move on with our days. One trick I have found useful is to use a symbolic, ritualistic gesture of the hands often used in yoga. It is called Prithivi mudra, and is done by simply touching the tip of the ring (fourth) finger with the tip of the thumb. – helping you to feel more grounded and established in yourself. This mudra can also help you to free yourself from irrational thoughts and fears. (Smith, 2021)
Our brains are constantly used to depend on the dominant hand for most of the jobs. When you start using your other hand, different parts of your brain will start “working out”. This makes you a much more complex “ruler” of your physical and mental abilities. (Lovecroft, 2018) Using your hands in meaningful ways, from crafting to carpentry to cleaning, relieves anxiety. In order to be thought meaningful, the activity you are using your hands for needs to be both something you enjoy and something that has purpose. It can also be something that is linked to someone you care about. As long as it involves concentration, involves free thought, it has meaning as it nurtures your family or others, improves your surroundings or makes you feel calm through the creation of order. (Barron, 2012) References
Barron, C. (2012, May). How can You Cuiltivate a Creative Self? Retrieved from Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/document/90165080/How-Can-You-Cultivate-a-Creative-Self-The-Five-Part-Prescription-from-THE-CREATIVITY-CURE Lovecroft, T. (2018, August 28). Improve Your Creative Skills With These 5 Activities. Retrieved from Awaken the Greatness Within: https://www.awakenthegreatnesswithin.com/improve-your-creative-skills-with-these-5-activities/ Pullman, A. (2017, July). A Cool and Relaxed Life. Retrieved from Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Relaxed-LIFE-Audrey-Pullman/dp/1647490766/ Smith, K. (2021). 8 Simple Tricks & Tools for SElf-Empowerment. Retrieved from doyou.com: https://www.doyou.com/8-simple-tricks-and-tools-for-self-empowerment/
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Movement is the physical expression of words and feelings. Some feelings are hard to verbalize. Some thoughts we don’t want to say out loud. So, what do we do with them? Movement is self-expression where we transfer our inner energy outward as a form of communication, creativity, and freedom. Creative movement is a form of dance that uses rhythmic, patterned, or improvised body movement, and it's one of the oldest art forms found in every culture around the world. Dance is often accompanied by music, but it's also a form of nonverbal communication and self-expression because when people feel free to move their bodies without judgment, you often get a glimpse of their innermost thoughts and feelings. Dance and creative movement can benefit people of all ages, but there has recently been a surge in teaching children the benefits of this art form. It's believed that dance helps people:
Mind Rest is required to obtain a higher level of thinking. Mind rest is a time to relax your brain. I have listed several modalities throughout this book on letting go of the stressors for mental health well-being. (Pullman A. , A Cool and Relaxed Life, 2017) Studies have shown that rest periods are key for the brain to synthesize ad connect pieces of information. Stuffing your mind can snuff out your mind. Letting it float is good for your physiology and your mental health as well as your cognitive prowess. (Pullman A. , A Cool and Relaxed Life, 2017) Two tips for successfully practicing not-thinking 1. Don’t let thoughts “stick.” As you’re practicing not-thinking, an unpleasant thought might arise. Thoughts—particularly unpleasant ones—tend to stick like glue. More often than not, this leads you to spin the thought out into elaborate and stressful stories about the past or the future—stories that have little or no basis in fact. 2. Let go of opinions and judgments. It’s easier to practice not-thinking if you put aside opinions and judgments. Doing this also brings welcome relief from constantly passing judgment on everything around you. Most of us immediately form opinions about our environment (too hot, too cold) and about people (too talkative, too quiet). Listening to this running commentary is stressful and exhausting. (Bernhard, 2015) Mind Shift is a shift is a state of mind. This creates a positive means to attract good things to you recognizing and developing your strengths that will allow you to create a true, real, and lasting psychological makeup. (Pullman A. , A Cool and Relaxed Life, 2017) The pursuit of predictability and certainty causes us to lose our way. In assuring proper and predictable outcomes, we seek to avoid “mistakes.” We respond with excessive worrying, at the cost of wonder, awe, and imagination—all essential to a balanced and harmonious life. The loss of so much of what it means to be human creates an existential crisis from which anxiety surfaces. People inclined toward anxiety lose themselves to the measuring tendency of their thoughts, all the while separating themselves from a coherent flow of life. The compulsion to compare and measure—so prevalent in the competitive, individualistic culture in which we live—exacerbates estrangement from others, further imprisoning those with anxiety in their own compulsive thoughts and leading to despair. (Schwartz, 2020) References
Bernhard, T. (2015, May 18). Give Your Mind a Rest: Practice Not-Thinking. Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/turning-straw-gold/201505/give-your-mind-rest-practice-not-thinking Haak, D. (2016, June 28). Creative Movement as a Form of Expression. Retrieved from Study.com: https://study.com/academy/lesson/creative-movement-as-a-form-of-expression.html Pullman, A. (2017, July). A Cool and Relaxed Life. Retrieved from Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/Cool-Relaxed-LIFE-Audrey-Pullman/dp/1647490766/ Schwartz, M. (2020, December 23). Rethinking Anxiety. Retrieved from Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/shift-mind/202012/rethinking-anxiety |
AuthorI am a Performance Enhancement Specialist with a background in Emergency Psychiatric Medicine and Community Addiction. Archives
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