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The mindful canvas: unlocking your creative mind with art

10.05.2023

You may not often think of your mind as a source of creativity, strength, and potential. But the mind has been described as a wondrous canvas with no boundaries apart from our own imagination.

Would you like some inspiration to mindfully engage with your inner canvas and create things that inspire and delight you? We’ve put together a couple of enjoyable, easy activities to help you tap into your creative mind and explore the possibilities.

But first, we’ll look at some of the benefits of being creative, and how you can access your wonderful creative brain.

The benefits of being creative

Research has shown that engaging in creative activities can improve your sense of wellbeing. Including activities that involve creative expression in your schedule can help you to¹:

access your unconscious self to understand how it influences your thoughts and actions
access both ‘left’ and ‘right’ brain functions to activate both logical and creative thinking styles for greater capacity to problem solve
explore and see things differently, gaining perspective and new answers
get thoughts out of your head, making it safer to explore difficult issues and helping to reduce rumination
allow for the unexpected and insightful, promoting learning and growth
reflect on what you create to find meaning in what you do.

Accessing your creativity

Our mind has the capacity to engage in many different ways of thinking, including analytical, critical, divergent and creative modes. Many people typically only use the analytical or critical modes of thinking, thereby disconnecting from more divergent and creative thinking styles. And if you don’t access your creative brain, it can limit your ability to learn, see connections and solve problems – and thus limit your potential¹.

Of course, you want to retain your analytical thinking – but you also want to access modes that can increase your wellbeing. The divergent and creative modes are not exact, but abstract and contrasting. They’re a bit like playful children. We need to inhibit the critical brain to allow for thinking styles that include error and playfulness.

Creativity invites in and honours abstract ideas, not certainty, and questions “what if?” These are essential states of being to create anything new.

When you’re in creative-brain mode, you can consider alternative perspectives, see new possibilities, and let the mind travel down new pathways to find new solutions.

Ideally, we want to have all brain modes working optimally so we can switch between them at appropriate times.

Now, let’s look at some activities you can try to access your creative brain.

Art exercises to tap into your creativity

Squiggle drawing

squiggle1

For this exercise, you’ll need a piece of paper and something to draw with. Start by playfully putting a squiggle on your page. It can be any shape – swirl, line, elaborate or simple. Just allow yourself to express freely.

squiggle2

Next, it’s time to turn that scribble into an image of you. It can be abstract, realistic, or symbolic. You can continue just making shapes, or you can do a face, or you can draw a symbol you think represents you. It doesn’t matter; just make sure you have fun with it.

wings of resilience

Now, add your ‘wings of resilience’. You can add wings to your drawing of self or create a new symbolic picture. Your wings can be any shape you like. Include flowers, words of strength, goals, dreams, or anything that inspires you. You might like to fill in shapes with lines, swirls, or zentangles.

The point is to tap into your values, strengths and potential. Make it uplifting, so your wings lift you to greater heights.

Mask drawing

For this activity, start by choosing a number between one and 15. By choosing a number without knowing what it means, you’re accessing your unconscious mind in this activity.

Before we explore what your number means, consider the following. We wear masks every day. As partners, peers, managers, parents, and friends, we sometimes need to put on a brave face to get through difficult things.

Sometimes we adopt a mask we don’t like because we feel pressured to act in certain ways.

We can wear masks that help us – or hinder us. You can mask your true self or use a mask to help you become more authentic to your values.

Now, you’re going to consciously create a mask that will build on your strengths.

animals

The mask you’re creating today is a symbolic animal. As you do the exercise, think about your own strengths and how you can build upon them.

Start by matching your chosen number with the animal mask you’ll claim today. Make sure you look at the strengths that go with it. Now, claim this symbolic power and make it yours.
Next, draw this animal however you want to. You can draw a circle and add ears. You can use words. You might like to decorate your animal with lines, flowers, cars, swirls, or whatever shapes you prefer. You can fill it in with zentangles.
You can interpret the strengths any way you like. You can even change animals or make up your own symbolic animal and meaning if you prefer. This is all about creating a mask that allows you to think about your gifts (and share them with others if you choose).

Take your animal symbol with you today and use it as a source of strength and fun.

Strengths-based art

These activities are both examples of strengths-based art – a type of art that connects you to your positive inner resources, and especially your signature strengths (Flynn, 2023).

Signature strengths are things like curiosity, love of learning, social intelligence, teamwork and more. You can find out your signature strengths by doing the quiz on the VIA strengths website. Signature strengths are also about what you value most.

Artmaking is strengths-based because it harnesses the power of creativity to:

reduce stress
increase wellbeing
help you access inner wisdom and discover hidden resources that inspire and energise you.

Connecting to your creative mind helps highlight your strengths, provide purpose and meaning, and allow you to experience flow, mastery and positive emotions. Thus, using your creative mind promotes a sense of accomplishment. What’s not to love about that?

All information contained in this article is intended for general information purposes only. The information provided should not be relied upon as medical advice and does not supersede or replace a consultation with a suitably qualified healthcare professional.