Che anxiety Both – species of these times – a widespread problem, is certainly not new. However, what perhaps we still tend to underestimate is what, in the daily attempt to get rid of it, we risk instead of feed it. Ending up in an increasingly difficult to manage vicious circle.
To deal with the theme in a recent interview with the CNN was Martha Beck, Note Life Coach and American sociologist of Harvardtoday author of the book “Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose“. Expert for years of self-help, Beck says he spent a lot of time a study and investigate the phenomenon of anxiety of which she herself was often a victim, reaching possible antidotes.
Anxiety and negative thought
Anxiety has its roots in the so -called ‘Bias of negativity’ – explains the expert – one cognitive distortionso that we tend to pay more attention to negative aspects than positive ones. An ancestral mechanism which, if in an evolutionary perspective, has allowed our ancestors of protect yourself from dangers and of stay safeIn modern life it can lead to an implacable state of anxiety. Especially since i dangers on which we aim today our attention, in most cases, do not represent a real threat but are imaginary fears. Anxious thoughts, in fact, to which our brain responds, however, as if the danger was real. Giving life to one scheme learned from which it is essential to free yourself.
Anxiety and creativity: a relationship to be known
So how to get out of this spiral? The solution could be simpler than we believe. According to the American author, a neurological levelexists An interesting relationship between anxiety and creativity. The two circuits would be mirror and linked by a sort of activation/deactivation effectsuch that, when one is in operation, the other seems to be turned off. In fact, it is known that when you are in anxiety, creative thinking tends to fail. The American life coach thus hypothesized that the opposite could also be true and, studying the phenomenon, in particular Referring to the studies of neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylordiscovered to be just like that: when the field the field creativityof competence of theRight brain hemisphereanxiety, generated by the mechanisms proper to the left hemisphereanalytical and rational, would tend to subside.
How to exploit creativity to get out of anxiety
The good news? It is not necessary to have particular artistic talents: the creativity is in fact a resource to which we can resort, in everyday life, also through very simple actions, How to prepare a sandwich or organize a dinner for friends. When you are worried about something – suggests Martha Beck – instead of rationally thinking, ‘What should I do? ‘it is important to try Leave room for curiosity and ask yourself ‘What could I do right now? ‘ Thus discovering that focus on a creative activity, whatever it is, even simply arrange the furniture in the house in a different way, It is really an effective way to silence anxiety.
The beneficial effects of creative activity
We can therefore really consider the creativity A powerful antidote to our anxious states?
“Certainly yes – confirms the psychotherapist Maria Beatrice Toro. – The creative ones are in fact activities that absorb our attention very much, making us enter precisely a state of flowa recollection of our consciousness capable of turn off the thought on the future which is then what generates anxiety. In essence, Creative activity promotes entry into the flowa state of flow in which the mind collects e it becomes present to what you are doing».
Anti-anxiety strategies to try
For the sociologist Martha Beck, there is no need to have any artistic talent, since Even simple activities They can help to cultivate creativity in everyday life.
“They are enough really little things – also confirms the psychotherapist Maria Beatrice Toro. – For example, fix a bouquet of flowers or carefully prepare the table for your breakfast, By choosing a placematic place and a cup different from the usual. Small actions to be carried out though free and not conditioned. Often in fact we have the tendency to take refuge in rituals who give us security but that effectively turn off the creative activity And they make us perform the same actions automatically. Creativity is cultivated instead by choosing to use thought you will divergethat is to say choosing to do something different from the usual way».
The power of a hobby
And if you can find a preferential channel to express your creativity, even better. That it is paint, dedicate yourself to gardening or knittedit doesn’t matter. The important thing is to do it. «It can simply be a pastime like that of making necklaces, choosing the stones to be used and experimenting with different combinations – explains the psychotherapist – all activities that allow to enter that state of flow and recollection which is very powerful and that offers one source of tranquility and well -being that we always have available But that we often tend to suffocate ». However, the important thing is do not focus too much on the result. «The beautiful thing about creativity is that it has a value in itself – continues the psychotherapist Maria Beatrice Toro. – In short, the process is more important than the product. If we focus Too on the outcome of what we are doing in fact we risk enter a performance mode Which certainly does not help to drive out anxiety, on the contrary. True creativity allows us to be in the process without that focus on the objective Which is often the mother of all our anxieties ».
Creativity and problem solving
But creative thinking has another power that we often tend to underestimate. We live in a society that assumes that anxiety and obsession with control, In an attempt to count, analyze, measure and label everything, help solve problems – explains Martha Beck again. – Actually, Good solutions never come from anxiety or panic. They come from curiosity, from calm and, in fact, from creativity.
Creative break: the exercise to try
«To understand it, just do a test – suggests Maria Beatrice Toro. – When we fix ourselves on a problem that we cannot solve e We realize that our thoughts have become a continuous broodlet’s try to stop and dedicate ourselves even a quarter of an hour to something creative. Which can be even just Find a new arrangement to the paintings on the wall. Without obsession. In short, we leave room for creativity and then we return to our problem: we will certainly see that that Creative break was helpful. Enter that flow phase, often accompanied also by a moment of contemplation of beauty, nourishes us. And it is From that nourishment that new ideas and new solutions are born».
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