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The natural healing function of creativity!

Updated: Dec 8, 2020

“Creative power is mightier than its possessor.” Carl Jung highlights the significance of the creative and imaginative processes. In his book, The Development of Personality, he is widely credited for popularizing the notion that the creative and imaginative processes have a natural healing function. Although these processes are typically viewed in a positive light, they have a longstanding history of being linked together with negative emotions and mental health issues. Perhaps due to the numerous creative geniuses of the past and the present who suffer from mental illness. But does creativity actually breed negative emotions and general discontent? Or are creative people generally happier and more satisfied with their lives?

To answer these questions, it is first important to understand the relationship between creativity and the ‘big five personality traits’ (Costa & Mcgrae, 1992). This relationship describes how we think of creativity in terms of our understanding of personality.



The big five personality traits:

· Openness - one’s willingness to try new things as well as engage in imaginative and intellectual activities.

· Extraversion (also often spelled extroversion), - the tendency and intensity to which someone seeks interaction with their environment, particularly socially.

· Neuroticism - overall emotional stability of an individual through how they perceive the world.

· Agreeableness - tendency to be kind, sympathetic, cooperative, and considerate.

· Conscientiousness - tendency to show good impulse control and act dutifully.


The key personality trait that creativity is consistently linked with in the literature is ‘openness’. This suggests that creative people are more likely to be willing to try out new ideas, to explore, and to be curious about one’s inner ideas and the outside world (Feist, 1998). The relationship of creativity with the remaining traits still remains an unclosed discussion. Several research articles have linked creativity with the other traits in the past, but these findings have not been consistent. In recent years, research has uncovered a relationship between creativity and intelligence (Jauk et al., 2013). And returning to our original question, a number of studies support the idea that creativity improves emotional well-being (Forgeard & Elstein, 2014; Lomas, 2016).


A recent paper (Conner, DeYoung & Silvia, 2016) titled “Everyday creative activity as a path to flourishing” demonstrates how doing a creative activity everyday improves well-being and promotes positive psychological functioning. Participants in this study were asked to record their daily creativity in the form of coming up with novel or original ideas; expressing oneself in an original and useful way; or spending time doing artistic activities (art, music, painting, writing, etc.). The researchers measured the participants’ propensity to experience positive or negative feelings and emotions on a daily basis. They also recorded the participants’ ‘daily flourishing’, referring to a state of optimal functioning accompanied by feelings of meaning, engagement, and purpose in life (Ryan & Deci, 2001). The findings of this study suggest that being creative on a daily basis not only improves well-being in young adults but also makes them feel more enthusiastic and experience higher flourishing. These findings have several key implications on the science of well-being.



Firstly, they support the notion that encouraging creative activities could serve as an intervention strategy for improving well-being. Finding ways to encourage everyday creative activities, not just master works of art, could lead directly to increased well-being. Most importantly, researchers may be able to add creativity to the list of interventions that show potential for improving well-being.

We are often reminded of the power of creativity through our work with children. From simple acts like finding shapes in the clouds to more complex ones like engaging in imaginative play, children truly demonstrate the capacity of the creative processes. By using art as an outlet, our techniques harness the creative capabilities of children to freely express themselves and overcome their challenges. Creative and imaginative activities are not only fun and engaging for the children but are also considered to be vital for their emotional, social and intellectual development. By engaging in such activities, we are not only enhancing the child’s well-being, but also our own by making use of our creative abilities.

Given the present times can be particularly damaging to our mental health and emotional well-being, let’s make an active attempt to enhance our well-being by incorporating a creative outlet in our daily lives. Whether it be through art, music or writing, many of us already have a creative outlet through which we can express ourselves. Here at ‘Heart to art by Vriti Bajaj’ we stress the importance of the creative and imaginative processes for precisely these reasons. Our programs involve the process of creating art as a way of discovering yourself and your emotions. This process not only empowers individuals of all age groups to express themselves freely, but also allows them to build resilience and self-esteem to overcome the obstacles in their lives.




Try this Activity

Express yourself creatively Through art, photos, poems, stories!

Think of your Last year

Depict one thing you are grateful for and how this made you feel!

Share this with us!



Top 3 entries to get featured on our social media Top 10 entries get certificates


• Sit comfortably

• Place for body movement

• Set Agreements

See you have the following Materials

• A4 or Drawing book

• Pencils

• Sharpener

• Eraser

• Crayons/

• Colour pencils/

• Paints (optional)

• Paint Brushes(optional


We hope this aided you towards taking the 1st step to tap into your creativity

Unlock your magic with Heart to Art by Vriti Bajaj!

This blog has been Conceptualised by Parth Bhatnagar our youth bloggers and Vriti Bajaj.

Contact us:

Instagram: heart2art.vriti

Facebook: heart2art.vriti


1. Conner, T. S., DeYoung, C. G., & Silvia, P. J. (2018). Everyday creative activity as a path to flourishing. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 13(2), 181–189. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2016.1257049

2. Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). The five-factor model of personality and its relevance to personality disorders. Journal of Personality Disorders, 6(4), 343–359. https://doi.org/10.1521/pedi.1992.6.4.343


3. Feist, G. (1998). A Meta-Analysis of Personality in Scientific and Artistic Creativity. Personality and Social Psychology Review : An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc, 2, 290–309. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr0204_5

4. Forgeard, M. J. C., & Elstein, J. G. (2014). Advancing the clinical science of creativity. Frontiers in Psychology, 5. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00613


5. Jauk, E., Benedek, M., Dunst, B., & Neubauer, A. C. (2013). The relationship between intelligence and creativity: New support for the threshold hypothesis by means of empirical breakpoint detection. Intelligence, 41(4), 212–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2013.03.003


6. Lomas, T. (2016). Positive Art: Artistic Expression and Appreciation as an Exemplary Vehicle for Flourishing. Review of General Psychology, 20(2), 171–182. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000073


7. Ryan, R. M., & Deci, E. L. (2001). On Happiness and Human Potentials: A Review of Research on Hedonic and Eudaimonic Well-Being. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 141–166. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.141

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