The Important Relationship Between Creativity and Mental Health

In an attempt to encourage talking about Mental Health, creativity is being used as it always has done, as an outlook to express feelings, coming from those who are directly suffering from Mental Health Issues. With so many different techniques available: painting, drawing and writing, we are not short of ways of doing it. Whether being creative intends to raise awareness or is merely just used as an express of relief, it’s important to realise how much creativity is playing a part in making those who may sometimes feel so at lost with themselves, more in control.

I came across Ruby Elliot on World Mental Health Day in an interview with Rethink Mental Health. Elliot is an example where drawing has helped her express how she is feeling and has made for an easier way of demonstrating to people how she was struggling instead of verbally coming out with it. These days we struggle enough to verbally socialise due to technology, but now more than ever we need to be verbal, however, sometimes this isn’t possible due to feeling uncomfortable, so instead we can use alternative ways as Ruby Elliot shows: ” It can be hard enough trying to understand and convince yourself that what you’re going through is real and valid, let alone tell someone else.” Elliot focuses on drawing cartoons as her way of portraying her feelings, although they can be seen as funny, there’s a darker meaning hidden behind the laughter.

You can now get Elliot’s comic book It’s All Absolutely Fine: Life is complicated, so I’ve drawn it instead  on Amazon.

In a different outlook, Panteha Abareshi started creating illustrations when her Mental Health took a decline to look at the complexity of issues in society that can trigger depression and anxiety, rather than inherently her own feelings of Mental Health. Yet again it’s used as a form of expression that helps to translate her nightmares of being a young woman into visual realities for those on the outside. Her work may be dark but it doesn’t conceal anything, the illustrations speak for themselves meaning Abareshi doesn’t have to.

“Hurt me badly” (How do you explain craving physical pain to snuff out the chaos that comes with mental illness?)

mental illness colour swatches

Click on the image to enlarge them.

As artist’s Abareshi and Elliot are pushing the boundaries of not talking about mental health by my making it physically impossible not to see it right in front of you. For some of us it’s easy to shrug off words and change topic when you don’t fully understand what is being expressed, but with drawing and painting you can look at it ten times over just to make sure you understood. Those who talk openly about their mental illnesses should never be confined to fearing that people think they are wanting unneeded attention, instead they should be hailed for their bravery in creating pieces that help others who are less likely to express how they are feeling, as well as helping themselves get through their issues.

London has recently opened an Art Gallery of paintings done only by Mental Health patients, although the concept and idea breaks a lot of rules and can be frowned upon by others who don’t understand its objective, it ultimately aims to exclude being ashamed of mental illness. Talking to DAZED, Ben Wakeling an Art-Therapist and one of the creators of  the Outsider Gallery comments on the creative process of the pieces that can be seen in the Gallery: “They’re not calculated like other art movements, they didn’t understand what they were doing and you can’t (say), “I really want to put the work into an exhibition” because they’ll just be talking at you about King Charles and being his best friend. They’re in their own story and it’s constant. And some of those outcomes, whether it’s music or art-related, visual marks, are so beautiful and I really wanted to start framing the work, hanging it up and telling my mates. The more I got involved in the arts, the more distant I became from art movements. I didn’t realise at the time but there isn’t a mental health gallery in London or a dedicated space for mental health.” take a look at the whole interview on DAZED to see their exclusive view of mental health therapy.

Outsider Gallery

In addition, a mental health magazine named ANXY, hopes to be released in 2017 with the aim of promoting personal narratives through the use of illustrations and photography. “The biggest takeaway that we want readers to have is this sense of connection,” Rojas said, ANXY’s founder and creator, talking to Huffington Post: “This can be a shared experience, but the main challenge is that people rarely talk about it. The magazine will hopefully give those with mental health issues a greater feeling of community.” The magazine will give a different way of reading about Mental Health in comparison to scientific magazines, who may discuss the subject, but using a creative magazine will hopefully make the subject more readable and visual for the readers, therefore, more understandable.

The importance of all these outlets is that they encourage others to seek the help if they need it, through showing that mental health is everywhere, and it affects everyone in one way or another, be that directly or indirectly. As well, even more importantly they create platforms in which people who don’t quite understand Mental Health can learn and better educate themselves to become more comfortable in talking about it.

 

 

Mental Health Awareness: “I’m sorry that you did this alone”

I don’t share much of my personal life, I’m a keep it to myself and deal with it myself kind of person, that’s how I’ve always been. Life goes on and problems pass, as people our way of dealing with things vary differently. But on World Suicide Prevention Day I decided to share my Grandad’s suicide, to remove a stigma which myself and people around me have been holding onto.

Here, through an open letter to my Grandad I share with you how I felt 4 days after it happened and still do now:

“Dear Grandad,

I’m sorry:

That you felt this way,

That you felt this was the only way out,

That there was no help.

 

I can’t grasp or understand your pain,

All I understand is how I feel now you’re gone.

I’m not angry at what you’ve done.

I’m full of sorrow: that your pain is the cause of this misery.

Not a physical pain,

Not a physical illness;

But one that has suffocated and swallowed your mind and taken you away from us.

 

I’m sorry that you did this alone, that you ever felt alone in the beginning.

I’m sorry that you did not realise how much you are loved,

that not even the infinite love we all feel for you could have changed your mind.

I’m sorry life ever led you to this,

That it did not fulfil your wishes,

That your body and mind failed to show you how beautiful the world is.

I just hope that in those moments of control you were happy. That you truly believed this was the only way.

 

I will look after Nan, we all will.

I will do anything for her, as I would have done for you too.

Thank you:

for making Nan so happy,

for showing her the world,

for taking her dancing,

for giving her two beautiful children and for asking her out.

Thank you for coming to see my plays, for listening to my brother’s music, for showing my eldest brother the way, and for encouraging the youngest’s thirst for knowledge.

I always thought I’d be angry, that I’d brand it “selfish”; but I’m not angry and I know it isn’t selfish. You were feeling something I can’t ever comprehend, something I’ve never experienced. I can’t try to figure out how I could have noticed, how I could have saved you in some way, how I could have made you stay one more day. I have to accept that you chose that day, all in order to take the pain away. At 72 you’ve held on for so long, for us, for Nan, for your family, I know that. When life began to fall into place that moment was yours to take, to know that we’d have each other when you weren’t there.

I will never be able to not relive the phone call, to not have moments where my heart breaks over and over again, where all I can do is cry, but I can begin to come to terms with it. To write down things that make it better, to find some sort of peace in knowing that in that moment you were happy with how things were. But please don’t ever think that I wouldn’t give anything to show you just how wonderful life is, ten times over.

I’ll love you forever.”

 

I never thought I’d ever be experiencing such heartache and sadness, and no one ever does. People refrain from talking about mental illness and depression in hope that it doesn’t happen to them or somebody that they love. Yet that somebody around them could be struggling to find rejoice in a world that offers them so much. It’s important to realise that’s it’s ok to talk about it, it’s better to talk about it.

I can’t comprehend what happened to my Grandad and I don’t think I’ll ever understand, but I’ll talk openly about the fact that I don’t understand and how much pain it has caused because that’s ok. It’s not a taboo subject anymore, it’s a subject that people choose to ignore because they don’t realise the staggering affects of it for both those struggling with a mental illness or those that have been left behind.

People don’t ask me how I’m doing, or how my mum is doing. People believe there’s a certain amount of time before grieving passes, so they choose not to talk about it in an attempt to not upset me. Talking about what happened doesn’t upset me, the way the issue is chosen to be ignored upsets me. When you tell somebody your grandparent passed away it’s normally due to old age or an illness, people rarely hear it was a choice. And when they do they stop. They stop talking about it. They bury it. They hide their shock, and diverge from the subject. They don’t talk about my grandad like you would when someone else’s grandparent passes away, the conversation comes to a halt. They don’t talk about how proud he would have been, how strong he was holding on, they just stop. And I get it, it’s hard; it’s hard for everybody.

I was over at my friend’s in the summer and at 3am we were all pretty drunk when his Mum turned around and started asking questions, real questions. What had happened? Where was it? The stuff people are afraid of asking, or more to the point decide not to ask for their own benefit. I started to cry as I described how I will never be able to understand it, how hard it is to never be able to say goodbye to somebody, not even through a normal service because they didn’t want that. I described the hurt I feel as I watch my Nan grow older without the love of her life, and how every single detail of how it happened is a pure representation of my Grandad.

The next morning, my friend apologised for how up front his Mum was and I only turned around and said “It’s ok. No body talks about it, I want to talk about it, of course it makes me upset but it’s refreshing to talk about it. People don’t ask and I don’t want to mention it as people are sensitive to the subject.” But that is a stigma I believe needs to be changed. The reality of it is that the people who are either contemplating suicide or have experienced the grief it causes don’t want to pretend it never happened, they want to make sure it never happens to anybody else. And if talking about it means we’re one step closer to helping somebody, then I’ll talk and listen all day long, because I would give anything to not live anything so surreal. 7 months on and I still feel like it’s all a dream. But I also know the that this surreal feeling is never going to go away.

Tell the people you love and care about just how much they mean to you, because unknown to your knowledge for that one person that could be what they needed to hear. Let someone know you’re there if they’re down. Let them see how much you care. How much you’re in support of them, if that means talking, or not talking, just listening, whatever it takes to make them feel comfortable and in control of their lives once again. A friendly reminder that nobody is alone. There’s always someone there to listen, be that a stranger or a friend. There are too many things already wrong in the world, we don’t need to create more.

I will love my Grandad forever and always, and what happened to him will never cloud my memories of a happy 21 years as his Granddaughter.

Let’s bring the dark into the light.

 

 

Your 15-minute morning workout

The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning is have a glass of water. And then I pee. I almost always need to pee straight after…why am I telling you this? Sometimes it’s important to have a routine, especially in regards to Health and Fitness, mostly in order to fit it in! A couple of days a week after I’ve had my water I will, half asleep, put on some gym clothes and either head to the gym for a full workout or simply do some exercises to increase my heart rate and set me up for the day.

In London last week it was averaging 30 degrees (lucky for us) during the days and early evenings. The hot weather meant exercising in the early morning gave me the option to not fuss over the gym when I was sweating from merely breathing!  You can build up quite a sweat in 15 minutes, and today I am going to tell you how I do this in five simple steps.

1. First on the list is Bulgarian split squats. This can be done with or without weights, I can assure you that your muscles can be worked either way. The key thing with this exercise is to not let your knee drift over your toes. Be sure to engage your core in this move, keeping your torso upright and your knee almost to the floor. Many people still to this day are unaware that one of the quickest ways to burn fat is to build muscle, hence the treadmills being taken over by ladies but the weighted areas mostly still consist of men. But adding the Bulgarian split squats to your gym routine, or this small morning routine will help you build muscle all over your body.

2. The next exercise in my 15 minute morning routine is the well-known press-up. Whether you want to do half press-ups or standard press-ups, it doesn’t matter! The most important thing here is to keep your form for 45 seconds. Keeping your core engaged at all times and ensuring your hips don’t start creeping up to the ceiling, just push away from the floor until the timer beeps!

3. Next up: burpees. If you’re anything like me, you hate to see that word. However, if you’re committed to the exercise and you practise it regularly, you’ll probably love the results that they bring. The move is one of the toughest bodyweight exercises there is today and that’s because they engage the whole body intensely. Burpees burn fat and build muscle all in one movement which tests your body for its strength and aerobic capabilities.

4. Squats: Now I’m not saying that squatting will sculpt your glutes into a similar shape to Kim K’s, but I am saying that it WILL strengthen the leg muscles at all points which will prevent weaknesses and increase strength during other mobile activities. Furthermore, the squat will burn body fat as you are moving a large part of your body. It is very important to get your squatting form right though, so please do not let your knees go over your toes (if your knees hurt during a squat then you are doing it wrong). Really stick your bum out – almost like you’re going to the toilet at a festival and you really really do not want to touch the seat but you must get as close as possible. Oh, and keep your chest up and back straight.

5. And last but not least, one of the most talked-about exercises of all time… the plank. Whenever I walk into the gym I will undoubtedly see somebody planking. With the plank, it’s really important that you try and keep your alignment straight. The aim is not to have your bum up in the air like the famous downward facing dog yoga pose or to have your hips nearly touching the floor. Really engage your core and stay in a straight horizontal line. If you feel your body moving into one of the aforementioned unwanted positions then come back down and rest for 5 or 10 seconds and start again. It is better to do two shorter planks in good form, than one long-strained and incorrect plank.

So to sum up your 15 minute morning workout…

1. Bulgarian split squats (3 sets of 15 reps)

2. Press-ups (3 sets of AMAP in 45 seconds)

3. Burpees (3 sets of 8 reps)

4. Squats (3 sets of 15 reps)

5. Plank (3 sets of 30 seconds holding)

By Zoe Green

If you have any questions in regards to this article then email Zoe at dearzoegreen@gmail.com with the subject “dearzoegreen” and she will respond to you as fast as possible.

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