How often do you make time for yourself, reconnecting with yourself and renew your mind, body and spirit?
As coaches we give a lot of ourselves to others, supporting clients to make positive changes to their lives, achieve success and enhance their wellbeing. Over the pandemic the areas our clients bring have been increasingly challenging with uncertainty, burnout, stress and anxiety becoming more common. This can be challenging as well as tiring and can lead to compassion fatigue. We may also find ourselves neglecting our own priorities and self-care. But making time for us and our priorities is essential if we are to be our best for our clients as well as live lives that bring us happiness and fulfilment.
Connecting to your creativity is one way of practising self-care and renew your energy as a helping professional.
Making art can give you a space to set aside your professional and personal concerns and worries, where you can immerse yourself in an activity that is both relaxing and challenging, and rediscover the joy (and fun) of making something by hand.
Research has shown that, no matter what your skill level, making art …
- Is naturally mindful allowing you to slow the pace down, immerse yourself in your art making and working out of time, in flow
- Engages the relaxation response
- Reconnects you to your body through the physical process of creating
- Reduces stress through increasing the hormones that manage anxiety and stress in the body
Expressing yourself through creating visual images, whether as a painting, drawing, or a sculpture can give you a way to be more in touch with your emotions and inner wisdom and a safe outlet for expressing those emotions. You may also find new insights, thoughts and ideas emerging.
Making time for art can help you to renew your mind, body and spirit and your professional energy.
So true Anna. I love the slow looking movement as well which encourages us to take time to really see a piece of art and notice what it brings up for us. So many leaders think that slowing down is one frightening step away from stopping. Using art in business can help transform this type of thinking, engage the creative mind and bring about new possibilities.