We don’t often think of creative practices as movement in the same way we do other activities that mobilise the body but they absolutely are. Taking your pen to the page to write or draw, knitting, sewing, sculpting, all of these involve motor patterns. All of them are forms of physical movement.
When I first started drawing, it was during a time when my mind felt scattered. Despite my best efforts to steer myself elsewhere, I was steeped in anxiety. Drawing became a kind of refuge.
On a neurological level, engaging in activities that coordinate the eyes and hands, especially in rhythmic or patterned ways, literally helps reorganise a scrambled brain.
A study on drawing and doodling from Harvard University notes:
“Spontaneous drawings may also relieve psychological distress, making it easier to attend to things. We like to make sense of our lives by making up coherent stories, but sometimes there are gaps that cannot be filled, no matter how hard we try. Doodles fill these gaps, possibly by activating the brain’s ‘time travel machine,’ allowing it to find lost puzzle pieces of memories, bringing them to the present, and making the picture of our lives more whole again. With this greater sense of self and meaning, we may be able to feel more relaxed and concentrate more.”
Creativity isn’t just expression, it’s regulation.
I’ve come to realize that following my creative impulses and making time for my art actually makes me more available- and more capable- for everything else. Not following those impulses is a deadening of vitality.
Creativity isn’t just a survival act; it’s also an act of thriving
