#happiness #creativity #flourishing #growth #health #Knights #Knightsbridge
“One of the Key triggers to our creativity is the environment or space we are in”–Paul Ebeling
A study has proven that everyday creativity can boost happiness by creating an upward spiral of wellbeing. For the study, 658 varsity students were asked to maintain a daily journal of their experiences as well as emotional states for 13 days.
When the researchers analyzed the journals a pattern was found – the participants felt more enthusiasm and experienced higher “flourishing” than normal after the “more creative” days.
Flourishing is a psychological concept which is best described as an increasing of a person’s positive growth.
Although the study didn’t ask the students to document the type of their creative activity specifically, such information had been collected informally by the researchers in a prior study.
The most common types of creativity that were reported by the students were the following:
- Poetry and short fiction creative writing
- Song writing
- Creating new recipes
- Sketching, drawing and painting
- Digital and graphic design
- Musical performance
- Crochet and knitting
There is increasing evidence that creativity is connected to emotional functioning. The majority of this research is however focused on how emotions help or limit creativity, not if creativity helps or limits emotional wellbeing.
“Positive affect” (PA) encompasses feelings like happiness, pleasurable engagement, excitement, enthusiasm and joy. It was observed that PA on a certain day did not predict creative activity on the next day. Prior research has shown that PA increases creativity during the same day, but these latest results show that there isn’t any cross-day effect. It is in fact creative activity the day before which predicts wellbeing on the next day.
Study results support the growing importance on everyday creativity as a way of cultivating positive psychological function.
Have a super happy weekend, the chaos was bunk!
