If you've incorporated exercise into your life to improve your health-- wonderful. Now, tap into your creativity to further strengthen your wellness. A study sponsored by the National Endowment For the Arts (NEA) in 2006 found that those of us 65 and older who attended a professionally taught weekly cultural arts program experienced less medication usage, fewer needs for doctor visits, and improved mental health.
The NEA study specifically evaluated the benefits of committing to an organized arts class but look around and within. Don't all kinds of creative pursuits generate energy, satisfaction, and happiness? We may be aging but our imagination and creativity remains youthful and exciting. Exercising the world of our minds is as important as taking walks or doing aerobics.
Habits, conformity, repetition of stories, and the defense of our own expertise have all contributed to weakening our connection to creativity. The initial challenge, if you haven't been expressing your creativity, may be in accessing and nurturing this inner resource. Begin to tune into your imagination by simply taking a new road home, talking to someone different, reading a new book or magazine. Become as aggressive about altering your routines as you are about checking your mail or e-mail and notice the new energy and ideas you garner from the change.
I'm advocating creativity as a boost for health but who knows-- you may find a new career or gain recognition when you delve into your mind's resources. Data from UC Davis suggests that novelists and students of loosely defined or ambiguous subjects peak creatively in late middle age. So dust off those old journals, invest in a set of pastels, open a new textbook on physics, or realize that invention you've been thinking about for years! Tone up your mind like you tone your body and ride the waves of creative expression to a healthier and more satisfying life.
Update December 2013- "To stay creative and original in later life, be willing to do new things. Try eating sea urchin, take up the piccolo, learn to speak Serbo-Croatian," writes Huff Post writer, Tara Bahrampour, in this article about aging, creativity, and our minds.
Check out your public library. Increasing knowledge of the benefits of creativity for aging minds is inspiring libraries to develop special programs geared toward 50+ audiences.
Update July 2014 Phd Francine Toder talks about the benefits of creativity in a blog at the National Center for Creative Aging.
Update 3 January 2015 This CNN article discusses how creative pursuits can aid in emotional recovery from trauma and lessen depression.
