How Stress Can Kill Your Creativity and What You Should Do to Revive It
We can turn the tables on our stress and transform it into art!
Writing is a creative outlet for me. I publish an article once a day and it takes me about 3 hours to write, edit, and polish my work. If I want to sustain my creativity, I need an ambient atmosphere. I prefer to write in the quiet of the night or early morning, with lo-fi hip-hop music playing in the background. I require a quiet setting to be creative. If there is any type of distraction in this environment, I cannot focus and it stresses me out.
Creativity is a known stress-reducer. On the flip-side, too much stress can affect your ability to create. In a 2002 study, scientists read the diary entries of nine-thousand people working on projects requiring creativity. The researchers in this study found that stress related to time-management resulted in the subjects being less creative. Additionally, there have been studies done on people who watched stressful video segments, such as war movie clips. After watching these video clips, the participants exhibited less creativity.¹
Stress can affect the parts of our brain that foster learning and creativity. When our brain releases stress hormones, our focus and memory functions are reduced. If our minds are straying towards the stressors in our lives, it can be…
