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A couple of weeks ago my daughter joined me in bed for an early night. I love hopping into bed early in the winter to read. It’s a luxury and I don’t do it enough these days. On this particular night, my daughter brought a drawing pad and pencil to bed. I continued to read for a bit… mostly watching her out of the corner of my eye.

And then, my curiosity got the better of me. So I asked for a piece of paper and a pencil and joined her. And it was delicious. I’m no Picasso, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process of conjuring up a feather in my mind and seeing it come to life on the page.

The next day after school, we took to our pads and pencils again. It didn’t matter that my drawing was mediocre at best. I felt alive and connected to the world around me when I drew.

I haven’t stuck with drawing as an outlet to create, but the experience served to strengthen my belief.

As humans, we have an innate need to create

Creating something (anything) helps us to slow down and connect with the world, and ourselves.

Aside from time we spend in meditation, prayer, or contemplation, we are either consuming or creating. And as a global community, we’ve been consuming more and more over the last few decades. Consumption has become an epidemic, leaving creation to wither in the wings.

We no longer need to draw on our creativity to bake bread or make our clothes like our ancestors did. We don’t even need to come up with creative solutions to fix broken appliances anymore (why spend time on that when we can replace the item at the click of a finger?). Consumption is the easier option, the route well traveled. So even when given a choice, we generally choose to consume rather than create.

And yes, consumption is a necessary part of our existence. We need to eat and drink. We need to clothe ourselves, and we need to consume a certain amount of information to help us navigate the corner of the world we live in. But what if we viewed creating as a necessary part of life too?

Cultivating a regular act of creating not only helps us balance endless consumption, it also helps us to go a little bit slower. How?

Because creating something generally takes a certain amount of awareness and attention to the task. It forces us to ignore external inputs and listen to our inner voice instead.

I’ve dabbled in lots different acts of creating over the course of my life. Lots of writing, some drawing, crafts, birthday party decorations, cake decorating. But there is one constant in all of the different forms of creating I’ve tried.

Creating naturally slows me down

In order to create the paper mache unicorn head for my daughters 6th birthday, I had to sit down and think about what I wanted it to look like. I had to figure out how to start it, and I had to sit for quite a few hours, delicately placing wet strips of paper over the base of the design to mold it slowly into a unicorn.

When I sit down to write (which is my largest creative outlet), I have to come up with an idea, form the outline, write a draft, and then rewrite the draft several times before it’s ready for publication. It’s not a fast process. Sure I can hurry it along, but it’s usually those hurried pieces that I’m never quite happy to hit publish on.

And after spending some time on a creative project, whether it’s writing, gardening, or perhaps just rearranging the furniture in our bedroom, I feel a sense of calm that only slowing down can bring.

And if I’ve spent enough regular time creating during my week, I generally find it easier to go slower and let go of my normal hurry in my everyday tasks. 

There’s something about creating that makes you feel like time has actually slowed down.

Time is actually a relative construct that’s malleable. We can create experiences that either makes time feel like it goes fast or goes slowly (you can read more about the neuroscience behind this phenomenon here).

Mindfulness and creativity

For example, have you ever gone on holiday, and looked at your watch to realize it was only midday? But then on returning from your break, the days rush by without even a chance to check the time. What’s happening here? You are more likely to be focused on the present moment on holiday.

This is the trick (the magic) of mindfulness. Being in the present moment allows us to choose slow. It helps us trick our mind into thinking time has slowed down (does it really matter that it hasn’t?).

So if you are wanting a bit less hurry and a bit more slow in your life perhaps you could consider picking up a creative project. For those that are time-poor, picking up another ‘thing to do’ seems counterintuitive, but I encourage you to try it, just once. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Creating something doesn’t need to look flash. You don’t need a paintbrush and canvas, or a piano or guitar. But if art or making music is your thing then go right ahead.

Here are 25 creative pursuits you could try today

Let your creativity help you push the boundaries of time and space. Everyone has been gifted the same 24 hours each day but we can absolutely learn to create slow and space in our own 24 hours.