Creativity Decreases Stress, Enabling You to See New Possibilities

By activating the creative brain, you’ll also deactivate stress cycles that lead to burnout and disengagement. If you want to get unstuck, create!

Here’s some of the science behind creativity: 

• Creative projects can decrease stress hormones that, over time, build up in the brain and kill neurons.
• Entering a flow state -- one in which we easefully feel and perform at our best -- correlates with the release of feel-good neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin.

Creative Group Process

Working in a group format is more generative than always working alone. This also applies to introverts.

We’re social creatures, which means we are hard-wired to live, work, and create in groups. In early human history, being a part of a tribe guaranteed survival and protection. We might not need social interaction for survival anymore, but research shows that feeling connected is still our strongest intuitive impulse. It also predicts health and happiness more than any other factor that’s been studied, ever. 

Creating in groups enhances learning, motivation, and generativity.

By creating as a part of group process, you can: 

• Boost personal creativity through exposure to diversity7

• Meet your goals faster than while going it alone8

• Receive supportive feedback that fuels motivation, encouragement, and growth9

When we feel a part of something bigger than ourselves, what we create is bigger than what we alone could have imagined. The whole is more than the sum of its parts. 

Going through a transformative process together creates a special kind of bond. Sociologists have named this “collective effervescence.”10

• Collective effervescence refers to the sense of connection and meaning that comes from collective events and experiences11

• It’s a combination of feeling connected to others, sharing a common purpose, and a sensation of sacredness11

• Research shows that feeling emotional communion with others in a group mediates self-esteem and collective identity12

Sharing creative work in a group can feel vulnerable. But when you get nurturing feedback about your work -- as opposed to critical judgement -- research shows the stress response in brain is absent.13

We get further when we create in a nurturing, diverse group.

Bottom Line: The creative process blasts stress and fuels self-expression to revitalize you in every aspect of your life. We’re social creatures, so when you do this work in a group, the shared momentum ensures that you reach your goals faster (while having more fun). 

Resources

1.Making art reduces cortisol

2.The real neuroscience of creativity

3.Flow states and creativity

4. Where introverts fit into group work

5.Long life and happiness through community

6.The creative power of collaboration

7.How exposure to different people affects our thinking

8.Group work increases individual achievement

9.Why feedback is important

10.Psychology of collective effervescence

11.Collective effervescence and everyday activities

12.Emotional synchrony in collective gatherings

13. Why criticism kills creativity

SELF EXPRESSION THROUGH PORTRAITURE

See and Be Seen

How do you see yourself? Your work? Your world?

Show us!

Your life improves when you feel heard, seen, and understood.1 Being seen means expressing your authentic self and releasing it into the world to shine. 

Self-expression promotes wellbeing by:

• Confirming your identity of who you are and/or who you want to be2

• Affirming the deep subconscious human longing to truly exist3

• Strengthening social connections through feeling valued, respected, and validated4

Journaling is a common way to capture your story. Writing allows space for reflection, catharsis, expression and insight.5 You see yourself clearly, wholly. 

In photography, you do this through unique visual storytelling: taking self portraits, portraits of others, or simply capturing your work and world through your own lens.6  

Aligning your vision for your work with the images you capture not only energizes you creatively, but ignites renewed excitement around your whole business. Capturing fresh new perspectives and expressing them visually facilitates both seeing and being seen. 

Self Portraits

All my images are self-portraits, even when I'm not in them.7

Nuno Roque

One powerful way to see and be seen is through self portraiture.

This sort of expression goes deeper than the concept of a hastily-snapped selfie. It’s a portal into seeing your own essence and sharing it with the world. 

It both asks the question, Who am I? and makes the statement, This is who I am.

Shifting your approach to how you take photos of yourself shifts the outcome:

• A self-portrait used to capture your essential identity or promote activism enhances life satisfaction through affirmation, connection, and empowerment8

• Even selfies can promote the agency to say “this is who I am,” and that sense of empowerment has proven especially beneficial for marginalized groups; selfies can reify group belonging, which is linked to higher self-esteem8

• Most people (68%) of people share on social media to give others a better sense of who they are and what they care about9

Social media emphasizes looking outward. Self portraiture facilitates looking inward. This is why self portraiture practice is at the confluence of meditation, creativity, and self-care. 

Bottom Line: Photographing portraits of your work and world fosters personal empowerment and growth; self portraiture takes this a step further by turning the lens back on yourself.

Resources

(1)10 reasons why being understood is important

(2)Self, social identity, and psychological wellbeing

(3)A psychoanalytic view on the need to be understood

(4)The neural basis of feeling understood

(5)Health benefits of journaling

(6)Visual storytelling in the pandemic age

(7)Artist Nuno Roque

(8)The selfie as a personal and social identity marker

(9)The psychology of sharing on social media

VISUAL CONTENT MARKETING 

Why we need images: how we process images and information

Media used to be passive. Not anymore.

You have the power to be a creator, to shape the digital world. And compelling images are a core part of that power.1

Show up in the way you see yourself, your work, your creative essence. When you show up authentically, you are fostering your own wellbeing and harnessing the power of building an authentic digital world.2 Images and stories -- compelling but not necessarily polished -- are powerful.

We process information from images more quickly than from text. And of all images, our brains are most drawn to faces.

• Our brains are wired to process images in ways that cut across time and culture3

• The human brain can process images that it sees in just 13 milliseconds4

• Even in infancy, faces grab and hold our attention more than other visual stimuli5

The human brain is built to quickly notice and process visual content.

Why Images Are Important Today: Statistics on Engagement

Learning how to create memorable images is valuable because images build engagement, connection, and conversation:

• On the average web page, users read only about 20% of the content6

• More than 50% of tweet impressions come from tweets containing images, video, or other media7

• Campaigns and emails with images have 40% higher click through rate than campaigns without images.8

• Articles with relevant images get 94% more views, on average, compared to articles without images.9

• Photos with faces are 38% more likely to receive likes and 32% more likely to receive comments, even after controlling for social network reach and activity10

Using images -- especially images of faces -- attracts attention and generates engagement.

Going deeper: how Images can be used to build community and connection

You’re a part of something bigger: your photos have the power to do more if you think beyond traditionally shallow concepts of selfies or viewing photography for your business as another chore.

Motivation matters. Your intention for sharing your visual content impacts how it is received. Sharing your images is an invitation to be seen, as well as to be in connection. 

What will mediate these relationships? What kind of community do you want to build?

In the #scientistswhoselfie campaign, researchers found that scientists who included their faces in portraits of their work were viewed as warmer but no less competent, which in turn improved impressions of the field of science as a whole. Previous perceptions of science were flooded with negative stereotypes, but adding a personal touch offered audiences a new way of seeing and connecting with the field.11

Taking a different perspective and sharing it builds connection and community; this is especially true for underrepresented and marginalized groups.12

In this mini-course, you’ve learned how tapping into your creativity bashes stress and fuels self-expression; why undergoing this process in a group is better than going it alone; how portraiture is an empowering practice of expressing your authenticity and sharing your vision. 

Now you know that sharing your vision strategically can be a force for good through building relationships and community.

Bottom line: Images are memorable and effective, because they help people process, understand, and retain information more quickly. They build community and connection in a way that can be used for good.

References:

1.Why images are so important to social media

2.Mental health and being authentic on social media

3.How the brain processes images

4.In the blink of an eye: image processing

5.Faces attract attention of infants

6.How little do users read?

7. Social media use and advertising report

8. A picture is worth a thousand words

9. Why visual content is so important

10.Photos with faces attract more engagement

11.Selfies as a force for good

12.The selfie as a personal and social identity marker