Latest / Voyage Clinics Podcast / The Health Benefits of Creativity | How Making Things Supports Brain Health

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The Health Benefits of Creativity | How Making Things Supports Brain Health · Voyage Clinics Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to the Voyage Clinics Podcast. I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: John Sanders, and I'm here today to just talk about
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a brief podcast about creation. Voyage Clinics Podcast, I'm a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: family physician, and our objective is just to kind of
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: like promote health and wellness to our community, and today
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I want to talk about creation. Right brain, left brain,
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  Speaker 1: I think we talked a lot about this in previous
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  Speaker 1: podcasts about a balance between right and left brain, and
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: left brain is predominantly, you know, left brain, right hand
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  Speaker 1: dominant is predominantly like logic and reasoning, math and science.
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  Speaker 1: And I'm a super nerd on the left brain. On
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  Speaker 1: the right brain, it's a little bit more left hand stuff.
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  Speaker 1: So you're talking about like art and dance and yeah, feeling.
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  Speaker 1: And I don't know, there's just more art there. And
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  Speaker 1: so I think it's really, really important to have a
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  Speaker 1: balance there. And satisfaction from our lives, I think is
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: in balancing those two brain cells. And so You may think, oh,
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  Speaker 1: I'm only an engineer, or I'm only left-hand, or I'm
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  Speaker 1: only left-brain dominant. Logic and reasoning is my jam, and
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  Speaker 1: that's fine. But consider pathways to creation. So what does
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  Speaker 1: creation do for you as a person? I think it's
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  Speaker 1: a good way to exercise different brain cells than you're
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  Speaker 1: used to exercising. It might be frustrating at first. Always
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  Speaker 1: trying something new and different is a little bit challenging,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's a musical instrument. Start playing the ukulele. There's
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: the Daily Ukulele. It's a really great book. And if
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  Speaker 1: you're interested in just picking up the ukulele, I think
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  Speaker 1: it's a great entry point to music and singing and
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  Speaker 1: all the things. There's a couple of really great books.
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  Speaker 1: The Daily Ukulele has two versions. But just picking something
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  Speaker 1: up and trying something hard and difficult is sometimes tedious
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  Speaker 1: at the first part, but then it gets better. And
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  Speaker 1: then that growth and development is helpful. And overcoming that
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  Speaker 1: tedious part actually spikes what's called brain-derived neurotrophic factor in
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  Speaker 1: your brain. It's like growth hormone for your muscles but
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: for your brain. And it helps connect different portions of
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  Speaker 1: your brain. It promotes emotional intelligence and neuroplasticity. And that's
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  Speaker 1: what equals growth and satisfaction in our lives. So that's
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  Speaker 1: why I wanted to talk about this. I think there's
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  Speaker 1: lots of ways to create. Poetry is lovely. It takes practice.
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  Speaker 1: I stink at it. My wife is awesome at it.
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  Speaker 1: Shauna Sanders, I think her book is called The Bad
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  Speaker 1: Book of Poetry on Amazon. She self-published it. It's lovely.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, just beautiful. The beauty of creation is for yourself,
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  Speaker 1: as we just mentioned, for growth and neuroplasticity, but for others.
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  Speaker 1: When you get to create something, love on it, put
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  Speaker 1: some exertion into it, work on it, and then gift
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  Speaker 1: it to somebody. Whether it's your children or your posterity,
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  Speaker 1: whether it's an office where you hang a painting or
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  Speaker 1: a song that you sing to some friends, I think
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  Speaker 1: that builds a piece of beauty into your life and
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  Speaker 1: awe that hopefully they appreciate and that you have an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity to share. I'm having these, many of you guys
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  Speaker 1: know about these little pieces of wood that I use,
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  Speaker 1: these serenity wood pieces. And they're lovely. They're satisfying to
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  Speaker 1: hold and to roll and to feel. And I started
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  Speaker 1: making them a few years ago. I just wanted something
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  Speaker 1: that I didn't have to measure. I didn't have to
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  Speaker 1: left brain it at all. I just cut a piece
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  Speaker 1: of wood and try to find the beauty in that
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  Speaker 1: piece of wood. When you're done with one of these,
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  Speaker 1: I'm always, it's like a little piece of awe in
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  Speaker 1: your hand. And the science of awe is wonderful. It
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  Speaker 1: does a lot of things. We'll do a podcast on
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: the science of awe shortly. I have a person already
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  Speaker 1: lined up for that, but it's really good for your
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: brain and really good for your heart and your emotions
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  Speaker 1: to experience awe on a consistent basis. And so often
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  Speaker 1: when you're done with, whether it's a song or one
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  Speaker 1: of these pieces of serenity wood and I put some
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  Speaker 1: oil to it and I just look at it in
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  Speaker 1: the sun and I see the glisten and I see
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  Speaker 1: the patterns and the quilting and the chatoyancy and it
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  Speaker 1: is amazing. It's a thing of awe. And I'm always
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  Speaker 1: amazed at what wood can give you and how beautiful
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  Speaker 1: it is in your hand and to feel it. And
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  Speaker 1: then it's calming and meditative. And I just gave one
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  Speaker 1: to a kiddo today He came in with really in
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  Speaker 1: a tough emotional state, just really dysregulated, very anxious, and
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  Speaker 1: really in despair, really struggling. And we talked for a
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: while and got to know each other a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: And he kind of opened up a little bit. And
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  Speaker 1: I handed him a piece of this. I said, hey, man,
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  Speaker 1: I make these for my people. And I saw him
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  Speaker 1: just holding it and playing with it the rest of
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  Speaker 1: our visit, which is 60 minutes on our first visits.
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  Speaker 1: And it was lovely. It was lovely. And there's some
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  Speaker 1: magic there in gifting this creation to the world, to others.
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  Speaker 1: And I make one or two. I probably make four
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  Speaker 1: to five a week maybe. I sand during my walks
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  Speaker 1: and it's really satisfying. I've started writing poetry. I've written
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  Speaker 1: a song recently. And I'm just working on creation. And
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  Speaker 1: it's brought a fair amount of life satisfaction and joy
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  Speaker 1: and peace to my life. So I just wanted to
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  Speaker 1: have a podcast about creation. And how cool it is.
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  Speaker 1: And if you're not creating, maybe look at it. Think
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  Speaker 1: of creative ways that you might create. And you're here
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  Speaker 1: on this earth to do some really cool creation. You've
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  Speaker 1: got sculpture. You've got paintings. You've got drawings. You've got
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  Speaker 1: all kinds of things that you could create. And so, yeah.
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  Speaker 1: I just wanted to encourage you guys to keep working
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  Speaker 1: on neuroplasticity. Create. That's it. Hope you enjoyed our podcast.
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  Speaker 1: And Have a wonderful day and go out there and
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  Speaker 1: create some cool stuff and give it to people.