'You look well’: How creativity helps me make sense of my mental health

Topics mentioned: self-care, identity and mental health, disability and mental health

About: Grace shares how creativity has helped her understand and care for her mental health, and explains how expressing herself through music, writing and dance gives her motivation, clarity and connection.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been creative and enjoyed music and writing. As a little girl I’d get through stacks of paper, spending hours writing poems and stories. But over the past two years since coming out of the pandemic, I’ve started taking creativity seriously as a way to care for and understand my mental health. As I’m sure many young people did, I found the pandemic an incredibly isolating time. I felt like I’d given up, stuck at a crossroads of not knowing who or where I wanted to be, and socialising only made my insecurities worse.

Then in March 2022 I started listening to a young artist called Tate McRae, who I first heard on Kiss FM. Straight away I identified with the passion she has for creativity, and her determination to keep chasing it, despite the risks having such a clear focus might bring. But most importantly, just two weeks after taking inspiration from McRae’s music, something so small yet special happened. I was told, 'You look well!' by someone who had been with me on my mental health journey, which meant a lot. Others had seen the positive impact on all aspects of my health, and this signalled the end of the pandemic for me.

But more than that, listening to artists like McRae assured me that I don't need to change to fit in. The determination to be yourself, no matter what life throws at you, should be enough. It might feel strange at first, but it's great when you embrace it. Fast forward two years and I’m writing again, more confident about singing and being my true self around others, and dancing whenever I can. I surround myself with music as much as possible to keep myself well.

So I wanted to write this piece to share how I use creativity to care for and understand my mental health. I hope that you find hope in the same way I did two years ago.

If you take one thing away, let it be this – anything is possible if you’re true to yourself. There’s no shame in doing whatever you need to keep pushing on, whatever age or stage you’re at. By 'creativity', for me I mean the arts, like writing, singing and dancing, but creativity can be anything. You might make jewellery or build with Lego. Creativity is whatever helps you express yourself, and however it looks, that’s perfectly okay.