Let's Talk About Happiness

For those in our classes this should tick the box, but maybe not enough. Expression is about saying something with art, so can be drawing, music, poetry, song writing or simply journaling. 
We encourage our extension students to keep a journal. Put it on the page, rather than create drama in our lives. 

If what the students in our classes tell me is true, they often feel different to other kids. They feel like they don’t fit in, and often feel ‘less than’ their peers. So become their champion. Know that creative thinkers hold the future of this planet. They are often misunderstood, and underrated, yet we really need them, and they need you. Despite what they may say, kids and teens value your opinion over everyone else. If you celebrate their creativity, and value it, you will have an instant effect on their self-esteem and self-worth. You will also see acting out decrease. Acting out and behavioural issues are often a sign of creative insecurity.

Mono-task and solve one problem. Creative thinkers are often big picture thinkers and go into overwhelm easily. Our unhappiness is often due to being overwhelmed. A good strategy is to help them break the problem down into achievable steps and focus on just one problem to solve. Then, mono-task—instead of multi-task. Achievement feels good. So good it’s addictive, and we go looking for more. It is a great way to get them to see that there is hope. 

Creatives sometimes need to be shown how to beat unhappiness by focusing on what’s in their control and not what’s beyond it. It is easy for a creative to take a situation and use their imagination to play it out through to one potential (and sometimes catastrophic) ending. This often leads to collapsing in worry over the ‘what if’. At this point you need to bring them back to the now. If students get overwhelmed, I sometimes ask – “Where are we?” The answer HERE. “When is it?” The answer NOW. If we can get our kids to stay in the NOW, we can get them to see the ‘what ifs’ often don’t ever occur. We’re happiest when we take responsibility for our “controllables.” and let go of what is outside our control.

One thing creative people love is being with other positive creative people. I say positive, as there is no shortage of insecure creative people in the world. Yet if you give your child time to sink into a group who think like them, where they feel normal, where they have no fear of being judged for who they are and where they feel like they belong, that time is invaluable for them. I am grateful that as a creative soul, that I get to spend my time with other creative souls. Your kids will thank you for it.