Creative ways to feel good for free

The following is a guest post by Mark, written on behalf of ClearDebt. Visit the ClearDebt site to find out what a debt management plan is and other ways to clear your debt.

That thing in the bathroom mirror is you. The reason it looks gloomy is because you've decided that enough is enough and you’re going to clamber out of debt. Just getting to this point has been tough enough but now there’s the long slog of getting back on the straight and narrow. Cue months of misery... or is there a way to ‘rewire’ and emerge happier, cleverer and maybe even a little wiser?

Our brain chemistry and internal wiring determines the world we live in; if you’re feeling miserable then you hate the world. The dog’s gone off you, traffic wardens can smell you a mile off and every time you want something, there’s a queue.

We feel like this when the brain decides it’s not going to produce much of a hormone called serotonin. It’s been recognized that laughter raises serotonin levels and that we feel, and even heal better when we’re happier. For this reason, in Germany, they have “Laughing Clubs”, where groups of Germans get together and laugh at nothing in particular; a practice that also works well in Belgium.

Your brain has wired itself to understand and recognize the words written here. You have a sense of balance, 3D vision and perhaps a sense of humor. You can be wired for birthing cattle, growing orchids or finding water in a desert. Some of us have wiring that society, right now, doesn't reward very highly. Finding water in a desert isn't rewarded as a skill in a culture that has built-in plumbing.

But everyone is good at something. Built into our DNA is a set of connections that adapt us uniquely to the world. When we discover what we’re wired for, the world around us changes and a good time to start this voyage of self-discovery is when we have time and not a great deal of money. Start by visiting a library. A library is like a bookshop, except it’s free. You wander in, browse the shelves, pick up a couple of books and then sit down and start reading.

Find a book of black and white photographs by any given photographer and study it for a few minutes. Then, just using your phone, take a picture that’s ‘like’ one of those you've been studying. You may find something interesting kicks in. Or perhaps sketching is your thing. Find a photo in a magazine of someone, turn it upside down, and then copy what you see. Many of us who've been told we can’t draw discover that actually we can via this technique. It’s also an interesting example of how what we “know” can affect what we see. We think we know what shape a nose is and so draw what we think, rather than what’s there. The up-shot is, there are zero-cost creative avenues accessible to everyone and exercising your creativity will make you feel good.

The center of the universe is you. Time spent discovering what it is you’re wired for is time well spent. It’s something which can’t be bought, only experienced. Tell that to the mirror tomorrow.