Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:18] Well, hey, welcome back. This is Shanna Williams, and this podcast is called Grace and Grant Mindset Podcast.
[00:00:27] And we are in a series right now called Created to Create.
[00:00:32] And so I thought it would be fun, you know, because one of the things that God has used tremendously in my life, as I look back over decades, is art. You know, just creating art, creating music, writing, and some other things I've stepped into that have created just a really great therapeutic environment for me. And I, you know, started to research this on a scientific level because I'm like, okay, I get that it works, but why does it work? And how is this helping my mind, helping me heal kind of from the inside out? And so from that, I decided to build a whole series on this. So kind of last week, we just did, like, an intro of Created to Create and how spiritual creativity is part of our spiritual DNA. We were created in the image of God, and he is a creator.
[00:01:22] And what I love about it is he's a creator, but he's also very organized in the way that he creates. So there's something there to that as well, that he created certain things on specific days. That's really cool. We're not going to go there today, necessarily, but I just thought that was really neat to bring that out, because sometimes your creativity may need a little organization to keep it healthy, to keep it dialed in, to keep it from taking over.
[00:01:49] I am a person who lives in a creative world all the time. My brain, it's like sometimes I'm not even present, you know, when I'm talking to people or I'm doing things, task or whatever, because my mind is somewhere else. I am in this creative, imaginary place, I guess, with the Lord and. Or just, you know, my mind's just going there. And so I could have 15 or 20 projects going in my mind at one time. And so it is. It has been challenging sometimes to go, okay, which one is the God one? Which one do I need to focus on? And so that's where I think some of that organization comes in. And that's not even about what this episode's about, but it just kind of came to mind as I was talking about God being a creator, but he was also very organized in the way that he did it.
[00:02:36] So I am, you know, talking to the woman today who you feel overwhelmed, mentally cluttered, or you're just stretched too thin.
[00:02:46] So I think that's probably like 95% of the women in America right now. You are overwhelmed, mentally cluttered, or you're just stretched Too dang thin, you know. And so we're going to talk about why stress melts when your hands move.
[00:03:02] So why does stress melt when your hands move?
[00:03:06] Because it's, it's really, it's beautiful. But it's very scientific. I mean it's also spiritual. Spiritual. But it's, it's really just the way that God made us. It's, you know, creativity is not just an expression. It's a God designed way of calming our mind and body.
[00:03:23] So God gave you creativity as a way to calm your mind and your body.
[00:03:28] And so I'm wondering, whoever listened to this last week, did you go and just jump into a creative space and try to do something with the Lord? Maybe it's like knitting beanies. I love those. My mom knits those sometimes for me for my ministry to sell. And people, women go crazy. And she just, you know, she was just doing it back then. Just like she's always knitted. It's just something she always did. And I think it was like therapeutic for her, you know, but then it was like, oh, I can actually do something cool. I can make this into a business. And so she started helping me with that. But it was such an expression, depression. And I think in some way it calmed her mind and her body, you know, gives like this outlet to your restlessness.
[00:04:11] So here's the thing about stress, because if you were listening to this, you're probably stressed out. I mean, I don't know what planet you're living on, but if you live here, you're stressed out. So here's the thing about it. Stress builds when we don't have a safe outlet.
[00:04:26] Stress will build when we don't have a safe outlet. That's why so many people fall find that when they work out, it just makes them feel better. It's because they've given a place for the stress to have an outlet. Right. Punching a bag. I absolutely used to love and I can't really do it much anymore, but I used to love kickboxing. I took a lot of classes on it.
[00:04:48] And it was just this way that I could just really get out the stress on that bag, you know, it gives. Even with that, that was created for me. So creativity gives our emotions some somewhere to land. I probably said that last week. I just want to say it again. Creativity will give your emotions somewhere to land.
[00:05:10] So because it's when your heart starts to move, your, your heart or your hands rather start to move, your heart starts to settle, right? You're just giving a space to That I love some of these scriptures about peace and a peaceful heart. Thinking about Psalm or. Sorry, Proverbs 14:30, it says a peaceful heart brings life.
[00:05:32] It doesn't say it exactly like that. It says something kind of close to that. As a matter of fact, how about I just find it real quick and read it to you so that I'm not like paraphrasing it. I want to really read what the way that it says in the scripture. So that's Proverbs 14:30.
[00:05:51] I think this might be the one about medicine maybe.
[00:05:55] Of course, I can't get my pages to turn. Hey, while I'm turning pages, let me just say it's so cold right now in my office and we are getting, we're going through a little cold snap here in East Texas, which we don't have them that often. But like man, today it is cold. It's like full out winter right now.
[00:06:16] So here we go. Psalms 14:30. A tranquil heart is life to the body.
[00:06:22] A tranquil heart is life to the body.
[00:06:26] And that beautiful. And you want, you want to have life in your body, right? So like tranquility and peace, those are basically synonyms.
[00:06:35] It's going to bring life to you in such a beautiful way that God wants you to experience that. And you know, maybe in this season of your life, you've made this, I've done this before. You've made this so spiritual that you've not given your physical body and outlet to deal with stress.
[00:06:55] So why not tap into creativity as a way to deal with some of that physical need that you have to deal with stress? Everything is not spiritual. We're a triune beings. We have three components to us and a lot of us neglect one of them way more than the others. And I find that with women, I think women tend to neglect their physical body the most.
[00:07:20] And I think a lot of that's because we're mothers, we're grandmothers, we're wives.
[00:07:25] A lot of us have jobs or businesses that we run. So it's kind of like, well, I don't have time to take care of my physical needs.
[00:07:33] Therefore I will not go to the gym or walk or whatever your exercise regimen is, or I don't have time to eat right or the money to buy healthy food or some of the other lies that we tell ourselves, you know, and, and also just this lie of I don't have time to do anything I enjoy, I don't have time to be creative, I don't have an outlet, I don't have time to have an outlet, like, I'm too busy. Well, if you're that busy, chances are you need to really pray about letting go of some things, because that is not a quality of life. And you definitely don't have a peaceful heart if you're like that. If you are so busy that you don't have time to just sit down once a week and knit a scarf, or you don't have time once a week to sit down and write a poem, or you don't have time to. Maybe you love to cook. Maybe you need to. Maybe what relaxes you is making up new recipes. If you don't have time once a week to do that, it may be wise to reevaluate your priorities, because you matter just as much as the other people in your life.
[00:08:38] You matter to God just as much as the other people in your life. You are not less than. You're not more than. But the question is, are you really giving yourself the space that you need to be healthy? It's not selfish.
[00:08:51] It's okay. It's part of taking care of yourself as well. You have got to see yourself separately. Almost like you have to. I have to kind of separate myself.
[00:09:03] This is going to sound weird from myself, meaning I have to step outside of myself a little bit and go, okay, this. I'm a human being. That's a human being who needs kindness. That's a human being who needs support.
[00:09:14] That's a human being who needs to learn that creativity is beautiful. And it's okay to have a hobby. And it's okay sometimes to enjoy your life, for crying out loud.
[00:09:22] It's okay.
[00:09:24] You're not a bad person because you sometimes need to do things for yourself. Now, can it get out of control? Of course it can. You know, one of the things. And this is not really creativity so much, but one of the things that I do to take care of myself, and I do not feel the least bit guilty for it. I used to, but I don't anymore is I will probably, maybe every other month, every, maybe six weeks, I will book a massage. And like this last one, I went all out. I went all out.
[00:09:55] I got like. It was called a hot cocoa and. Or chocolate and cocoa butter or something. Peppermint massage or something. And it wasn't like hot chocolate, y'. All. It was just like, cocoa butter and then peppermint oil. And they used hot stones on me. Oh, man, it was amazing. So that stuff matters. And you know what that does for you and for me. It makes us More at peace. It makes. And that makes us be able to operate optimally for other people in our life because we took the time to take care of our own needs.
[00:10:29] So I don't know why we don't do it. I don't know. But we just don't prioritize our own health or our own needs at all. We just kind of put them at the bottom. And so, you know, stress doesn't have an outlet if you don't give it one. So whether that be you working out or you doing, like, what I just did with going to get a massage and reminding myself I'm important too, you know, like, it's okay and. Or maybe it's creativity. But, you know, we're specifically saying, like, what creativity could you implement in your life to help you.
[00:11:06] To help balance you, to give you peace, to. To let your stress have a place to land?
[00:11:14] And of course, I love the story about, from 1st Samuel 16:23, when David's playing the harp. And you know that for Saul, and that is really the only time Saul would get relief, is when David would play the harp for him. And that. Isn't that just, like, amazing?
[00:11:30] So I think I said this last week, but I'll say it again.
[00:11:33] It's worth you exploring any gifts that you may have, you know, especially musically, because music, playing music and allowing your hands to move that way or singing, but really playing an instrument allows you to escape into.
[00:11:53] I don't know if escape's the right word. It allows you to come out of fight or flight. We're going to talk about that in just a minute, but I would encourage you. I don't care how old you are, how. How young young you are, you should consider picking up and learning an instrument. Whether you take lessons from someone, guitar, piano, drums, whatever, harp, you know, find something unique. You don't know until you try if you can do it or not. But what could it bring to your life that brings you tranquility and peace? Isn't that worth it? People are like, I don't have the money. Well, let's look at it this way.
[00:12:32] Do you really want to continue to stay miserable and stressed out? Is. Is it worth you spending and investing a few hundred dollars to get an instrument and take, I don't know, five lessons from someone and just get going? You know, I mean, it's worth it to me. It's a form of therapy.
[00:12:48] So let's talk about what happens in your body when you create.
[00:12:52] Now, of course it brings the peace, right? It calms Our soul.
[00:12:56] But I want to talk specifically scientifically. And by the way, I do not have a degree in this area.
[00:13:01] This is just me researching me, experimenting myself in my own experiences with this. Prove the science behind it.
[00:13:13] So how does repetitive motion. How does it regulate the nervous system? Because it does. That's really what's happening when you do something repetitive with your hands. It could be like kneading dough or like we talked about, knitting a scarf or a beanie or playing an instrument. Or it could be writing, journaling, making loops, you know, doing calligraphy or whatever it's called. Is that what it's called?
[00:13:40] Those kinds of things.
[00:13:42] So when you do that, this repetitive motion, it tells your brain you're safe because you're doing something over and over. So it's like, oh, well, she's doing that. We must not be in. We must not be scared, right? If I'm, I don't know, gardening or I am knitting or I am playing instrument, then how could I be running for my life, right?
[00:14:05] How could I be running from the snake I saw if I'm over here knitting and doing this repetitive motion with my hands? So it tells your body that it's safe. It's a predictable, gentle movement, and it sends this message of safety.
[00:14:20] And because that safety message is sent, then it turns off the stress mode. It turns off the stress mode. So what's some other examples of that? Stirring something.
[00:14:32] Sanding.
[00:14:33] You know, some people like to, like, take a dresser. I have one I need to redo right now. And that's very therapeutic. Standing that thing down.
[00:14:42] Painting, maybe?
[00:14:45] Yeah, like we said. Crocheting, kneading, any of those things.
[00:14:49] I make soap. I, you know, make wax. Melts. Just stirring the wax sometimes.
[00:14:55] So you're not just. When you're doing these things, you're not just making something, okay? You're reminding your brains.
[00:15:02] We're reminding our brain that. That we're safe.
[00:15:05] You know, I was thinking about this earlier when I was putting this lesson together, thinking about how when we're in elementary. Do you remember? I don't know if you remember this, but I would always feel so much better after I went to either art class or, like, music class. I don't know. There was just that little moment in the day that, for me, you know, because we didn't get to go every day, it was like, I don't remember how often. Maybe it was like back and forth. We just alternated. But I loved it. Those were my favorite times of the school day, was to get to go to art class or music class, because something about it just, I don't know, it soothed me. And that's a great illustration to say right now is that one of the reasons that it feels like that is because that rhythmic repetitive motion is almost the same feeling that a baby has when they're being rocked and maybe like patted, you know, have you ever noticed, like if you have a crying, screaming baby, you pick them up and you rock them, but you also pat them. It's that repetitive motion against their body. Their nervous system starts to calm down.
[00:16:15] It's the same thing.
[00:16:17] We think we're so big and grown and adults, but we really have the same needs that babies have. We need to feel safe, we need to feel comforted. We need to feel like everything's going to be okay.
[00:16:30] So when we do these things, it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. And that system is the one that controls rest, calm, the emotional regulation, the digestion of our gut, healing and recovery. So no wonder so many of us are disaster walking disasters that are constantly sick and tired. It's because you're never getting back into your parasympathetic nervous system. You're staying in fight or flight.
[00:16:59] Your body is staying there. And you know, a lot of people that have ongoing chronic stress have gut issues.
[00:17:07] I've had that before. My husband has that sometimes where it's like, it doesn't matter what I eat, I feel sick. And I guarantee you it has to do with being caught in the sympathetic nervous system and not being able to get out of fight or flight, not being able to digest things, because that part of my system is like, oh, it doesn't matter if we digest because we're about to die. So we need to run, we need to run. We need to hurry, we need to. You know, always being in a hurry, I find myself, that's a struggle of my life. It's just always feeling I'm in someone's way and I'm always in a hurry. And that's, that's a direct result of being in fight or flight constantly.
[00:17:44] So when we do these rhythmic movements, it switches us out of fight or flight and into rest and digest. So what happens when you get in rest and digest?
[00:17:54] Cortisol drops, your breath deepens. So now you're getting better breath, your tension releases and your thoughts slow down and now you can think rationally. So maybe something that was overwhelming you and you couldn't think straight. Every time this situation popped up in your mind, you were just, it would get you worked up and you couldn't logically or rationally make sense of it or didn't make a decision.
[00:18:20] You know, if you bring yourself out of fight or flight by doing some of these things, you can actually slow your thinking down to where now you're thinking with the front part of your brain. You're getting away from amygdala controlled thinking and now you're getting into, okay, I can actually logically think about this. I can hear God. Now that's another thing it does, is it when you get out of fight or flight, it brings you back into a place of being able to, to hear from God.
[00:18:52] That's amazing. Right?
[00:18:55] So let's talk about some of the other things that repetitive movement will do for you.
[00:19:03] It'll pull you out of overthinking. So sometimes you can't think at all, but sometimes you're overthinking, which is where I tend to go.
[00:19:11] And here's some things that are interesting.
[00:19:13] Think about this for a second. Anxiety. So when you have a moment of anxiety, it's because you're thinking about the future. Because anxiety lives in the future, right? It's a fear of what's going to happen in the future, what could happen in the future. And oftentimes if we go down that road, it becomes self fulfilling prophecy. Right? We actually end up making the stupid thing happen that we were afraid of because we, we partnered with Satan in this negative thing and we actually brought it to pass from our actions.
[00:19:45] Anxiety lives in the future, but depression lives in the past. I would say depression and grief, trauma, they live in the past.
[00:19:53] So but what creativity does is it forces your mind into the present.
[00:20:00] So it's a way of kind of grounding you and forcing you back into right now. The reality of right now, what's going on with my body, connecting me to myself to the Lord again, so that I'm not like dissociated. It's almost like you become dissociated when you're in this constant state of stress and trauma.
[00:20:21] But when we move our hands, the thoughts settle into this moment right now. So that's another cool thing that it does. It also. We're getting super scientific, but I hope this helps you. It stimulates the vagus nerve, which is the body's calming switch.
[00:20:37] And that is the nerve that runs practically through every organ in our body. It touches it in some way. So it affects heart rate, breathing, digestion, mood and emotional safety. So when we have this repetitive motion, gently stimulating that it will actually cause the vagus nerve to slow the heartbeat, deeper the breathing, and we'll have less anxiety, we'll have emotional grounding and we will stabilize our mood. So that's amazing. If you're a woman, you should be like, oh my God, that's what I need. Just stabilizing mood in and of itself is worth it, right? Because this, this is like rocking your own nervous system the way that you would rock a baby.
[00:21:20] That's what we're doing. Our vagus nerve is getting stimulated in a way that's good, in a calming way, the same way a babies get stimulated when we rock them.
[00:21:30] So here's a beautiful thought that God designed you for rhythm.
[00:21:36] So he designed you for rhythm. You know, there's a rhythm, there's a morning, there's an evening, there's a seed time, there's a harbor harvest, there's a Sabbath, there's seasons, there's shepherding rhythms, there's, there's all these rhythms. And, and I think that we can even put creativity into this, this thought.
[00:21:57] Because God restores our soul according to Psalm 23:3.
[00:22:03] And so one of the ways that he's going to restore our soul, he uses creativity to restore our soul.
[00:22:10] So when you get into a rhythm of creativity in your life, not just a once in a sporadic moment creativity, but like there's maybe like once a week you set aside some time to do this creative thing that you really like, you know, I mean, if you can do it every day, yay. But most people can't. But maybe once or twice a week you can maybe you love to take pictures, photography. I'm actually getting into that more and more. It just makes me feel better, you know, is it worth you?
[00:22:39] You could go out one day a week and you could just jump in your car and you could go find specific places that you have been wanting to take pictures of and then you just print them out and you look at them, you put them on your walls.
[00:22:53] Maybe you decide this makes you feel so good that you want to invest in a better camera. Who knows where that could go, right? But it matters. And it's a part of the rhythm that God wants to heal you through you, you know, engaging in this creative, creative, rhythmic thing with him.
[00:23:12] So I also love the fact that repetition can give your brain the gift of complete completion, which is cool because have you ever had a checklist? And I'm kind of like this, like I write things in my phone, my checklist, things I need to do that day. And every time I do one, I just Erase it off of there, because it makes me feel so good.
[00:23:34] You know what that is? That is a release of, like, dopamine that gives you that feeling of accomplishment and sometimes repetition, you know, going through the process of repeating something until you get done. You finish a song that you're playing or you finish cooking the meal, there's that release of dopamine that you have from the repetition, from the completion of it, and it just. It lifts your mood, it gives you motivation, it creates the satisfaction, and it helps restore hope in you. I hope that I'm getting you fired up about this and how amazing creativity could be. If you want to partner with God in this thing, he definitely is creative and wants you to be creative. And I said this last time, I'll say it again. I think everybody has a creative spark in them that is just from God, and it's a tiny bit of his personality reflection of an expression that he has that he wants to create through you.
[00:24:35] Everybody's is different.
[00:24:37] I have a writing gift. I know other people that have a writing gift, too, but theirs comes out completely different, which is so cool, because now it becomes really individualized and personalized to each person. They have their own unique way of creating with God. But it's going to bring you so much joy. I'm telling you, every time I come in here to make a podcast episode, which is also another creative outlet for me, sometimes I worry that I'm not going to have anything useful to say, or I'm like, what am I going to you tell talk about like. Or does anybody even listen? Or, why am I doing this? And just feeling kind of beat down about it.
[00:25:15] By the time I get done with the episode and I'm finished, I feel good.
[00:25:19] I'm like, even if no one listens to this, I like it. It's fun. It makes me feel better. It releases dopamine in my brain. Now I could go eat a big bag of chocolate, in, which I have done before, and I could get a dopamine release. But how unhealthy is that? That is so bad for me. And it's a temporary, unhealthy, quick fix to get something. You might do it in other ways. People do crazy things to get dopamine and serotonin and adrenaline in their body. If they're not taking a drug, it could be some awful behavior that they exhibit and do these things to get what they need. And honestly, really, one of the best outlets is going to be creativity to get those things that you need. It's actually Giving out what you already have in creating things.
[00:26:13] So. Yeah. So I love this. And. And I just want to end today.
[00:26:19] And I just want to just pray. Pray us out. And. And I just want to encourage you to find.
[00:26:27] Find something this week that you enjoy that's creative. I'm looking at the leaves outside right now. Maybe you like to create or. Yeah. Gather different kinds of leaves and make projects out of them. Who knows where that could go?
[00:26:43] I mean, I was at. I don't know where me and my husband were. We were at some, like, craft mall thing. And, like, people were charging, like, fifty hundred dollars for this glass case thing that had, like, three or four butterflies in it. I'm like. And I asked him. I'm like, how did. How did they. Did they. Did they go kill these butterflies?
[00:27:06] Like, that's somebody's art, you know? And I'm thinking, there are so many things you could do. One of the things I'm really getting into. I talked about pottery. I do. I still haven't had a chance to start, but one of the things I really want to do is become, like, more of an herbalist kind of person who, you know, can make apothecary remedies for just everyday ailments and things like that. And I want to be able to go outside and forage in my own four acres that we own and know what these plants are. I mean, this is a useful creative outlet, honestly, because, like, you could start making your own remedies, you know, and these are the things that God made for us to heal our bodies, you know, as opposed to toxic, chemically created things.
[00:27:53] So one of my creative outlets now is studying this, but also learning how to create herbal remedies for people. So it's all over the place, y'. All. There's so many things. Don't. Don't be trapped inside of a box that's like, oh, can only do creativity. Only has to do with painting or drawing or, you know, writing a song or whatever. No, there's so much more. There's so much more. So I hope that this stirs you up, and I cannot wait to jump back in this next week. And until then, I will see you later. Have a great week. Week.
[00:28:51] Ha.
