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If you’ve ever wanted to take singing, dancing, or knitting lessons, you’ve got a perfect reason to start: Creativity reduces stress and keeps you healthy.

Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn, like singing, dancing, or acting? Or perhaps you have a love for horses and want to take riding lessons? Don’t brush it off as a silly extravagance or something you just don’t have the time or money for — giving into your creative desires is not only fun, it’s also good for your emotional health.

Creative Thinking: Why Creativity Is Important

Creativity is important for a number of reasons, including:

• It’s fun and enjoyable. Doing things that you like reduces stress and improves overall well-being.
• It boosts self-confidence. Trying new things can improve self-confidence and make you a more interesting person.
• It stimulates the brain. Creativity sharpens the brain, which can stem the advance of dementia in old age. The more new things you learn, the more use the brain gets — and the sharper it will remain. It’s often recommended that seniors learn new skills and challenge themselves with new opportunities, but this recommendation is appropriate for any age.

Creative Thinking: A Balanced Life

You already know that all work and no play do not make for a healthy life — and can result in a pretty unhappy you. But that also doesn’t mean that all play and no work is good either, and that’s why striking the right balance is so important.

Working and being productive helps keep you sharp, organized, and even happy — as long as it’s well balanced with leisure and creativity. Whether it’s at your daily job, taking care of your children, or cleaning up your home and yard, you feel a great sense of accomplishment after a productive day — and that does a lot for your emotional health. But we all need time to rest and rejuvenate, and do something fun and stimulating. So block off some time each day or each week for a little creativity.

Creative Thinking: Making the Most of Your Time

During your “you” time, do anything that you enjoy or anything that’s new and different to you. Make it something that’s challenging, stimulating, and that you look forward to. Here are some good ways to challenge your brain, learn new skills, and get your creative juices flowing:

• Write in a journal or do some creative writing
• Tackle a crossword puzzle
• Take a knitting, crochet, or cross-stitch class
• Take up gardening
• Visit the theater
• Take a painting or sculpture class
• Take a dance class
• Learn yoga or tai chi
• Listen to lectures
• Take a cooking class
• Learn to sing or play a musical instrument
• Learn to speak a new language
• Go back to school and take some academic or other classes of interest to you

Most importantly, whatever you decide to do, make it fun. Sure, it’s one more thing to add to your busy schedule, but taking time for creativity is one of the best investments you can make for your body and spirit.

You may have heard the expression “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” In fact, the ability to recover from life’s inevitable problems is a quality worth nurturing.

Always look on the bright side of life. Keep on the sunny side. Lyrics like these hold more than a grain of truth for people who want to recover from difficult times.

Psychological resilience — the ability to bounce back relatively successfully from negative situations — is an important tool to have when you are faced with unpleasant events, mild stressors, or challenging relationships.

“There is no single definition of resilience, but generally it refers to the capacity of an individual to adapt to difficult circumstances; in other words, to maintain functioning in the face of adversity,” says Colin A. Depp, PhD, assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the school of medicine and a researcher at the Stein Institute for Research on Aging at the University of California, San Diego.

Resilience: Benefits

Depp recently surveyed 1,395 women over age 60 to find out what characteristics accompanied greater resilience during aging. He and his colleagues found that women who scored high in resilience also reported:

• A greater sense of self-control over their lives
• Greater tolerance of negative emotions
• Trust of their own instincts
• Use of spiritual practices to cope

Studies of people who are facing difficult situations — for example, their own illness or that of a loved one — clearly demonstrate that a positive outlook makes a difference in their emotional health.

Here’s why: negative emotions — the ones that drag you down — can trigger a physical “fight or flight” response and keep you narrowly focused on the source of your distress.

But positive emotions, even the ones you have to work at, actually have a calming effect on your physical response, boost your immunity, and ultimately broaden your perspective so that you can see more recovery options than you thought you had.

Resilience: Building Some in Your Life

Depp says that while you’re striving for the four outcomes found in his study, there are other steps you can take to become resilient.

“In general, the best things to do would be to limit exposure to chronic uncontrollable stress to the extent you can; build a resilient body through nutrition, good sleep, and physical activity; and engage in activities that help you either feel more in control or help you tolerate negative emotions,” says Depp.

Here are some proven techniques that can increase your positive emotions and the belief that you can cope:

• Build positive relationships. Depp’s survey demonstrates that people who are socially engaged often are also more resilient.
• Count your blessings. Trite, but true: Taking time at least once a week to write down sources of gratitude increases positive emotions.
• Explore a spiritual path. Finding or deepening your spiritual practices can help build resilience.
• Focus on the positive in a journal. People who use more words expressing positive emotion when keeping a journal have better outcomes.
• Laugh more. Build humor into your life.
• Make a plan and take action. Planning active steps to solve a problem or some aspect of a problem in your life is essential to resilience and recovery.
• Pat yourself on the back. Knowing you have skills and abilities in certain areas of your life can balance a sense of inadequacy in other areas.

While it is true that there are some people who seem to have a natural gift for resilience, it is possible to learn how to sail through difficult times.

A healthy diet and exercise are great for your body, but don’t neglect your emotional health and well-being. Reducing stress, getting enough sleep, and having fun are all ways to find happiness.

When your mind is frazzled and stressed, and your emotions are taking over your thoughts and affecting your everyday activities, it’s time to take a step back, take a deep breath, and relax. Of course focusing on your physical health is crucial, but so is treating your mind and spirit to the same attention. Your happiness goes a long way in protecting your overall well-being.

Happiness and Well-Being: Why It’s Important

Emotions are one aspect of a person’s health that often get neglected. But if youremotional health is suffering, your physical health will too.

Your emotional health is just a term for how you feel — your overall happiness and well-being. Are you stressed? Unhappy? Unsatisfied? Worried and anxious? Then your emotional health needs some serious attention, or your body will start paying the price.

Happiness and Well-Being: How It Feels

Being emotionally healthy is a huge plus. People with good emotional health:

• Believe that there is a good balance to their life between leisure time, activity, and work
• Feel good about themselves, and don’t suffer from self-esteem issues
• Believe that there is a purpose to their lives
• Are able to accept changes better and just go with the flow
• Enjoy living, and know the value of fun and laughter
• Have less stress, and are better equipped to deal with stress
• Have better relationships with others
• Are contented with their lives

Happiness and Well-Being: When All’s Not Well

“If we do not care for ourselves, frustration, tension, anger, and poor health can develop,” says Sally R. Connolly, a clinical social worker, therapist and co-founder of CounselingRelationshipsOnline.com, an online counseling service.

Even when you know how important it is to take good care of your emotions, it can still be a tall order. It can be tough to find time for yourself, and some people may feel guilty about pampering or spoiling themselves from time to time. Others may just ignore their feelings and stressors and hope they just go away. However, they usually don’t — and at some point, unaddressed emotional problems often result in serious consequences, from illness to relationship problems to harmful behavior.

“Many of us, women especially, have the irrational belief that caring for ourselves or putting our own mental and emotional health first is selfish,” says Connolly. “Women are reared to be caregivers and usually put themselves last.”

Happiness and Well-Being: Getting Started

Make a decision to do something nice for yourself every day and stick to it.

“For many people it has to be a conscious process,” says Connolly. “They must take time to do it. I often recommend some simple ritual as a way of honoring themselves.” She recommends something as simple as daily meditation to inspire peace and relaxation.

Other rituals might involve:

• Getting up a few minutes early to drink your morning coffee in peace
• Taking a walk every day
• Having regularly scheduled events with close friends or family
• Finding time to be alone with your spouse

Happiness and Well-Being: Tips for Emotional Health

Focusing on your emotional health isn’t hard, but it may be an adjustment for you. Some simple — and really enjoyable — changes are all it takes to boost happiness and well-being. Follow these ideas to strengthen your emotional health:

• Exercise. It protects physical and emotional health, relieves stress, and makes you feel good.
• Make time for laziness. You don’t have to be constantly on the go — that’s how you get run down. Spend a little time each day or each week doing something you enjoy that is completely frivolous. For example, watch TV or a silly movie, chat on the phone, play a game, or just listen to music.
• Spend some time in the sun. With sunscreen, of course. But sunlight is a great natural way to boost your mood.
• Deal with your emotions. Learn how to properly deal with stress, anger, and anxiety instead of keeping them bottled up inside.
• Be healthy inside. This means avoiding junk food and sticking to a healthy diet. You should also steer clear of smoking, drug use, and too much alcohol.
• Treat your senses. Do little things that make you happy and stimulate your senses, like lighting a scented candle, buying some fresh-cut flowers, indulging in a massage, or treating yourself to your favorite food or drink.
• Sleep. Everyone gets cranky without enough sleep, so dedicate adequate sleep time every night. Or treat yourself to a nap every now and then.
• Be creative. Spend some time learning new things, like a new language or skill (for example, music or knitting). Even just working in your garden can help you relax and feel satisfied.
• Adopt an animal. Pets offer fun, relaxation, and a whole lot of love. They can encourage you to exercise, and tear your attention away from stressful activities.

The bottom line is pretty simple: take time for happiness. Allow yourself to enjoy life, fun, and relaxation. Be thankful for what you have, and enjoy it.