Creativity for Stress Release

 (An introductory note: this was written for a college class offered at Fort Dix Federal Correctional Institution. I have made a few corrections in my prose - if you're going to write, then learn to revise!)

Stress injures our mental health. Without a healthy mental life, we will ruin our lives.

Human beings possess the ability for creative activity. I believe creativity counters stress. Perhaps even that stress occurs when our creativity is stymied or allowed to be inactive.

Writing is my principal creative act. Writing takes effort - unlike talking which is natural. Writing takes mindfulness - just like meditation. Choosing the correct word, structing sentences, organizing one's paragraphs to convey emotions and ideas honestly and accurately engages the mind in a way that gives vent to one's stress.

I find support for my ideas in my reading of Victor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and Albert Camus' The Rebel.

This blog and the journal from which it is based puts into practice my ideas on handling stress. However, do not limit yourself - write what works for you. This could be fiction or non-fiction or poetry as well as memoirs or journals.

A friend once told me a writer reads and I will make a few suggestions on books that may help you in starting on your writing (as well as the Frankl and Camus books noted above):

1. The Diary of Anne Frank
2. Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
3. On Writing, Stephen King
4. The Lost Landscape, Joyce Carol Oates

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2/11/2020 & 6/12/21