Being Creative Helped Me Cope, a guest post by Georgia Clare

Surviving Losses and Divorce by Making Jewellery, Decorating My House and Colouring

I have really enjoyed seeing the work of

Georgia Clare

developing here on Substack, so I was thrilled that she was interested in doing a guest post here on Create Me Free. In this article, she shares the myriad benefits of creativity, including providing a mental escape, helping process emotions, restoring a sense of control, fostering mindfulness, and offering healing, relaxation, and personal growth.

All photos by Georgia Clare

Sometimes it’s only by looking back that we can see the things that helped, the things that gave us distraction when we needed it, or took our minds to a different place, a quieter more peaceful place.

That’s how it’s been with me over the last 5 years with being creative.

I was raised creative. My mother taught me sewing, baking, and crafts of every type you can imagine from making paper flowers out of tissue paper to pyrography (I have to be honest, I’ve only just learned that word, as what I called it was just using the burny gun to make pictures on wood that my dad brought home!)

My grandmother taught me how to knit and crochet, and my grandfather’s gave me my love of flowers from their beautiful gardens.

I did the same with my own girls when they were little.

Gradually as they got older and I did too, I didn’t seem to do as many crafts anymore. I sort of had bursts of it. Card making, jewellery making with tiny beads, making clothes for my girls, making crazy witchy coats out of old jumpers, watercolour painting.

My online work though, was getting busier and busier. Although that was creative, photography and other Photoshop work, it was all done on the computer, apart from actually taking the photos.

I was facing some stressful family issues and a huge life change. I’d left the tightly knit religious community I had been a part of for my whole life. The consequences of this decision were that most of my family disowned me and pretty much all my friends. I was 49.

It was, as you can imagine, a challenge, but I was ok, I had my husband and we supported each other through the decision we’d made.

But one day I felt as if something was missing. I told him I really felt like I needed to do something with my hands, to get off the computer more and get back to being creative. 

At the time I had been learning a lot about crystals and crystal healing, so I thought I’d have a go at making some jewellery. I didn’t really know how to do it, but I was pretty good at figuring things out and I was also good at watching YouTube videos!

We were living in Thailand at the time, so I found a reputable supplier in Bangkok and bought a rainbow of beads and threads. I wanted to make Malas, as meditation had become very important to me.

As I started picking out the beads and working out the design, it all came back to me in a rush, I remembered how wonderful it was to lose myself in making something.

I had trouble figuring out how to get the knots between the beads so even and tight, but when I worked it out, it felt so good and satisfying. 

When I was stringing the beads, making sure to follow the design I had created, it was almost meditative. No other thoughts, complete focus. Which meant that any other stresses just were not in my head. There was no room for them. 

And then of course there is the satisfaction of finishing a piece, and knowing it’s good and beautiful and just what you had pictured in your mind.

It was exactly what I needed at that time. It was good for a couple of years, and I made it into a little business.

But life hit me again, with the hardest challenge of my life and for a while I couldn’t concentrate on anything more complicated than knitting a simple blanket, and even then, there were holes!

My marriage ended. And with it everything I’d ever known and trusted. My world ended. 

But gradually those hands needed to be put to more use than a keyboard and I felt the pull of needing to lose my mind again. 

My first DIY project was making a spare room into a guest room. In all my crafty days I hadn’t done much DIY as my husband was a very handy guy, so I left it up to him and just helped out when I was asked to. 

The room was sort of half renovated. We’d bought an old house and when we separated it was about 2/3 finished. I knew I needed to sand the plasterboarded walls before I could paint them, so I ventured into the cellar where all the tools were and found a sander.

Ugh! The mess. The dust! The cleaning!

But then the seeing it all take shape as I slapped on the paint. I didn’t stop at the walls, I did the floor too. Then I took the horrid old wooden bed apart and painted that grey. I dragged the two dated looking bedside cupboards outside and sprayed them a cream colour.

Then the super fun part. Putting it all together, making the bed, putting the new lamps and candles I’d bought in there, and the best part? Seeing my daughter’s face when I showed her the new room that was for her to stay when she slept over as she often does. (She only lives 30 minutes away, but we have wine, pizza and Netflix nights a lot in the winter!)

The look on her face was pride, she said she was proud of me!

That was it. The next was the hallway, then the upstairs landing area was totally changed. 

That kept me going for a while. Kept my creative urge satisfied.

But then it was winter, and my head turned to writing. I’ve always written but for the first time, I was taking it seriously. I knew I had an important message to share, and I knew writing was one big way I was going to do it.

That filled my days and my heart and still does. But one day I read something about how healing it is to do something fun just for the sake of it. Not because a room needs decorating, or someone needs a new dress, or I need a card to send. Just because.

And because this is the way these things happen, a few days later someone commented on one of my essays about colouring books and recommended one.

I thought, why not and within a couple of clicks it was on its way from Amazon! 

I never thought I would be someone who enjoys adult colouring books. To me, a craft always had to have a purpose, and the only purpose of this is my own pleasure. I’m not going to do anything with it.

It’s one of the best healthy stress reducers I have found. I usually put one of my classical music playlists on, pour myself either a glass of water or a glass of wine, depending on the time of day, and get lost in it. 

It’s like meditation. It’s soothing. It’s calming. And now I have an excuse to buy more art supplies! (Not that I need an excuse, I’m an adult I can do what I want, my eldest daughter told me when I said that to her!)

What are your creative ways to zone out? What have you found to be healing in your creative life?

Let me know in the comments!

Make sure to connect with

Georgia Clare

here on Substack or on her website. Be sure to check out her meditations and journal prompts. And see her books here.