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Creative Therapy

Posted by Julia Furman on

Creativity is a huge part of modern life. When humans feel stressed about something, they channel it into creating something, like a story, song, poem, or drawing. But why? Why do people feel an urge to be creative when life hits too hard? While it is often just seen has having fun or wasting time, being creative is actually a very helpful form of therapy. This is because creativity can reduce stress, and even help treat mental illnesses.


In the bustle of modern day life, squeezing in just a little time to relax and gather someone’s bearings can be difficult. However, having a creative outlet can be good therapy for the mind. According to verilymag.com, a magazine dedicated to helping women, “Whether it’s writing, baking, gardening, sewing, or playing music, a creative outlet can really improve your mental clarity.” Clarity is the quality of being clear, so mental clarity is a measure of how clear the mind is. This quote shows that hobbies like writing, sewing, and baking can be beneficial to a person’s mental health. Even if a person isn’t into creating things, experiencing someone else’s creative work, through listening to music or reading, can also help. But how, specifically, can the act of being creative  help a human with mental health?


Studies show that having a creative outlet can relieve stress and improve the mood. According to verilymag.com, creativity increases control over emotional pain and depression. This shows that being creative can help a person feel better after a tough time. From creating an elaborate masterpiece to just doodling, being creative can help improve the mood of someone who is suffering. This is the result of the person reflecting on and understanding themselves when creating something. Creativity allows a person to understand and develop their interests more, allowing a deeper understanding with themselves, their hobbies, and their limits.


Studies also show that being creative can help prevent diseases like Alzheimer's and heart disease. According to the American Journal of Public Health, chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s, heart disease, and depression are caused by high stress levels. CNN also reports that creative activities impact the brain in a way similar to meditation. In a way, creativity is like yoga for the brain. This shows that to de-stress, all someone have to do is to take some time to make something. The finished product, from a poem to a scarf to a batch of cookies, doesn’t have to be perfect. They just have to have fun with the process.


Is there a specific reason why creativity has such positive effects on the bodies of people? Perhaps being creative is a way to help us temporarily forget about the stresses of life. According to lifehack.org, “Many of the physical and mental benefits of creativity involve being in flow, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s term for that state we get into when we are so engaged in a creative task that our sense of time disappears and we temporarily forget ourselves and our “internal chaos.” This shows that the positive effects creativity has on people’s mental health is psychological. When people engage in a creative activity, they temporarily forget about the chaos they may be going through in their lives. This connects to the way creativity seems to relieve stress.


In conclusion, being creative can relieve stress and improve the mood, and even reduce the risk of chronic illnesses. This may be the reason many people turn to creative hobbies. At first glance, creativity and its health benefits might only appeal to neurologists, who study the brain, and doctors and therapists when trying to find new treatments for disease or depression. However, this topic should appeal to anyone who’s looking for a way to calm down after a rough time. This especially includes teenagers, who have a lot to go through and figure out  in their pre-adulthood phase. A lot of stressful things can happen, especially in middle and high school. When life hits where it hurts, it’s good to take some time off and relieve the stress by creating something.

Works CIted

Kirsten Nunez, Verily Magazine, 5 Proven Ways Creativity is Good for Your Health

Colette DeDonato, How Being More Creative Improves Your Mental and Physical Health

Julia Furman, Personal Experience


Is there a Fashion Scam on Instagram?

Posted by Zahira Tucker in English 3 · Pahomov · A Band on

Instagram plays a huge part in different people’s life from younger children to Adults. Children and Adults go on Instagram to see what their friends are doing and wearing. Showing off how one looks and keeping up with the latest fashion trends is a must. Everyone wants to be seen by setting a statement with what they wear so people either follow them or so they fit in. What’s different about Instagram is that these people do not have to be personal friends --  everyone follows celebrities to see what they are wearing so they can criticize and set the status of hot or not.  Instagram has a popular influence on fashion and what becomes a trend because it encourages increased attention on celebrities. Instagram is known for its square photo but is there for entertainment reasons and advertisement for anyone who needs it. A picture is worth a thousand words, thoughts, and emotions.

Celebrities set trends when they post their outfits on Instagram or when they go to outings to show people what they think is a good fashion “do.” Fashion did not just appear out of thin air, there needs to be some type of person or thing to help set what is a “do” and “don’t” for fashion. For example, there Kylie Jenner who made knee high boot heels a trend that was in and she used instagram to show her followers that it was okay. On instagram she posted pictures of her wearing a tan dress and tannish-green knee high heel boots. She set that trend several times with multiple post with knee high heel boots. Once she started to wear them there were many other people who started to post pictures with knee high heel boots on. If anyone was to search #KneeHighBoots on instagram it is a very popular hashtag.

In highsnobiety,  a fashion website, in their article  5 Trends That Died This Year (and 5 That Kept On Going)  they give a description on Chelsea Boots. They talk about how back then thanks to Kanye West the boots became popular by him just wearing them and the trend of wearing those boots became popular. It is shown that trends die if they fall out of style and or don’t adapt. However, now the trend is dying but is not completely dead; an exact quote being “Dying, but still dope. The fashion in-crowd was more about Gucci loafers this year, and a ton of streetwear guys were wooed by the Yeezy-approved combat boot.” From this description, it can be seen that Kanye West  going out and wearing those boots influenced males to start wearing them. Instagram is used as a tool to show off a product by using a celebrity as the face to sell that product and making it a trend. When these products are exposed to the majority, people start to wear them based off one person and that makes it a trend. It is different from a magazine because it’s free and also has a wider range for an audience. It also shows average people and their friends and others can also see people all over the world whereas in a magazine one can only see what they want to show.

Fashion designers can also be influenced in their designs by using instagram as a tool to connect with their audience because they know that their audience is there. Fashion designers are looking at what their audience is doing and how they dress and is taking that into consideration, basing their designs on that. Instagram today is changing how fashion has looked. In an article published on the website Social Media Today,  it states “Just consider the recent ZAC Zac Posen’s Spring-Summer Ready to Wear 2015 Collection; influenced by comments and suggestions from his over 640,000 Instagram followers.” From this one post on instagram came a popular fashion trend, a maxi dress, where he got inspiration from a picture of him on the beach because his audience gave him these creative ideas. Just like this one post on instagram fashion designers today go and look at one’s daily life and try to pertain to that to attract their buyer.

If Older Adults stopped to think about it, they would realize that Instagram having a popular influence on fashion is not just about and or does not just involve what people decide to wear or show off , but what those clothes could expressed to a person in need as well. They do not understand that instagram gives a lot of creativity for a artist to express their work and reach out to their audience. So, everyone need to be aware of others and clothes aren’t made to just be worn but to express a need if necessary.







Works Cited


Leach, Alec. “2016 Fashion Trends: 5 That Died and 5 That Kept Going.” Highsnobiety, Highsnobiety, 27 Dec. 2016, www.highsnobiety.com/2016/12/22/2016-fashion-trends-2015/. Accessed 19 Sept. 2017.


"Social Media Influences On Fashion." Social Media Today, 2017, http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/social-media-influences-fashion.


#kneehighboots • Instagram photos and videos, www.instagram.com/explore/tags/kneehighboots/?hl=en.