Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way people live and behave. Mental health has become more fragile due to social distancing, stress and fears, and the consequences of the disease. This chapter points out how the context of COVID-19 affects people's lives and the significance of doing creative tasks during these uncertain times. Research has shown that creativity can enhance the ability to cope and heal, as it heightens resilience and abilities of problem-solving. Moreover, everyone can learn techniques to become more creative and develop this skill through time and experience. For example, creativity increases through communication and collaboration with others. Therefore, this chapter demonstrates the relevance of practicing creativity during a worldwide pandemic, providing examples of applications and solutions for everyone to improve mental health and well-being.
TopIntroduction
There will be a before-, a current-, and an after-Covid-19 period. Covid-19 has changed the way citizens used to live. Physical and mental fragility have increased due to more diseases, stress, and fears of contracting the virus (Campbell & Gavett, 2021). In Quebec, Canada, the government has invested $100 million to prevent psychosocial mental health issues, and thus improve citizen’s resilience. In addition, cultural organizations created the Covidartmuseum, which is based on liberating artistic expressions related to the Covid-19 pandemic. It seems that a creative process helps to relieve distress by opening a way to express, understand, and regulate emotions. Research has shown the positive influence of art therapy on both mental and physical health (Kaimal et al., 2017). Therefore, Norway has integrated music therapy into its mental health care system, as a lever for well-being. Robinson (2001) showed that being creative involves imagination and seeing things differently. Therefore, creativity can bring out a new and appropriate response to specific issues (Amabile, 2012). Moreover, creative tasks improve self-confidence, intuition, memorization, organization, and limit aging and disease consequences (Lemarquis & Cyrulnik, 2020). Yet, researchers want to find out to which extent creativity can improve people’s lives and well-being (Williams et al., 2018).
This chapter discusses how the Covid-19 pandemic affects people’s lives and the relevance of doing creative tasks during uncertain times. More specifically, this chapter shows that creativity represents a way to prevent mental health issues, heal people, and favor collaboration and communication. Everyone can learn creativity, and develop this skill through time and practice (Ramocki, 2014). Therefore, the authors highlight relevant creative techniques for everyone, shaping the way towards more positivity and other well-being benefits.
First, this chapter presents the background of the current context to understand how the Covid-19 pandemic influences people’s lives, work, and education. Second, the authors discuss the link between creativity and Covid-19 to highlight the relevance of creativity. Third, this chapter provides solutions and recommendations regarding the prevention of mental health thanks to creativity, learning techniques to foster creativity, and managerial insights to build a creative environment at work. Finally, future research directions highlight the concepts of creativity anxiety and adoption, different aspects of creativity, as well as art therapy.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Digital Literacy: The capacity, knowledge, motivation, and competence to access, process, engage and understand the information with digital technologies ( Beaunoyer et al., 2020 ).
Creative Self-Efficacy: Degree of self-belief in the ability to create creative outcomes ( Tierney & Farmer, 2002 ).
Creativity: An ability to think and design new inventions, produce works of art, solve problems in new ways, or develop an idea based on an original, new, or unconventional approach (Prikzer & Runco, 2020 AU124: The in-text citation "Prikzer & Runco, 2020" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
Divergent Thinking: A thought, process or method used to generate creative ideas through different solutions.
Resilience: An ability to successfully cope with a situation that is perceived as stressful, harmful, or risky, and to recover, adapt and succeed in living and developing positively outcomes.
Art Therapy: A human service profession that uses art media, images, the creative process, and patient responses to transform into art productions as reflections of an individual's development, abilities, personality, interests, concerns, and conflicts ( Cohen-Liebman, 2002 ).
Convergent Thinking: The process of combining elements and then presenting them in new ways ( Flemming et al., 2019 ).