Unbreakable Mind & Body

43. Rediscovering Joy: Why Making Art Matters to Your Mental Health

• Tiana Gonzalez • Episode 43

Share episode

Ever wonder what happened to those creative passions that once lit up your childhood? The drawings proudly displayed on refrigerators, the dance routines performed in living rooms, the stories written in spiral notebooks? Somewhere along the way, many of us packed these joys away, convinced they weren't practical or profitable enough to deserve space in our adult lives.

This episode challenges that notion head-on, exploring why reconnecting with creative expression is vital for mental resilience and genuine self-care. I share my own journey with dance and various outlets.

When we treat creativity like a muscle that needs regular exercise, we strengthen not just our artistic abilities but our capacity for joy, processing emotions, and connecting with ourselves. 

Movement practices like dance offer particularly powerful benefits for clearing stagnant energy and processing trauma that talk therapy alone sometimes can't reach. 

The world needs your unique creative expression, not because it might make you famous, but because it makes you more fully human. What creative pursuit will you rediscover today?

Send us a text

Connect with Me

Instagram: www.instagram.com/tianasmindandmoves

Website: unbreakablemindandbody.com

Email: info@unbreakablemb.com

Download your Free 5-Min Pre-Workout Guide:

https://tiana-gonzalez.mykajabi.com/likeyoumeanit

Disclaimer: This show is for education and entertainment purposes only. This is not intended as a replacement for therapy. Please seek out the help of a professional to assist you with your specific situation.


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Unbreakable Mind and Body podcast. I am your host, tiana Gonzalez, a multi-passionate, creative storyteller and entrepreneur with a fierce love for movement. This is our space for powerful stories and actionable strategies to help you build mental resilience and elevate your self-care practice. Together, we will unlock the tools that you need to create an unbreakable mind and body.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the show. I am your host, tiana, and on this episode, I'm going to encourage you to share your art. This episode is a little bit different than most of the episodes you will find on this show, because we're just going to talk and I want to relay the message that it's vital for you to find things hobbies, interests, leagues, platforms, different rooms to put yourself in that allow you to participate not just sit on the sidelines and watch, but be an active participant in life. One of the easiest ways to start doing that is to reflect back and think about the things that you loved to do when you were a child. What were those things? Maybe it was pencil sketching or making Lego figures, it could be dancing, singing, chess, you name it and I have found so much value in my own personal life journey and experiences, in coming full circle back into more of my creative and playful side. It has brought me so much joy, it has made my life lighter and it has made me a better human being to interact with, to work with, to train with, to engage in conversation with, because I'm filling my cup and I'm doing things that bring me joy, that are for the simple enjoyment of doing them.

Speaker 2:

Now, a lot of times when we talk to people maybe someone we don't know very, very well, or maybe somebody very close to us, but when we talk to them and we say you know how do, how would you define yourself? A lot of times, people start with either their work or their role in their immediate family structure, and there's nothing wrong with that. However, let's go deeper Now. If you know me on a personal note, you know that I ask the tough questions. Some in my past have told me I can be confrontational or intimidating, and that's actually not true. What I am is a truth seeker and because I have experienced a lot in my short time on planet Earth, I skipped the fluff. It's all from a good place, it all stems from the heart, and my questions come from a place of curiosity. But I love to know what people do that they don't get paid for. Or maybe they do it and they do get paid for it, but what do they love about it? So I love fitness and I do work in the fitness industry, and in addition to that, my list of hobbies and interests is extensive. Let's run through it, shall we? My first love, my baby, the love of my life is dancing and a very close second to that is music. Now, as a kid I played the B flat clarinet, the alto saxophone and then the tenor saxophone. I also love to sing. So, yes, I was a bit of a musical theater kid for a period of time when I had the opportunity to participate, and I love to perform.

Speaker 2:

In middle school and then in high school I was able to study dance at a professional dance studio and perform in company. Those were things that just really lit up my life as a young teen and young adult. Now, later on in life, most of the dancing I would do would be at New York City nightclubs and at festivals. There were a few auditions here and there. I did audition for the New York City dancers. I don't remember the year, maybe 2000 or 2001. I got cut and I auditioned for several videos or to be an extra.

Speaker 2:

You know, in New York City those events pop up at the last minute. They were typically during Monday through Friday, nine to five. Anywhere in there it would just be like, oh, we're doing an open call today at three o'clock. Be at this address. There is a paper called the Village Voice and I used to peruse the pages and then eventually in the late nineties, early two thousands it became available online and you could search the wanted ads online. That were updated periodically. And I don't remember the cadence and it was incredibly tough because I was working a nine to five in Northern Westchester County but my heart was in New York City, either bartending or dancing on a box or auditioning for a music video extra role, something like that and after being cut for so many opportunities that I really had my eyes, you know, set on and my heart was yearning for these things, just to get the slight chance to perform, to dance in front of an audience, to be on a stage, that is what I really prayed for, that is what I wanted to do with my life, and it is a very difficult career to try to make into something fruitful. It is very inconsistent, the compensation was not very good and it would be feast or famine. And so after some time I decided I'm done with these auditions.

Speaker 2:

I actually did some modeling photos. I had a very close friend who was the head male model for their campaign. I'm not gonna say his name or the modeling agency or the company he was with, but it was really interesting to see a very handsome Westchester guy on every bus stop in Times Square, advertisements in the malls and all over New York City and in magazines. Of course I don't remember how much runway he did, but he was a friend from the gym and I remember running into him and I asked him to share my photos with his agent and he was like yeah, sure, obviously you know I'd do anything for you. Then you know you're a friend. So he took a floppy disc showing my age. He took a floppy disc with a few photos that I had professionally done, took it to his agent, saw him at the gym later on he gave me the disc back and he said you know, my agent said you have an absolutely gorgeous face, but you're a little too muscular and you don't have the height that they're looking for. So unfortunately it's not going to work out. And I said, okay, no problem.

Speaker 2:

And after that I just decided you know what I'm just going to hide. I'm going to save those most precious pieces of myself for me. Now I would venture off into some dance classes in the city here and there. And for those of you listening who are not from New York, when I say the city. I'm referring to Manhattan and, yes, even people who live in one of the other boroughs of New York City, which would be the Bronx, brooklyn, queens or Staten, even if you live in one of those four boroughs, if you're traveling in and out of Manhattan, you call it the city, just so we're clear. All right. So I decided I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm going to keep my dancing to myself, except when I'm in clubs with my friends. I'm not going to perform anymore and I must not be very good, because I couldn't turn my passion, my craft, my love into a paid career.

Speaker 2:

Now, when I was in high school, I did teach dance and I did it as a hobby. I did it on the side, it was just for a little extra cash and I was teaching adults. When I was 15 years old and my senior year I was working at a. Well, it was the summer. After my senior year, before freshman year of college, I worked at a summer camp and I taught children, boys and girls, ages three all the way up to 13, creative movement and dance Not an easy feat. So I know my way around the dance studio and I know my way around structuring classes, creating a proper warmup, putting a playlist together, putting together a combination that's fun and entertaining, that's easy to break down, easy for me to teach, easy for me to learn, or at least not necessarily easy but appropriate for the level in which everyone in the room was.

Speaker 2:

But at the time meaning the time that I was in college and then when I graduated from college it was the late 90s, early 2000s it was, and is still, very competitive to get a teaching job as a dance instructor and most dance instructors are bouncing around from school to school to school and do something else, for example, waitressing, tending bar, making drinks, working in hospitality. They may perform, you know it's. It is different now in 2025 than it was 25 years ago, but it's still rough and it was challenging back then and I'm sure even now life has posed more challenges for people in that line of work and I didn't want that struggle line of work and I didn't want that struggle and fun fact. Being aware of that type of struggle was part of what kept me away from getting into fitness sooner, because, even if I was making a not so great salary, working in commercial real estate and property management and using my engineering degree, it was still something stable. I knew I was getting a paycheck at the end of each week, whereas when you're a freelance artist and or teacher or you're doing one-on-one private lessons or training sessions, it's not salaried and there's typically not great benefits. That changed. Also when you know bigger fitness facilities started to really pop off, but back in the late nineties and early two thousands, it was a different, different ball game. So we fast forward and now we're working in fitness. I say we, like you've been there with me. I'm working in fitness. I'm able to experience some of that teaching vibe again because I was doing small group training sessions with anywhere from three to 10 people in a little bootcamp class. I also taught at some boutique studios and I had to curate playlists. So that was a lot of fun and I was so grateful for the experiences I had when I was much younger because I could tap into it and I realized that I really loved putting things together and the creative process of not only creating a fun and enjoyable yet challenging workout, but the music and the vibe that I wanted to create in the room and really having autonomy to do that, which brought me, in a roundabout and very long, twisted way into coming back to myself and finding those creative outlets that light me up.

Speaker 2:

Last year, in 2024, I decided almost about a year ago today. I decided you know what I want to learn how to paint. I bought acrylic paints, I bought an easel, I bought a bunch of canvases, a bunch of brushes and then some other tools, and I have not taken any lessons. I might have watched one or two YouTube videos just to get the hang of a technique, but I'm exploring painting all on my own. In addition to that, I started learning how to draw. I bought a tiny little notebook and some pencils of different graphite hardness and an eraser, and I don't draw as much as I paint, and I don't paint as much as I dance, and I don't dance as much as I work or podcast. But it's all there and the cool thing is, at any moment, I can just decide to create something new. What's even cooler is that there are some of my pieces of artwork that are out in the world, so I've shared some of my artwork on social media, of course, and I have one painting that was commissioned and is now framed and hanging in someone's room and they love it and they said that the framer was very complimentary and said wow, this painting is really cool. And that's a huge compliment for me because, like I said, I don't have much experience and I didn't take any lessons. I just painted from the heart. I just trusted my gut. Which leads me to the whole point of this episode.

Speaker 2:

Creativity is like a muscle when you tap into it, you make it stronger. It's very similar to sculpting your body. You have to lift weights, you have to do it on a consistent basis, and it could feel like day after day after day after day, you don't see any changes, but they're happening beneath the surface and when you tap into your creative interests, you learn. By doing, you figure out what you like and don't like by trying things, by testing things. It's similar to food you don't know if you don't like something if you don't try it. So I want to encourage you to tap into your creative skills and interests. If you are someone who has always wanted to try something and hasn't done it yet, I don't know what the fuck you're waiting for, because we're not getting any younger, honey, okay. So maybe it's painting, maybe it's drawing, maybe it's learning new games. I'm learning Spanish too.

Speaker 2:

I forgot to mention that and you know that was going really well. I was doing about 30 minutes to an hour of comprehensible input. Every day it's dwindled off a little bit. September has been a very insane month, both in my personal life and in my professional life, and I mean insane in the best ways possible, so I don't want to sound ungrateful and I mean insane in the best ways possible, so I don't want to sound ungrateful. There's just been a lot of change and it's all been fucking amazing. And maybe, just maybe, I'll share that with you in a future episode, but for right now, you know, when something is so special that you don't want to tell anyone because you don't want anybody to ruin it, that's kind of what's going on in my life and let's just say I'm really happy, really, really, really happy.

Speaker 2:

So maybe it's dance, maybe it's playing an instrument, maybe it's learning how to sing, maybe it's a new board game or activity, maybe it's a team in which you may want to find a league, an adult league, in your area. I have a couple of things I have on my list that I'm interested in, that I want to explore. One of them is learning how to swing a golf club correctly. I used to hit golf balls way back in the day at the driving range and it was a lot of fun, but I was also terrible at it, so I would love to pick up that skill. I also do not know how to play chess. I'm embarrassed to say that, because my father was an exceptional chess player when I was a little girl, and once he went to jail he became an even better chess player. He's very hard to beat, so those things are kind of like on my someday list. I don't really have a yearning or a strong desire, but the thing I do have a strong desire to do is to get back into the dancing.

Speaker 2:

Now I'm going to tell you the thing about dancing that's really great and healthy is that it's going to help you clear stagnant energy in your body. So if you're someone who's healing from some trauma, or maybe you're going to therapy because you recently got divorced, movement is going to be the answer for you. It allows you to get out of your head and get down into your body, and when you get down into your body, where are you closer to? You are closer to the ground, so you're getting more grounded, and that is always a fabulous thing to do. It will help you get clear on the things that you really want for yourself and on the things that you don't. And let me say this one last final note before I wrap it up when you know that you are done with something in your life and you want to just shut the door and move on, do not waste a single second of your life contemplating, deliberating or second guessing yourself. Trust your gut, because it will never steer you wrong.

Speaker 2:

So if you have a creative interest that you are actively participating in or you're about to start, please let me know. If you check the show notes, you can link with me on social media. My handle is there. I'd love to connect with you and then we could talk in the DMs. I want to hear all about things that light you up. Maybe it's photography, maybe it is modeling, maybe it's putting together curating outfits for people or helping people sort out their closet.

Speaker 2:

I love that and I wish that I had the skill and the talent and the desire to do it. It's just not really my jam. I love that and I wish that I had the skill and the talent and the desire to do it. It's just not really my jam. I wear basic colors, basic clothing, and I keep it very simple, primarily athleisure. And then, occasionally, I wear a pair of jeans and then, when I'm going out on a date, I'll wear a fancy dress and heels and that's about it. As always, I appreciate your time and attention and listening to me. Yap, once again in our cozy little coffee shop conversation. I will see you on the next one.