Tré La Creativity

Creativity is everywhere though I have come across many people saying to me, “Oh I wish I could do that,” or, “I’m not creative,” then a while later read their thought provoking blog or watch them paint their nails with amazing patterns. To be creative doesn’t have to mean that you are a published writer or a talented artist. Creativity can be found in our everyday actions. I would like to help show people their creative sides and walk alongside them as it grows and develops. People sharing their creative projects can be a big inspiration for others and I would like to provide opportunities for them to showcase their work.

I have suffered from fibromyalgia from a young age. I found that having an illness that stops you from regularly attending school makes you different. Being different causes others to treat you differently. If you don’t have the illness or know someone close then it isn’t likely that you are going to know a lot about it and this often leads to stigma and discrimination. In my case fibromyalgia is known for its pain. This is one of the many symptoms, the worst part for me is the way it affects my mental health. It can make it very difficult to concentrate, it leaves me with no energy and can often leave me feeling very low. I have found that doing something creative can help lift me back up, giving me something to focus on and helps to relieve stress. I also have the experiences of my mum and dad. My mum has Functional Disorder, this illness has stopped her from doing many of the activities that she used to do. Making use of her creativity by designing jewellery and making lampwork beads has really helped her cope. My dad was an extremely hard working man who had to stop work because of M.E. After ten years he has now started to do some work at home with wire work silversmithing and web design. Our creativity has enabled us to work. The creative side of our work gives us something to focus on and helps relieve stress. Through the social enterprise I would like to help in advancing awareness of mental health issues and work alongside charities such as Beatbullying to help support young people that are being affected by unnecessary stress. I would like to help people find ways of using their creativity to relieve stress and help those that have become unemployed due to illness on their road to recovery and paid work.

Aims
The social enterprise will aim to offer the community a place to come together to create, learn, network, sell and source supplies.
To encourage skills swapping  and sharing of tools and materials.
To work with the local community advancing the understanding of mental health issues and offering a way of using creativity to relieve stress.
To help those that have become unemployed due to illness on their road to recovery and paid work.

I would like to set up an online magazine style website which will have articles on creativity, health and well-being and reviews. It will also have an area to list events and workshops, a directory which will be filled with creative businesses and suppliers and a weekly showcase of arts and crafts. I would like to organise creative fairs in our local area and in the future open up a gallery shop with studio space for workshops and office space for freelancers to hire.

At the moment I am having to take things slow due to my health and being pregnant. I will be making small steps towards launching the enterprise like making contacts, putting the directory together and showing basic details through Facebook and Twitter lists. If you have a story about using creativity to help with stress and health please do send it to me to be archived and added when we launch. If you are interested in getting involved in the running of things let me know and we can discuss this further.

For more information about how you can get involved please read this post.

Please email me if you would like to discuss anything further mail@trelacreativity.com