When I think about the extent of the human mind, I don’t just think about the theories and ideas that make us dominant over the whole planet. I think of the beautiful and infinitely complicated art we all create that can be interpreted by everyone differently to be connected. I believe in life we do lose this mighty power of creativity to conformity and become what others want us to be. Creativity is our power to empower ourselves and others to feel and also to train and strengthen our brains.

If you listen to me just through this article I hope you can walk away and be excited to create something for yourself or others.

Working creatively not only makes something cool at the end of the process but it also helps your brain process things, allowing you to put your emotions into something, even if it’s simple. It makes sense, instead of thinking of something as an image or situation and converting it into language or letters you just copy it to paper. Along with this, creative activities can increase your learning capabilities and problem-solving.

So, not only is art good for your mental health, it also is good for developing your brain. Not just for you but also for your children too. Physical art develops motor skills at a young age, even language and decision-making, solving design problems and learning how to write and express things.

Art is not just good for your brain, it also empowers you. There have been many times in my life where I have very little control over what’s going on; in these times the only place I found peace was in art–every choice can be intentional, happening for a reason. With this focus, I think you can find solutions to your issues not just simple ones but abstract ones with intentionality.

Art is good for the brain and problems, but I want you to make another connection here. Literally, art can help you connect and feel a sense of community: others creating and collaborating or even just connecting with the art you create, the feelings it expresses and the story or artistry it shows, or even the fun you had while making it.

Art helps with tactile skills, mental health, and making those connections. But what if you are not inspired to make art right now? Well, the rest of this article is about that, showing you art and stories of it to inspire you to make art for these wonderful benefits.

One of the most famous and iconic stories of a painter is Vincent Van Gogh, known for his beautiful and unique pioneering style. But in his time he wasn’t as appreciated. He was poor in his country of France and the Netherlands most of his life, and wouldn’t really be recognized until the late 1910s to 1930s. He is now recognized as one of the greatest artists of all time for his style and beautiful, sometimes simple, subjects.

What this tells you is that art isn’t good or bad but very abstract–that even someone considered one of the best artists of all time now was unrecognized in his time.

Every great musician has moments where others doubt them and they have to believe in themself; a great example of this is Kanye West. Born in Atlanta in 1977, he would move to Chicago when he was three. He would be raised by his single mother Donda. By 7th grade Kanye was interested in producing beats and had started to throw himself in the mix of the scene in Chicago. He would stand out as a producer and would move to NYC for opportunities.

He would end up producing for Jay-Z. His next goal was to get signed, but at the time the whole world of formula of gangster rap really doubted his success. Scraping by studio time and working as a producer on the side of making his album, Kanye would have his career defining moment.

A crash in 2002 put Kanye in the hospital with a jaw injury. A lot of people thought that his career ended before it started, but he would come back to the apple being able to take enough of a bite to produce his hit track “Through the Wire.” This small success snowballed into one of the longest spanning and most successful Hip-hop runs of all time, spanning millions of CD sales, billions of streams and millions of dollars.

Imagine if someone had convinced him to just cut his losses after the accident. If you have passion, you can succeed in making art. Even if you are doubted on your style or ability.

An inspiring example of a writer as an artist is Neil Gaiman, the autohor of Coraline and The Sandman. Published by DC as a kid, he was infatuated with stories. He started as a journalist in the U.K. before moving to the U.S.A.

DC didn’t seem interested or very confident in his ability to write the dectective story the publishers pushed him into and even when finished they weren’t very confident–expecting it to be a commercial failure, but as the art would be finished by Dave McKean they were swayed into releasing it.

They published it and it would do very well for first works. It would enable Gaiman to write his next notable series for DC The Sandman, reusing some characters from the previous series with some changes. The Sandman would become critically acclaimed as a comic, and, yes, it is the modern version of the Sandman dream character you are thinking of–published about 20 years after the first one’s original publication.

The reformed series performed more than very well. If discouraged he could have stepped away from the project or just not continued comic writing but he didn’t step away and has seen great success, leading to a critically acclaimed comic series.

Many people may not understand your overall vision when you design something, but if the next vision might be acclaimed, so don’t let anyone stop you from trying.