The Real Cure for Burnout Isn’t Rest—It’s Creativity. Here's How Anyone Can Unlock Theirs

The Liz Moody Podcast

Liz Moody

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Education, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 101 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is creativity really just painting, writing, or dancing—or is it something far more essential to our wellbeing? In this fascinating conversation, Katina Bajaj, creative health scientist and co-founder of Daydreamers, shares why creativity is a core pillar of health—just as important as diet, sleep, and exercise. Drawing from neuroscience, psychology, and her work at Columbia University, Katina explains how simple daily creative practices can boost mental health, improve resilience, and help us thrive. In this episode, we unpack: What creative health actually means—and why it’s overlooked The 8 pillars of creativity validated by research How “mini-c creativity” can reduce stress & support long-term brain health Why flow state matters (and how it differs from scrolling) How to close stress cycles through creative expression Tools to overcome perfectionism, autopilot, and conformity Practical ways to infuse creativity into any job, hobby, or relationship ✨ This episode redefines creativity as an everyday wellness practice—not a luxury. It will leave you inspired to reclaim your creative brain for better mental health, resilience, and joy. ✨ Homework: After listening, take 15 minutes for a creative practice—doodle, dance, cook without a recipe, or write freely—and notice how it shifts your energy. For more from Katina Bajaj, find her on TikTok or Instagram @katina.bajaj, online at https://www.katinabajaj.com, or check out her company: https://daydreamers.co/ Check out the previous episode of The Liz Moody Podcast discussed today: The Seven-Minute Secret To Happiness That No One Is Talking About with Dr. Dacher Keltner Ready to uplevel every part of your life? Order Liz’s book 100 Ways to Change Your Life: The Science of Leveling Up Health, Happiness, Relationships & Success now! Connect with Liz on Instagram @lizmoody or online at www.lizmoody.com. Subscribe to the substack by visiting https://lizmoody.substack.com/welcome. Buy our cute sweatshirts, conversation cards, and more at https://shop.lizmoody.com/. Use our discount codes from our highly vetted and tested brand partners by visiting https://www.lizmoody.com/codes. To join The Liz Moody Podcast Club Facebook group, go to www.facebook.com/groups/thelizmoodypodcast. This episode is brought to you completely free thanks to the following podcast sponsors: AG1: go to DrinkAG1.com/LizMoody to get a free welcome kit. LMNT: visit DrinkLMNT.com/LizMoody to get a free LMNT sample pack with any order. Maui Nui: head to MauiNuiVension.com/Liz to get a limited collection of Liz’s favorite cuts and products. Evlo: go to EvloFitness.com and use code LIZMOODY for 6 weeks for free. Wildgrain: visit WildGrain.com/LizMoody for $30 off your first box. The Liz Moody Podcast cover art by Zack. The Liz Moody Podcast music by Alex Ruimy. Formerly the Healthier Together Podcast. This podcast and website represents the opinions of Liz Moody and her guests to the show. The content here should not be taken as medical advice. The content here is for information purposes only, and because each person is so unique, please consult your healthcare professional for any medical questions. The Liz Moody Podcast Episode 363. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why is creativity one of the most missing parts of the health and wellness conversation?
0:04.4	Creativity is generally misunderstood for a variety of different reasons.
0:10.4	One of my personal missions is to really help all people see that creativity is innate.
0:15.7	It's something that is within every single one of us.
0:18.5	Really the reasons that we stop engaging in it is because of social reasons, the ways that
0:23.7	we interpret it in the world.
0:25.6	So if we go back tens of thousands of years, about 30 to 70,000 years ago, creativity was
0:33.6	basically born in the human brain because of this evolutionary mistake. Cognitive scientists
0:39.9	call this the cognitive revolution, this moment in time where humans got the capacity to
0:46.1	imagine and then turn it into reality. I'm Katina Bajajaj. I'm a creative health scientist and co-founder
0:53.0	of daydreamers. I also got my master's in clinical psychology at Columbia's Mind-Body Institute, where I studied how creativity works in the brain and why it's one of the most overlooked aspects of our health.
1:05.0	The reason that I got into creative health in the first place, I, was experiencing not just burnout, but kind of this
1:12.6	broader sense of disillusionment and lack of purpose and really finding myself in this place
1:19.2	where no other well-being pools were helping me. It not only helps us relax, but it also helps
1:25.4	us get agency over our lives. The way that I personally like to define
1:30.1	creativity is our capacity to ask what if things could be different and then do something about it,
1:37.2	which I think it kind of shifts the way that we start to think about how it shows up in our lives.
1:43.0	Yeah, it's really different than like
1:44.5	knitting or doing paint by numbers. Yes. This is ultimately what I want us all to see. And what's
1:50.7	fascinating is that, you know, fast forward to right now, creativity is working in our brain
1:57.5	in a variety of different ways, pretty much at every moment. So creativity isn't found
2:03.0	in one specific spot, but it's the series of networks and combinations of aspects of our brain
	...

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