Daily Creative Practice as a Path to Rewilding, Wellbeing, and Creative Vitality
Image | Jodie Cunningham | Photography by Andrew Sikorski, Art Atelier Photography
Written by Jodie Cunningham. CEO + Artistic Director, Craft + Design Canberra. May 2025
At Craft + Design Canberra we believe that making is a way of being. Engaging in daily creative practices allows us to reconnect with our creativity, materials, bodies, minds and each other.
We invite you to rediscover inspiration and inner peace by entering the Daily Creative Challenge. In its 4th year, the Challenge will run through July and explores the theme of Rewilding. It is a call to return to untamed creativity, embrace imperfection and connect with the raw, natural forces that shape both art and life.
7 benefits of the power of daily creative practice
1. Making Calms the Mind and Supports Positive Mental and Physical Wellbeing.
Humans are inherently creative beings and studies have shown that wellbeing is enhanced by engaging in making activities that provide purpose and pleasure.
The act of making by hand, learning new skills and engaging in daily creativity all have positive psychological outcomes. Slow, rhythmic movement mirrors the benefits of meditation. Engaging in repetitive, tactile processes like stitching, carving, kneading clay or sketching can slow our breath, settle our thoughts and balance our nervous system. Daily making becomes a ritual for emotional regulation.
Focused making often leads to a mental state of ‘flow’, a deep immersion where time fades and self-awareness softens. This mental state fosters clarity, purpose, emotional satisfaction and improved wellbeing.
Previous participants in the Craft + Design Canberra Challenge have reported lowered stress, reduced muscle tension, improved sleep and higher levels of happiness through daily creative engagement.
2. Daily Creative Activity Sharpens Cognitive Function and Curiosity
Children learn through play and for adults, creative acts challenge the brain and support neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt and change.
By engaging in experimentation and play, Challenge participants activate their sense of curiosity, immersing themselves in creativity as a stimulating process rather than a means to an end.
3. Creativity Builds Self-Confidence and Purpose
Through the month of the Challenge, participants engage in a daily creative act. These consistent moments build resilience, increase confidence and deepen participants’ connection to their unique artistic voice.
The regularity of the practice embeds creativity into the rhythm of daily life, gradually transforming it from a peripheral activity into a core aspect of personal identity. This helps refine skills and affirms their connection to their creativity, fostering both personal and artistic growth.
4. Making Together Fosters Community and Connection
During July, makers across Australia and beyond will respond to daily prompts, share their creations on Instagram, and connect through the hashtag #CDCCREATIVECHALLENGE25.
What emerges is not just a body of work but a living, digital community archive. Sharing our practice publicly affirms that we’re not alone in our creative journey and connects us to like-minded people, inspiring us, building our networks and making us feel part of something bigger than ourselves.
5. Daily Practice Builds Routine and Discipline
Turning up each day to make, even when uninspired, creates artistic resilience. Daily word prompts serve as starting points, but the real growth comes through commitment, repetition and reflection. There is a theory that it takes 21 days to solidify a habit, and the 31 days of the Challenge ensure that creative activity continues into the future.
6. Creative Practice Generates a Cohesive Body of Creative Work
By the end of the month-long Challenge, participants often look back in awe at what they’ve made, a cohesive catalogue of personal and meaningful work. This becomes both a record of their dedication and a launchpad for exhibitions, grant applications or larger projects.
According to research, sustained creative practice not only enhances artistic skills but also contributes to the accumulation of a unified portfolio over time.
7. Publishing Creative Responses Regularly on Instagram Builds Audiences
Publishing images of their creative responses daily on Instagram helps participants build a consistent online presence, making their work more visible to wider audiences. This expands their network of followers and supporters and can lead to sales, commissions and other opportunities.
Join Craft + Design Canberra this July and Rewild Your Creative Practice
Registration for the 2025 Craft + Design Canberra Daily Creative Challenge is now open – and this year, for the first time, it’s free. Register before 1 July 2025 (late registration closes 7 July at 5pm). Register today by clicking here.
Whether you make with clay, thread, pixels, ink, paint, food, dance, music or words, we invite you to reconnect with your creativity, one day, one prompt, one piece at a time.
Let’s rewild, reflect, and revive our creative spirits together. Through daily creative practice, we connect with ourselves and each other.
Prizes include:
- $5,000 First Prize
- $2,500 Second Prize
- $1,000 Emerging Craftsperson Prize
- $200 The Curatorium Bookshop Gift Voucher
To be eligible for the prizes, participants must
- Submit an Application Form (at craftanddesigncanberra.org) at the conclusion of the Challenge and;
- Be a current Maker, Accredited Professional, or Craft + Design Lover member of craft + Design Canberra. ANYONE CAN JOIN!! Join here: https://craftanddesigncanberra.org/pages/membership