My dog, Harvey, is always looking for something to do. He loves to fetch the ball, run after birds' shadows and bite bones. If none of those are available, he'll find something else to do. He'll chew our shoes, dig holes in the garden or take toilet paper off the roll. This is the reason we gave him a middle name: Danger.
Harvey Danger is a metaphor（暗喻）for my mind. He is like an active and creative mind. My experience with having a creative mind is that if I don't give it a task, something will turn on itself.
To be frank, several years ago, I didn't think I was creative. I was just an ordinary human sticking to my daily routine. But things changed when I came across an article written by Brene Brown. She put forward a theory I had never heard of. "There're no such beings as creative people or non-creative people. There're only people who use their creativity and people who don't, " Brown wrote. "Unused creativity is not benign. It can transform and turn into anger, sorrow, shame and depression. "
I have a mind that is all of those things combined and, if it doesn't have anything to take its attention, it will go searching for things. It tends to do negative things or find things like worries or troubles to focus on. That doesn't mean that those with creative minds need to be busily thinking all the time. What it means is that our minds need a task. It's about releasing our creative energy to keep our minds healthy.
Before I throw a ball to Harvey-because it's not only good for both of us, but also good for the garden that I don't want dug up-I'll leave you with Brown's wisdom. Just give the dog a job, and you'll have a happier life.
