In a recent blog I discussed some of the negative effects of keeping silent the blog was called the cost of silence. Even since I wrote that blog a few weeks ago, I have come across more incidents and literature that spells out the harm that can be caused from keeping silent.
Today’s blog I am going to discuss how creativity can be used as a means of self-healing. So often you hear the phrase ‘I am not creative’ I challenge this whenever I hear it, I believe we all have creative flare we just need to identify our own niche. Creativity is so much more than getting out the colouring pencils and tissue paper and glue. And even if it was have you seen some of the stuff that gets classed as abstract art selling for thousands at art auctions!!! Creativity could be drawing or colouring but it could also be so many other things. It could be song writing playing a musical instrument, sewing, creative writing, poetry, perhaps the way you do your make up, or the way you decorate your home, the possibilities are endless.
I am a believer that we can block our own creativity. This could be because of rejection we may have felt in the past from being creative. Imagine being a child who has created a piece of art and when he/she shows it to their parent is not met with the praise expected. Or showing it to a friend and in a spat of jealousy they rubbish the picture. Or entering a colouring competition and not winning, or even just comparing your own creative efforts to someone else’s.
I remember when I was asked to draw a picture of my house, I remember the quietness that consumed the room but there was something happening inside me, it felt recognisable and relaxing but somewhat consuming. The comfort afterwards was really quite rewarding, I thought about things that I hadn’t thought about for some time, my BMX with yellow wheels, the pointless little slope that leads to the back of the house. My neighbours, the garden gate I used to spend many hours swinging on. Whilst these memories were positive there were also a collection of negative memories, I was grateful for being in the presence of a professional counsellor.
I remembered the fire which myself, my mum and my sisters were lucky to escape from. I remembered my belongings I had to leave behind, including my child hood teddy bears. Whilst I think a large portion of the mourning for my childhood home are done, my pain for my childhood teddies is still very much present.
I hear you saying ‘I thought the creative experience was a positive one!’ Well I believe that mourning inside me would have existed whether I was aware of it or not. If it was dormant, maybe I might be more possessive over my belongings. Being aware of it are the first steps to accepting it, I am aware that I am sad about leaving my teddies behind but I am able to share that sadness and recognise it for what it is, and this discovery came from being creative.
Have you ever found your mood to be unexplainably low? Creativity can be a way of exploring the things that make us unhappy. This is because you communicate to a different part of yourself when you dip into creative methods. The place where we first tapped into our creativity would have been when we were young. You didn’t have the drama of bills and day to day struggles when you were learning to be creative, so when you go back to that place our awareness goes back to that place also.
Counselling can be a safe place to explore memories and experiences that can come up when working creatively or it can be a space to explore your creativity. It encouraged me to pick up a pencil and draw after 20 years it also encouraged me to pick up the guitar and start playing as it was something I wanted to do from the age of 8!
Sometimes I think counselling can release some space in our own thinking capacity to work with creativity. When we are troubled and stressed from our thoughts and everyday lives the likely hood of being able to tap into our creative field is reduced because we can only work on a certain amount of things at the same time. Counselling can help free up this space, it can be a place to make peace with some of the stresses and sadness’s we face in our lives and may even encourage us to delve into our creative selves.
A few things you should consider when working creatively.
Don’t compare your work to others, try your best, you can’t do better than your best, so don’t fight with yourself about it. Although practice can always offer room for improvement.
No one has to see your work that is up to you. If you want to show, show. If you don’t, don’t. (Unless its on a toilet wall, then you surrender that privilege)
Create some quiet time to do it, turn your TV off put your phone away.
Participate, don’t go in half-hearted give yourself to the process.
Remember there are many different ways of being creative from drawing to poetry.
If you think you would like to work therapeutically with your creative skills then perhaps I can help you along your journey. Or perhaps you would like to make some space in your own mind to start working more creatively, find out more at brighter-pathways.co.uk