How Creativity Helped Save Me

The body was born to be creative. Think about how it heals itself. Not a single injury or cold will be exactly the same and yet, when called, our body miraculously attempts to heal itself. This is creativity at its most biological form. However for the purpose of this piece I am talking about the varieties of art, music, dance, prayer and meditation that call on our creative soul. 

No one or circumstance has the power to remove creativity from us. I would suspect that if that happened, the results would be devastating. The point of this isn’t to talk about the devastation but rather to help us through when disaster or illness strikes in our lives and we feel helpless or even hopeless. Receiving news of a physical or mental illness can feel as if the world has come crashing down around you. If you are in the middle of depression or other mental health disorder it can feel like a mixed blessing, both an answer for all that is happening inside your head and crushing realization of something taking over your brain that you feel helpless against. I am sure some physical maladies feel the same way as both an answer and a curse. 

How does one stumble through it all when weighed down by the heaviness of depression or caught in the grips of anxiety caused by PTSD? These are the topics I know from personal experience. How does creativity help heal in the middle of these dark places? 

Let me start with some basics that I have gleaned from doing some reading around the internet. There are studies that show that act of creativity changes the brains wave patterns, positively affects the nervous system and affects the neurotransmitters. Creativity can reduce one from stress to relaxation and decrease fear into inspiration (which means working “In spirit”) as well as creating a deeper connection with oneself. 

In my personal experience, Creativity has saved my life. My own story has a past of mixed blessings and deep pain and trauma stemming from domestic violence. This is hard for me to come to grips with and will shock some people as they may not know. I have kept it to myself for a long time. I bring it up now only to demonstrate how crucial creativity was and IS to keeping me alive. I have lived through some serious bouts of depression, to the point of crushing and agonizing pain. PTSD plays its own tricks and when it decides to make its presence known, Creativity keeps me going. Creativity is healing for me. 

A simple and accessible form of healing creativity is Journaling. When I journal, it gets everything that is dark and horrible out of my own head onto the page where it can’t do as much harm. My head should not be entered unattended sometimes so by brain dumping onto the page, I can allow a safe place for all the dangerous and dark thoughts that come into my head. Brain dumping it a way of letting go. Releasing all the toxins AND it also allows one to relive all the good that may have forgotten about during the course of a day. Sometimes I write about something specific and sometimes it’s a random mish mash of thought “stuff”. There are many types of journal prompts as well if you don’t know where to start. Here are a few. 

Sometimes instead I go for Mandala drawing. This refocuses my brain in a completely different way. Allowing my mind to quiet as I focus on the swirls and lines of a specific type of drawing. Coloring is also a way to use creativity to quiet my brain. My mind settles as I follow the details of the picture in front of me. In fact, mandala drawing and adult coloring books are a current trend because of the benefits a person receives from participating in such creativity. This visual medium is also great for when words fail me. For a great tutorial on drawing mandala’s check out Kathryn Costa at 100mandalas.com.

Sometimes, a person takes to the paintbrush, collage work, art journaling, colored pencils and sketchpads because there are things that sometimes are too difficult to say with words. Using visual creative arts as a medium of release leaves the need for verbal explanation behind. Art isn’t right or wrong. It doesn’t need to be corrected. It simply is as it is. Other people find their safety and hope in dance. That is where their personal strength lies. Or perhaps it is in composing or playing music; possibly singing as loud as they can with all the passion they can call upon. 

We are all called to our own creative paths. The beauty of the vast amount of creative choices is the role they can play in healing our hearts and souls when we feel at our worst. I know visual arts are also used in art therapy techniques where the project is guided by a trained therapist to purposefully help a person work through their pain or trauma. Shelley Klammer, at Intuitive Creativity offers some wonderful art prompts for working through emotions. 

At my darkest hour, all I could do was summon the strength to draw mandalas over and over again. My mind was so dark that I couldn’t think to write so I drew instead. I still rely on this practice to keep me centered and focused. It also keeps my anxiety from gaining to much power. I journal most often at bedtime.In fact, I keep two journals: one for brain dumping and one for affirmations, gratitude and positive thinking. I am alive due to the help that creativity gave to me when I needed it most. Yes, there were people who cared but when I was in the space of no longer being able to hear them, then creativity was be able to help.