“What if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience?” ~Rollo May
When you’re struck by grief, there’s healing in giving expression to it. Expressing yourself creatively is a powerful way to navigate through grief. Your imagination can be your greatest asset if you value and nurture it because it reawakens your soul. It may take some daydreaming and openness, and, in this flow, you’ll learn to allow your imagination to lead you to fresh perspectives and experiences.
When you engage in a creative practice, you are rooted in the present moment, which offers you two gifts. The first gift is rest – you get a respite from the ruminating thoughts of the past, as well as from your worries about the future. The present moment also empowers you because you get to choose how to respond, instead of mindlessly reacting.
Whether you are documenting your thoughts and experiences in a journal, expressing yourself through art or music, or engaging in any other type of creative activity, you are allowing yourself to communicate in a way that is unique and relational. Surprising images can come through your artistic creations. It’s a direct line of communication with your inner life. The purpose is to bring healing and understanding to guide and support you.
It’s time to embrace your creativity and nurture it as your greatest asset.
Creativity is a powerful tool that can help you transform your life. Creative practices like journaling, painting, and music can help you tap into your innermost thoughts and emotions, allowing you to explore your feelings and gain a deeper understanding of yourself
“…Creativity is my most efficient pathway to wonder, so I take refuge there, and it feeds my soul.”
~Elizabeth Gilbert, Big Magic
The act of creating something can help
you alleviate stress and anxiety.
When you are focused on the creative process, you are able to relax and let go of the worries and concerns that may be weighing on your mind. Additionally, engaging in creative activities has been shown to reduce levels of cortisol, the hormone that is associated with stress.
Creative practices can also be a powerful form of self-care. When you take time to engage in a creative activity, you are giving yourself the gift of time and attention. This can be an incredibly empowering experience, as it allows you to take control of your own well-being and prioritize your own needs.
In the Creative Flow, you’ll experiment with writing. I’ll offer prompts and you’ll write for a bit. No one will see your words unless you want to share, so try and write from your heart.
The poet Marcel Proust said, “Suffering is relieved only by expressing it to the fullest.”
Writing is a powerful tool for coping with your loss.
Writing is good for you. It gets the minutiae ruminating in your head onto paper. It can create order out of chaos, and initiate healing shifts in perspective. And research says that writing about deep and traumatic matters is good for your health – physically, mentally, and spiritually. Reflective writing lowers your pulse and blood pressure, increases t-cell production, and a study published in the Journal of Psychosomatic Medicine found that engaging in creative activities can help improve immune function.
Writing can revive your weary spirit
It’s an antidote to emotional stress. Healing happens. You write differently than you think. You go deeper, below the constant chatter. You access the unconscious. In fact, writing offers a bridge between the unconscious and conscious.
Writing and journaling are keys to finding further depths of feeling about your losses that you still haven’t fathomed. Finding those layers and writing about them might make a difference in allowing you to move out of being stuck.
Imagine tapping into a deeper part of yourself, bridging the conscious with the unconscious, all while promoting healing and personal change. That’s the magic of reflective writing. Instead of consuming what society tells you to do, you’re going to tap into yourself and get your creative juices flowing.
It is no surprise that creative activities have been shown to have positive effects on mental and physical health. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that engaging in creative activities can help reduce the risk of cognitive decline in older adults. Given all of the benefits of creative practices, it’s no wonder that many therapists and mental health professionals recommend creative activities as a tool for promoting healing and personal change. Engaging in a creative practice can help you process traumatic experiences, explore complex emotions, and gain insight into your own behaviors and thought processes.
“Expressive writing is the most powerful portal to transformation that I know of.”
~ Mirabai Starr
Where are you in your grief process?
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