How to Turn Your Pain into Creativity.
Life happens, for better or worse, and we have all been there.
Pain lingers for some time as we heal from our losses, and I firmly believe that it stays until we have learned what we need to from its presence, but it’s not quite as simple as that.
When pain lingers for long enough, that is our indicator that it’s time to turn inwards to understand what part of us is unable to let go, to stop ruminating on the past, and find resolve. These can be the most grueling moments of our healing journeys because uncovering the root causes of our suffering is a multi-layered, multi-step process that takes time.
I find that a narrative that has permeated much of the concept of inner work is that it is almost always painful. In every meditation, journal entry, or therapy session, we must brace ourselves to come face-to-face with the ugly truths about our past and prepare to be shaken up about it for a while; however, this sets a false expectation that in every intentional moment that we dedicate towards our inner work, we have to have revelations and instant “aha” moments, otherwise it feels like it doesn’t count; but it is also not quite as simple as that.
I like to think about the inner work like this (however much of an un-aesthetic analogy this might be): inner work is like unclogging a pipe. You have to clear the debris and the gunk to allow water to flow freely again, and as water flows out, it brings debris with it. Of course, this isn’t a uniform process- on its way out, debris can get stuck and create a clog, or new debris can enter the pipe and cause a backup.
It’s the same with our own reflection: as we explore our limiting beliefs and our traumatic experiences, new learnings can arise as we let go of the old, and these new realizations can cause us pain too. It can take many cycles of reflection to finally feel like we’re moving forwards rather than backwards.
The inner work is dislodging the debris, and the letting go is the water carrying it with it; but for this to happen, we need to create a vehicle, an escape route for water to exit freely, and this is where creativity comes in. Creative release becomes the vessel through which we articulate the energy that we need to release to gain clarity and further insight into our healing.
Creative release becomes the vessel through which we articulate the energy that we need to release to gain clarity and further insight into our healing.
How do we do use creativity as a means for expression, for letting go?
Simple: indulge in your creative urges. Even the most unexpected ones.
Do you feel like picking up a guitar even though you’ve never strummed a string in your life? Are you itching to buy that canvas and watercolour set you saw at the dollar store? How long have you been thinking about that advertisement for that open poetry night at that local coffee shop?
Your soul is a compass that is always guiding you in the direction that promises the most freedom. Yes, the path towards attaining that liberation can be rocky and unsettling, but your higher self doesn’t throw you into any challenges without the tools to handle them. Those random urges to sing, to run, to lose yourself out in nature, are the most authentic expressions of your soul’s effort to release tension and stagnant energy. We owe it to our body to acknowledge the effort it is making to help us heal by nudging us to explore different modes of expression. These intuitive activities show us who we are.
For creativity to be your vessel for releasing disruptive energy, you have to enter flow state. If you don’t know what this means, in the simplest of terms, it means to surrender to an experience to become fully immersed in what you’re doing. This allows you to be guided by your natural inclinations towards your innate creativity and how it wants to manifest itself.
It may sound a little scary, because feeling certain emotions can be overwhelming, but remember that the healing is in the feeling. Articulating those difficult energies into something outside of yourself, like a drawing or a piece of writing, physically helps you separate those emotions from yourself. In that separation lie your next steps: the insights, the distance, and the newfound self-awareness to make decisions that are in the interest of your healing, and your liberation from those energies as separate from your being.
Trust that your body knows what it needs best. Don’t focus on the artistic results of a piece of work. Surrender yourself to the intrinsic creativity that is already within you, waiting to be expressed. When you can master being present with your feelings and do the intuitive motions to release those emotions, you are increasing your capacity to self-heal, and fortifying the trust that you have put on your inner guidance to bring you peace in the way that you best need it.
