Patti Smith, poet, novelist, musician, and National Book Award recipient, proclaimed: “In times of strife, we have our imagination, we have our creative impulse, which are things that are more important than material things. They are the things that we should magnify”. She and I share a birthday, I must add.
Giving fully into the creative process we touch our most wild, authentic selves. Something primal and restorative happens to me with music and dance amongst other creative acts. Growing up, music and eventually dance, free writing, and literature were the only forms of therapy I got. Now, I see creativity and self-expression in any form as a medicine that is often forgotten. Activating the creative fire in my clients seems to access the poetry of their soul, giving meaning-rich metaphor to their lived experience and what is often untouched, unseen, and inexpressible by their ego.
Jungian psychoanalyst, author and trauma specialist Donald Kalsched invoked the power of the soul of the Earth, as well as art and creativity in human healing/mitigating suffering by saying, “Sometimes an inner experience can release us from our deforming mirrors. For example, good literature, film, music, an ‘epiphany’ of beauty in the natural world, or an experience of a numinous vision or dream may evoke our truer deeper selves, liberating us momentarily from the deforming images we have acquired and allowing us to see through into a deeper truth about ourselves and our potential life . . . our potential wholeness.”
How do we strip away the loops of this head-bent down technological shit show that facilitated disconnection from being home in ourselves and uplevel unfettered creativity?
Despite seeing the word authenticity tossed around in self-help and social media circles like it is a sport itself, I find little time, space or thought is left for soul making, for self-exploration. If one is not truly finding ways to express oneself, freely and without judgment or attachment to the outcome, one can remain in the dark about one’s own sense of Self, because that which has the most meaning and is the most enlivening tends to be hidden in the unconscious.
Elizabeth Gilbert, writer and definitely champion of creativity coyly and reverently noted this about all humans, “I say this with all confidence, because I happen to believe we are all walking repositories of buried treasure. I believe this is one of the oldest and most generous tricks the universe plays on us as human beings, both for its own amusement and ours: The universe buries strange jewels within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them.”
Stay tuned for the Substack launch where I’ll share more Creativity and Expressive Arts resources, research, musings and community offerings!
Why Rewilding - the Research Behind the 5 Elements
