Expressing ourselves creatively is plain good medicine. The ancient Greeks knew this when they appointed Apollo as the god of both poetry and medicine. Our greatest wealth is good health and a strong mind.
Even Plato agrees telling us, “The part can never be well unless the whole is well.” Good health is more than just exercise and diet, it is how you spend your spare time. Even Martin Luther King tells us “Not everyone can be famous. But everyone can be great.”
We can only be great by using the gifts we were born with. What is your passion? Do you actively use your gifts?
Creative expression has always been at war with boredom and unhappiness ever since the days of the cave drawings. It reduces stress, ill health and depression when we’re busy doing something we love.
Anyone can make the invisible visible. Draw a picture. Doodle. Scribble like you were a child. Just assembling magazine pictures and photographs into collages make a great pastime. You don’t have to be happy to want to create.
Even our pain and depression can be turned into art projects that make us smile. Most believe when we smile we feel good. Experience how contagious a creative thought, or smile can be.
Exercises For Creative Expression
- Expressing yourself creatively through drawing, painting, sculpture, and photography or even cooking, allow you to tap into a source of inner wisdom that can provide you guidance, soothe emotional pain, and revitalize your being.
- Both writing and reading poetry are individual arts. Both can be a study in thinking and relating to the world around us.
- To write poetry or journal, we need to be able to look at our entire life history, including our traumas, our joys, our failures as well as rewards and achievements.
- We need to open our minds and step into writing, tasting its ink and feeling its pull at our hearts.
Many of us prefer the simpler old-fashioned kind of poetry, less negative, bent on healing open wounds rather than describing them. Simple. Short. You pause when they pause. You sigh when they sigh.
Composing a poem is a lot like making love. Nobody sees the poem happening, but it always arouses us and usually ends too quickly!!! To write a poem, we need to begin by exploring the phrase, “I am…a poet.” But, then I think, “What is a poet?”
Whatever it is, I think, it must have food for the soul,
it must have generous Folds of thoughts, And Love,
Whatever it is, I think, it must be arrogant
To coach the sun to rise,
To kiss the day good-bye, and hope,
Whatever it is, I think, it is ecstasy remains intact,
With the Birds of God for companions.
Make yourself a plan to feel good on rainy or open-ended days by stocking up on things you are interested in, like paper, crayons or watercolors. Also, stock up on ingredients for brownies, Jell-O and/or Fudge.
Who says you can’t eat art? Needlework like crocheting or knitting can be fun to those who enjoy numbers. Many find working with yarns warming during the cold winter months. You can also pick up self-help or instruction books.
Or, go to the Internet for Videos that encourage and teach as well as entertain. Stretch your mind. Use ordinary items in unexpected ways. Remember it is not about having all the right things but experimenting with what you do have.
Like kids, we all can be masters at finding fun uses for household supplies. Not long ago, I made a three-foot high sculpture with nothing but hot glue and wooden clothespins. It was great fun and accredited as a unique piece by my art teacher.
For those of you who may think you are not creative, who have left your creativity alone for too long, go ahead, gift yourself some time to stretch your imagination like an athlete stretches his muscles before a big race.
Begin by sitting in a chair, reciting affirmations, praying and/or listening to New Age Music. The bells and whistles chime long traditions and peaceful new beginnings.
Try affirming that you are a person of value, talented and naive enough to rewrite your own history and genetic map. Try stretching your neck back and forth, rolling your head in a circle while unclothing yourself of negative doubt.
Invite new ideas and boundless energy into your body. Maybe, say a prayer for guidance and inspiration. When in tune with Creator, we are unstoppable. Strong. Able. Creative.
Think about the angel Michael, who is known for inspiring us to open our minds to new ways of thinking. He will send you symbols. Delight in them. Follow them. Listen for the ecstasy of understanding their blessings.
Be playful when making them your friends. Also, take photographs that excite you. Follow your instincts for capturing nature at its best. Explore the new digital camera and its convenience in sending pictures over the internet.
Each day will include exploration, adventure and amazement, when taking an artful step out into the world. In every season, there are pictures of beauty around us. Even in winter, there are no two snowflakes or icicles are the same, much like humanity.
So, always remember, you are unique, as is anything seen for the first time you might create. Most of us need to express ourselves the most when we feel we can’t. But once we do, we change forever for the better.
It is discomfort and lack of faith in our innate gifts that prevent us from the happiness and joy we want and need. Those of us who have found the fountain of youth in our special purpose regret to sleep while the rest regret to wake not knowing their special purpose.
Perhaps, living a joyful successful life is just a matter of living the life we were meant to live.
You can find much more information on living a holistic lifestyle in these free magazines and on our YouTube channel.
I’m Joyce White, I’m Winged for Art Therapy. We all have true talent. What a shame to waste our lives by not knowing how special we can be. I’ve been slowly and quietly growing and changing into the person I’ve always wanted to be through hard work and persistence. It is my hope my articles at Global Healing Exchange, will help others smile and find their own passion. Oscar Wilde tells us, “The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life’s tragedy!”
