Creation: How Creativity Silences Demons

If I were to name the season, I’d call it tempestuous. If you’re human, you know this sort of season. The adrenaline rush at two in the morning. The mind loops of arguments and justifications. The white-hot pulse throbbing behind your eyes, in your stomach, in the back of your knees. Searching for that mythical animal resolution, that unicorn of rest—this is how those sorts of seasons go.

The details matter less than the chaos, the anger, the sorrow, the trauma, whatever, particularly in my own circumstance. But in those seasons, how do we break free of what Henri Nouwen calls our frozen anger ?How do we silence the stabbing midnight voices and move into something more like rest?

In her article, “What are the Health Benefits of Being Creative,” Dr. Maria Cohut, Ph.D wrote of the power of creativity in managing emotions. She wrote,

“Drawing, painting, or molding objects from clay has been scientifically proven to help people to deal with different kinds of trauma. In a comprehensive article on The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health, Heather L. Stuckey and Jeremy Nobel say that ‘[a]rt helps people express experiences that are too difficult to put into words, such as a diagnosis of cancer.’

‘[A]rtistic self-expression,’ they continue, ‘might contribute to maintenance or reconstruction of a positive identity.’

A number of studies have also found that writing — expressive writing, in particular, which requires participants to narrate an event and explain how it affected them — can help people to overcome trauma and manage negative emotions.”

Creation—it’s a way to stop the deconstruction of the self, to cry out “let there be light” in the middle of a dark night. It’s a way to pull meaning from chaos.

In my own tempestuous season, my own season of frozen anger, I’ve turned to acts of daily creation. I’ve reached for the guitar daily. I’ve eked these little daily offerings. And what have I found? Something like the slowing of my mind-loops, the easing of the heat, the relief in my chest. I’ve found something like light. I’ve found something like soothing music. (Link for newsletter subscribers.)

  • Are you practicing a daily act of creation?

  • If not, why not?

  • What keeps you from saying “let there be light,” in some small way each day?

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Wake Up?

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