Creative acts can be transformative and creativity can be key to problem solving.
Aside from the obviously “artistic” activities, many of our moment-by-moment behaviours, choices and responses require creativity, including our defences. As we decide what to do, or how to respond, our subconscious works to keep us safe and avoid things it has learned to fear. As children we learned through trial, experiences and through play. Those lessons were embedded deep in the psyche and are held in the body. Some of those lessons may now be holding us back, so creative thinking and creative play can help us contact those deeply held beliefs and feelings in a way that rational discussion can sometimes simply cannot access.
It’s not about artistic expression. It’s about engaging more than the cognitive mind and helping the vague notions and out-of-awareness feelings to emerge into consciousness. Exploration allows us to soften the rational grip and makes room for a more open perspectives, it relaxes the rigidity of thinking that may be needed for change to occur.
Sometimes we cannot understand rationally or cognitively, but we still need to find a way to express or explore our thoughts, feelings or actions.
Sometimes clients and I make drawings or diagrams to represent or catch something elusive. We may come back to these scribbles and schema to help us remember the themes and layers of previous sessions. Patterns appear, symbols speak and feelings become more meaningful.
Sometimes we can lay out objects to illustrate tangled relationships or a complex set of feelings. This enables a perspective, or multiple perspectives to be seen, to be layered…. and even to be challenged.
Sometimes we may need to stand tall, curl up, walk around the room or jump up and down. By changing ourselves physically we encourage different psychological perspectives to emerge.
I believe that we are all creative, through necessity. In times of distress, crisis or chaos our creativity can be illuminating, freeing, soothing and so helpful.
And of course it can add humour, fun, relief or distraction where needed.