Why Complain When You Can Create Instead?
On the value of building and maintaining a creative practice.
I ended 2023 more burned out and defeated than ever before. My coaching business was doing well, but my writing was floundering. I was stuck in a spot where I needed to make choices, but I could barely keep my head above water. It was a scary place to be, but more than it was the wrong place to be. I was lost and didn’t know how I would get out.
By the time September came around, I felt like I was about to explode.
My life was nothing but work, work, work. It was a rotating door of clients, personal disasters, and slamming doors. Clients, personal disasters, slamming doors. I wanted to scream, I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Everything was bottled up and I was ready to explode. In a moment of desperation, I reached for the only thing I could - art.
I started painting in October of 2023. What began with one painting a week soon turned into an obsessive practice that ripped open my soul and set me free. Now, I have a regular creative practice of watercolor painting and sculpture. Every day, I tap into my mind and my heart and bring something new to life.
My art saved me from the trauma that was threatening to pull me under. It tapped into my mind and my heart in a way that nothing else has the ability to do. And I’m not alone in that experience.
As humans, traumatized and trying to heal, one of the most powerful things we can do is to establish a regular creative practice. It’s not only a matter of healing our souls. It’s a matter of healing our minds, too.
Creation is an invaluable part of the healing process.
My art has opened up my heart and changed my perception of who I am and who I want to be. I’m not alone in that experience. Creation, in any form it takes, has the power to move every human soul in the same way. It can change your lifestyle, your beliefs about yourself, and the way you see the world and everyone in it. That is the power of creativity…but that’s not the only power a regular creative process has.
Georgia O’Keefe had, perhaps, said it best when she summed up the ability of art to express those things trapped inside us.
“I found I could say things with colors and shapes that I couldn’t say any other way - things I had no word for.” - George O’Keefe
That’s exactly what art, any form of art or creative process, has the power to do. When we create, we transmute the big feelings inside of us. We take the shadows and turn them into light and color. We shift the world inside by creating the world outside of us. Creation is the universe seeking symbiosis through us.
It’s not all airy-fairy, however.
Being creative truly has the ability to repair and rewire the damage done to our brains through the process of trauma. It’s true. Recent studies have shown that creativity is one of the best ways to repair the neural pathways tied into anxiety, depression, and negative cognitive thought loops.
Essentially, a creative process helps you to rewire your brain. From there, it becomes easier to transmute the emotional trauma you have experienced. It can also help to improve cognitive function - ie your memory, speech, emotional regulation and response, etc. That is the magic of neuroplasticity.
The value of creativity doesn’t end at neuroplasticity.
Having the power to rewire your brain is big. Huge. Getting to the root of the damage done to your nervous system is the key to making huge strides in recovery from trauma. That is not where the benefits of a creative process stop. On top of helping you repair your brain, being regularly creative can also unlock your confidence and your most authentic sense of self.
Creating confidence
If the rechanneling of your neural connections isn’t enough to convince you, then creating confidence should move the needle. That’s one of the biggest benefits of a regular creative process. The more creative you are, the more confident you will become - not only in yourself but in your ability to create and add value to the world around you.
This will help you, in turn, to make positive changes in your life, your career, and the life you’re building around yourself. The more confident you become as a trauma survivor, the more positive choices you will be able to make for the future you’re leaning into.
Changing perceptions
One of the most incredible things about creativity is the way it helps us to shift our perceptions of ourselves. As a survivor of trauma, you might find yourself falling into warped narratives. You tell yourself lies about your beauty, your abilities, and what you deserve and don’t deserve. Trauma can also lead to a sort of self-orphaning, which leaves the best and most powerful parts of you abandoned.
Being creative helps you to shift all of this self-abandonment and lies.
The more creative you become, the more you regularly add to the world around you, the more you will see how worthy you are. How could you not? You are channeling the power of the universe through your hands, and making life better for it. That’s powerful and it will help you to connect with your true and highest self.
Converting behaviors
As your confidence blooms and your perception of self changes, you’re going to see a major change in your behaviors. The way you act and react to others is going to change. The way you act and react to the stress in your life is going to change. The more sure of your true self you become, it’s going to become easier to control your reaction to circumstances.
Nothing helps you to take charge of your behavior better than becoming more confident and assured of who you are and who you want to be. In that space, you can slip into that coat of your future self more easily and move yourself through life as the person you were always meant to become.
How are you going to build a creative practice of your own?
Where do you go from here? It’s common for trauma survivors to get stuck in a rut. Instead of reaching out and tapping into their creative potential, they end up in a sort of “survival mode”, living out each day burned out and going through the motions to stay afloat.
Even if you are stuck in this rut, even if you feel like you don’t have a creative bone in your body, you can start building on a creative process that helps you feel more wholly yourself. This practice is only a day or two away. You can get started now by…
Writing (poetry, fiction, memoir, etc.)
Art (painting, sculpting, paper craft, etc.)
Crafting (knitting, sewing, crocheting, glass blowing, etc.)
Music (songwriting, sound production, learning a new instrument, etc.)
Refurbbing (restoring antiques, upselling, etc.)
This is only a starting point. When it comes to being creative and having a creative practice, there are no boundaries. You can become a tattooer. You can create boards on Pinterest. Sit down and draft out a million businesses you will never start.
The goal is to use your mind, to expand its outlook beyond the confines of your reality (limited though it may be). Create, create, create. Reach out into the universe and she what she answers back with. Take her by the hand and let her breathe, through you, a new piece of yourself into your living reality.
Your creative practice doesn’t need to be confined by a list written by someone else. It can be anything that spikes your curiosity and interest. It can take place every day, every week, once a year. You are the only person who can define the creative process that works for you. What makes you come alive in this world of grey?
This is your call to action. Whether you stumbled across this story by accident, or by chance, it was meant for you to see it. This is your chance to turn a page in your story, to write a new ending, and to become the person you were always meant to be.
Now is your chance to build a creative practice all your own. This is the universe calling you back into itself. It whispers, “Open up. Find your flow. Speak my spark into reality.” Will you ignore that call? Or will you give yourself this opportunity to turn the corner in your healing journey?
No one can answer that question but you. Embrace it and embrace a creative life designed entirely by you and for you.
© E.B. Johnson 2024
I am an author, coach, and podcaster who believes in helping survivors manifest their ideal creative lives. Learn more about me here or click the link below to support my work for less than the price of a coffee.
Your creations are lovely. I may just dust off my piano.
I feel as creative as a rock, but you've inspired and convinced me. I will at least ponder on this.