How Creativity Can Help You Grieve
Grieving is a very individual and private matter. There is no one pattern of grieving and no rule which will necessarily help you to have it come to an end. Although, one method which many people have found has supported them through their grieving process is channeling their feelings of loss into a creative project. Many psychologists are now offering creativity as a tunnel to find your way out of grieving.
Joseph Nowinski, Ph.D. explains the process of grieving on The Huffington post with the aid of the book “our Creative Brain” by Psychologist Shelley Carson “strong emotions—joy, fear, etc.—are something that we are almost always consciously aware of, and that these emotions directly affect our experience and our behavior. When we feel joy, we want to celebrate; when we feel fear, we want to run and hide. And so on. So, it is with grief. When we mourn the death of a loved one, we experience an intense emotion — grief — that we are aware of. We also experience grief in our behavior we lose interest in things, find ourselves unable to smile or laugh, have trouble sleeping, and don’t have much of an appetite.”
Therefore, one of the most significant troubles people face when trying to overcome grief is regaining interest in their surroundings and find their value once more. That is where creativity comes in. Creativity encourages you to look at your surroundings from a new perspective. A drawing which you might have passed by many times before on the street might suddenly appear unique and significant to you. Tapping into your inner power of appreciating everyday occurrences and giving them meaning are all parts of a creative process. Taking pipe cleaners and bending them into a heart can help you show your emotions and feel productive. Creativity enables you to cope and feel alive again.
Additionally, choosing creativity as your aid does not hinder and push back the grieving process but helps you through it. It is important to note that without grieving it is impossible to achieve healing. There are no shortcuts in that sense.
Dr. Carson, who has worked with veterans explains in her book: “From my work with returnees from Iraq and Afghanistan I know that the grieving process is crucial to future happiness and mental health. Many returnees refuse to grieve, thinking it’s a sign of weakness. But it is part of the human experience and is a journey through the darkness that has to happen. The pain subsides, and the soul is stronger when you allow grieving to take its course however painful.” Therefore, if you find yourself having trouble processing a loss, it might help you to choose creativity as your aiding source.
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