Creative Reflection for Resilience
In This Wonderful World, I write songs and stories to help me get through life’s hard times, which happen whether I like it or not (and no matter how hard I try to avoid them). This kind of acceptance has not come easy, however, as I’ve spent much of my life with depression and anxiety, afraid of what might come to be, and disabled by what’s already hurting.
I’m not alone. According to the National Institute on Mental Health, “an estimated 19.1% of U.S. adults had any anxiety disorder in the past year [and] an estimated 31.1% of U.S. adults experience an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives.1” Similarly, according to the American Psychiatric Association, “nearly three in ten adults (29%) have been diagnosed with depression at some point in their lives and about 18% are currently experiencing depression.2”
What’s more is that in an attempt to soothe my mental state, I often tried to self-medicate. But these attempts to numb the pain never made it go away, and often created side-effects that made things even harder to maintain. Again, I’m not alone here as “mental health conditions like anxiety frequently co-occur with substance use disorders.3” In fact, “an estimated one-third of people with major depression also have an alcohol problem.4”
All this to say: we humans need tools to help us cope with life’s pains.
This is where I lean on nature’s silver linings.
Here’s how creative reflection has helped me navigate anxiety and depression:
Let’s start with the fact that my life has liquidated more times than I can count. Erupting volcanoes, infectious diseases, and economic droughts are but a few of the sudden disruptions that have turned me upside down, scattered all my pieces, and dropped me to the ground. In these times, I have four strategies to help me endure.
Cathartic Release: I face it and feel it completely. Some take to punching bags. I lean towards wailing.
Present Moment Preservation: I turn my attention to the present moment to take inventory of what still isn’t broken. Am I still breathing? Yes. I am still breathing.
Big-Picture Reflection: I remember the times that have had silver-linings.
Service to the World Around Me.
It’s important to note that when processing the grief, pain, anger, or anxieties of life’s challenges, while all of these strategies ultimately serve me, they don’t always in the same order or with the same timing. Sometimes I need to look for silver-linings right away so that I don’t get paralyzed by fear of what might come from the loss. At other times, I might not be ready to think about silver-linings until I’ve spent a lot of time grieving.
In any case, creative reflection and expression support me with all four of these strategies. Here’s how:
Cathartic Release: Expressing my difficult feelings through song and story is a powerful cathartic experience that allows the difficulty to move through me, rather than get stuck in me. Fully feeling the full range of emotions helps to unpack the transformational calls to change that are often hidden within difficulty. That being said, I’ve also found that if I spend too much time in catharsis, I can get stuck there too. Yes: it’s an essential part of my process to express grief, rage, fear, or despair, but it’s also important that I reach out of there. This is why I commit to include a question that points to the possibility of peaceful resolve, affirmation, and/or gratitude in everything I create. Indeed, even if the art is cathartic, I commit to keep a little speck of light in it.
Present Moment Preservation: When things are hard, focusing on the little gifts of life is not always easy. Indeed, pain is made to get my attention (and so is worry). So, to support my ability to appreciate what’s still alive in my life, I make art of it. The kinesthetic aspect of art is helpful when sitting meditation feels impossible due to extreme pain or anxiety. Creating art is an embodied practice of focus where the subject of my creation is amplified by my concentration. So, when I look at the moment to see what’s still breathing, I carefully highlight it through my creating. This practice of creative focus energizes me and helps me to make it through.
Nature’s Proof of Good News: In hypnotherapy, one of the most important parts of creating an effective suggestion is that it’s believable5; it has to feel true for it to work. However, in my hard times, imagining how things are gonna get better within the details of my life can feel impossible. Nothing good feels real. This is where I lean on the silver-linings of nature, which are irrefutably true: Poop does make compost. Rain does water the trees. Fire does purify the forest. Everything in life’s cycles has an important purpose. Nature’s silver-linings are pathways to gratitude that look straight at what’s lost and still find thanks for what I’ve got. Indeed, leaning on the big picture during hard times doesn’t negate the difficulties of the present, but it does keep me from being swallowed or frozen by them; it’s not about escaping reality, but trusting in my creative power to make the best of what’s in front of me. By using nature’s silver-linings as affirmations within my creations, I anchor a faith that helps me to not only sustain, but to create something wonderful.
Service to the World Around Me: When I’m in despair or fear, even the littlest offering of help to another proves that I’ve still got something to give and that I’m still connected. Then, when I make art of that service, I anchor within me evidence that things are getting better. This I know because I’m a creator.
All this to say: even as pain is pain, no matter the frame, and grief is grief no matter the gain, in my toughest times, it still helps to keep a wider view by my side, not as a denial of the parts that hurt, but as protection from the despair taunts and that lurks. Service-centered art supports me in times of anxiety or depression by keeping me focused on the present moment, the big picture, and the infinite power of my heart.
“Difficult as it may sound, but grieving with gratitude can bring in a ray of hope in the darkest times in life.” Madhuleena Roy Chowdhury from Positive Psychology
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/any-anxiety-disorder
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression#:~:text=Nearly three in ten adults,late teens to mid-20s.
https://americanaddictioncenters.org/co-occurring-disorders/anxiety#
https://www.addictioncenter.com/dual-diagnosis/depression-and-addiction/#:~:text=Depression is common among people,also have an alcohol problem.
https://www.ukhypnosis.com/2010/08/06/the-rules-of-hypnotic-suggestion/#:~:text=5.,is%20worth%20a%20thousand%20words.