Some feelings are hard to verbalize. Some thoughts we don’t want to say out loud. So what do we do with them? My thoughts and feelings used to drive me to get high. I had learned that drugs could change how I felt, whether it was dampening my anger or invigorating my boredom. But, that change was always only temporary.
Now that I’m living a life in recovery, I still deal with impulsive thoughts and overwhelming feelings, but I find a way to manage them by expressing them. Self-expression sounded like a lot of “Dear Diary” nonsense to me, but the creative arts are an amazing outlet for our recovery.
We can write our thoughts down privately into journals, stories and poems. But, we can go beyond words and express through paintings, drawings, doodles, and photographs. We can express through music, dance, and song. Self-expression involves any activity where we can transfer the energy from our thoughts and feelings into another form. And, usually, this makes us feel better.
Self-Expression
When we express our feelings honestly, we are better equipped to deal with them because we actually know what we are feeling instead of denying it. A UCLA neuroscientist, Alex Korb, has even conducted experiments that show how the brain can benefit when we express ourselves. In an fMRI study, participants viewed pictures of people with emotional facial expressions. Then, their amygdala—the part of the brain that plays a primary role in our emotional reactions—activated to the emotions in the picture. Yet, when a participant named the emotion, it reduced the amygdala’s reactivity and lessened the impact of the emotion. The study even found that when we try to suppress our negative emotions, our inward stress and anxiety can get more intense!
By virtue of being human, we are full of thoughts and ideas that inhabit us with energy. And if the creative energy in our mind sits untouched, it can turn on itself and we feel all sorts of anxiety and restlessness. To maintain our emotional well-being, we need to exercise our creativity.
Flow
The therapeutic benefits of artistic activities come in many forms: hands-on tasks can soothe our minds, they offer a healthy form of escape, and such tasks can free up our unconscious minds. Coloring books geared towards adults have gained popularity recently, and they are marketed as therapeutic tools. When we get into a state of creative “flow,” our minds enter an optimal state of consciousness where we feel and perform our best. Our concentration is so focused that everything else falls away, and we lose our sense of time and self.
Normally, our brain is in a fast-moving state of beta waves. In flow, our brainwaves slow to an alpha state, the same as our day-dreaming and meditation mode, where we slip from thought to thought easily. Our prefrontal cortex is also temporarily deactivated, which allows us to simply create without self-consciousness or judgment. Making time to use your brain creatively can bring your brain and body the same kind of benefits as meditation: practicing mindfulness and decreasing anxiety.
Arts and Healing
Art and health have been a subject of human interest throughout our history as a species, using pictures, stories, dances, and chants as healing rituals. In a hospital setting, studies have found that clinical outcomes improve more in patients who participate in art therapy than in those who do not. Creative expression may be a catalyst in our emotional healing process.
Expressive writing has been particularly successful in long-term improvements of mood and health. Writing about our emotional states can bring us more self-awareness, but studies have also shown that it helps us manage those emotions and cope with them.
When the intent behind our art is self-expression, the value in the art becomes the emotional benefits. The process we go through to create our art, to transform a mental image into something physical, is a reflection of our thought processes. How many times in a day do you stop to consider what or how you are feeling? Much like paying attention to how we feel physically, the creative arts allow us to check in with our mental well-being and emotional state.
The Power of Creativity
Expressive arts bridge the gap between the conscious and unconscious mind. When we put our mental process into a physical form, we feel more in control of our thoughts and feelings, and we understand them more clearly. We can’t always explain an emotion using logic. Creative activities allow us to externalize our thought process and observe it from a distance, and then we don’t have to act on our feelings impulsively.
The creative and artistic processes allow us to merge our emotional and our logical parts into one identity. This is a key step in our healing—to learn that what we think logically may not match how we feel, and that’s okay. It is a part of our process. Having a creative outlet where we can express ourselves means we can better manage those thoughts and feelings.
Nadia Sheikh is a content writer and web developer for Sober Nation.
Have you tried creative expression, either as a way to manage thoughts or as a “Vital Absorbing Creative Interest?” If so, have you found it helpful?
Yes I have and yes helpful is honestly an understatement. I’ve used Creative expression to recover… from addiction, from cancer and to discover and set free my inner artist. This has all enriched my life beyond measure. Thanks for asking.
A great article and one that mirrors my own experience with creative self expression
Creative expression has saved my life since I was 11 years old and continues to help me survive as a survivor of abuse.
Actually, I feel blocked creatively. I can’t seem to give myself permission to express my creativity without judging myself for doing such a selfish, unproductive, and time-wasting activity. I seem to have a lot of guilt or shame around this. My toxic belief is that I should be helping someone else or doing something for someone else. I am here to find answers and your article was very helpful. Thank you.
I have very similar experience -like I should be doing something productive – worthy – making me worthy – I get such high anxiety when I just write or draw in any fashion
Creating, in general, is anything but time wasting and unproductive.
The sense of accomplishment you feel after creating something can give you some of the most important things in your recovery: sense of accomplishment (which will make you feel productive and capable,) self esteem, self expression, among many more.
It allows you to tap into your subconscious, and sometimes what flows will amaze not only yourself, but others as well. It is one of the most beautiful, important, meditative, and FUN ways to focus on bettering yourself as well as coming to terms with what led you down the wrong path to begin with, so you are learning and growing as you go!
One of the most important things to remember in therapy and recovery is that while yes, there are things you “should” be doing, your focus needs to be on yourself. You’re allowed to be selfish during this time, and that means not worrying about what others think is a more “productive” use of your time.
Very well said! Thank you for explaining the importance of self-expression.
Am happy could find such a site. I can’t control my temper especially when it comes to my relationship. Sometimes I feel something is wrong with me. Sometimes I try to console myself. That’s how I found myself here.
Overwhelmed by the countless distractions, I was. Intoxicated beyond recognition. twenty some stays in rehab, chronic homelessness now for eight years, depressed and rejected by most family and friends, ragged and torn, nowhere to go, eden is too far away, sober for five months now, struggling not to fall again…deeply hurt, trying to forgive all grievances and forget all wrongs, trying to walk the path…please stay in touch, I feel alienated and ….
Yes because others have to take all of their classes
Yes because some might be mad to and it will not be fair
Should everyone take art yes they should because we all need all of our classes and we need all grades for all classes and it will not be fair to others that have to take art class and some other might feel like the teacher have favorite students and they might do negative things to other or themselves