Thoughts on using mindful creativity to find yourself
I would like for you to answer this question. What is it that makes you feel a sense of being “at home”? Is it a feeling? A vibe? A physical space, or being with a specific person? Living in a specific city?
We all have ties and associations that make us feel that sense of certainty that we are grounded, welcome and comfortable.
When you have your sense of it, hold on. Life has a way of tossing us through obstacles, difficult (sometimes traumatic) circumstances and exposes us to all kinds of energy and opinions from others that can make us feel, well… lost.
I define feeling lost as losing your own voice in a sea of others. Of being afraid to share or say something you love or truly think, partnered with thoughts such as “will this even make sense to everyone else?” and “what is the point of being seen anyway?”. Feeling lost has a lot to do with personal direction, when you are unsure of what your goals for the future even are. Who should you show up as?
These are big questions and common amongst us all. I am being honest when I say, as someone who was exposed to a very traumatic early environment, I have travelled through these interior landscapes time and time again. A majority of my adult life has been unthawing myself from the frozen state of fight or flight. Moving from survival mode to learning what it means to live, and on my own terms. What has helped me most throughout the years has been exposing myself to realms of creativity. Being creative is what makes me feel so alive — the inner fire that melts away the uncertainty, doubt and indecision. This is because when I am being creative, and making something beautiful or meaningful to me, I feel like the best version of myself. I know that when you feel you are worthy, beautiful and in the presence of your art form (whatever form it is) — that is the feeling of home. That is the direction and the safety to build upon. The vibe you create for yourself is what you can return to time and time again, especially when you are feeling lost.
How to do this?
Here are just some suggestions to tap into and explore your creativity for mental health benefits:
- Change up the vibe of your space. Pick a theme that really inspires you. Build your decor and atmosphere around a colour scheme that makes you feel good. Once you have moved somethings around and created what you want, pay attention to the shift in energy that brings and keep building from there.
- Dance in your favourite outfit to music that connects to you. Do you want to feel sensual? Hyped up? Grounded? Music is so powerful for creating the energy and feelings you want to surround yourself with.
- Pick a recipe and be very mindful with the way you prepare it. Make it with love. Place the spices in fancy jars or combine them to make an appealing display.
- Play a musical instrument if you are musically inclined, or literally make up your own melodies. All songwriters need to start from somewhere, your melodies are powerful seeds and potentials.
- Design a vision board. Use the future possibilities as a space to move into. Go on Pinterest and save images that make you feel a certain way. This really helps with letting go of painful ways of relating to the past, because there is a future waiting for you. Expect to feel silly or think things are “impossible” — do it anyway, keep going.
- Design a hair/make-up look . Do a photoshoot and share a photo of yourself that you love .
- See in photography. Go for a walk and imagine everything you see as a photograph. The way light hits the buildings or trees. You need to have the vision before you capture that amazing shot.
The power of your creative pursuit of choice is that it has the ability to shift your identity, especially if our identities are tied to painful associations from our past. Sometimes these painful circumstances or experiences cause us to feel lost and alone to our own personalities and connection to ourselves. This in turn will leave us without a direction or knowledge of what we are meant to be doing.
They key to finding these answers for ourselves is a process that begins with establishing a sense of “home”, belonging and safety. One way to do so is to sustain periods of mindful creativity and observe this shift in energy. Not expected to be a permanent state at first, however, the prolonged exposure to these micro moments can slowly but surely transition you into the greatest and safest feeling version of you. One that truly feels like a home.
