Many of us remember making art as small children. Carving out that piece of floor or kitchen table or classroom and losing ourselves as we became engrossed in the task at hand. Immersed in a sea of paints, crayons, construction paper, brown paper bags and Popsicle sticks, all our senses were engaged. The smell of the crayons, the feel of wet paint or glitter glue on fingers, the sound of furious coloring or of our own rhythmic breathing as we focused on a task all grounded us to our mission. Some will remember the sense of pride and accomplishment at having completed this act of telling a story. Telling our story in a way that makes sense of ourselves, our families and our world.

Later, as teenagers, we may have had a similar experience. Our newly heavy limbs sprawled out as we wrote poetry or song lyrics, drew cartoons or just expressed our thoughts in notebooks or journals. We were still connected to that drive to communicate our inner selves to the world. That communication has intrinsic value. It connects us to others, to a community. It allows us to have agency in that community by sharing a story and making ourselves visible.

There is an ongoing theme in our work at Joyful Heart. That theme is that all of us have the knowledge inside ourselves about what we need to heal and find our joy. Creative expression can help connect people, at all stages of life or their recovery from trauma, to that inner healing voice.

There are many routes to self-expression. Creativity can be explored through a variety of artistic disciplines. Commonly identified methods include drama, dance, music, creative writing and the visual arts, including photography. All these activities engage the participant/artist in a process that uses a holistic health framework to access physical, mental, spiritual and social well-being. The benefits of creative expression do not end at any particular age, but many people are not given the opportunity to be artistic as they move into adulthood. Children, youth, adults and the elderly can all participate in creative or artistic expression. It can be utilized to express thoughts and feelings that are too big or too difficult to put into words. This can be especially helpful with people who have linguistic or cognitive issues that make creating a written or spoken narrative daunting.

One of the most engaging features of the creative process is that it facilitates moments of vitality and connection for those who choose to participate in it. Sir Ken Robinson, an internationally recognized leader in the development of creativity, innovation and human resources, describes the experience: “The arts address the idea of an aesthetic experience. An aesthetic experience is one in which the senses are operating at their peak, when you are present in the current moment, when you are resonating with the excitement of this thing that you are experiencing, when you are fully alive.” This experience is part of the enchantment that creative expression holds, the process connects us to our authentic self. Art can be the expression of our most inner selves, even of our souls.

Creative expression can lead us to a deeper level of understanding and self-discovery. Cathy Salser, the Founder and Executive Director of A Window Between Worlds, an agency that was born from her vision to “share art in a way that makes a difference,” describes creative expression as “the language that lives in the heart and the spirit. It’s the language that emerges when you find the safety to really listen to your heart.”

When one experiences sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse or other types of interpersonal violence, a complex set of reactions can come into play. Some of these reactions are physical reactions to trauma and increased nervous system response, some are emotional reactions to a highly distressing event, some are cognitive responses as we try to make sense of the event(s) that occurred, and some are social responses as survivors grapple with community attitudes and social norms around abuse. Because of the many layers of disruption involved, the healing benefits of art are diverse and apply to different aspects of wellness.

Cathy Salser says that engaging in creative expression creates a “window of time to honor whatever comes out, whatever needs to emerge. Whatever it looks like, whether it makes sense or doesn’t make sense. Even if it is just a scribble. It is a way to reclaim what’s been lost or what’s been trapped, whether that is relaxation or safety or possibility or a sense of freedom.”

Art can be an oasis, a place to find relaxation and calm. It can also be used to release pain and unexpressed feelings. As we express and integrate unacknowledged feelings, we honor and integrate our whole selves. Creative expression can be both a way to find calm and a way to release pain, as the state of arousal that occurs as one achieves an emotional catharsis resolves in a state of relaxation once deeply held thoughts and feelings are released.

Using creative expression for healing and wellness can be a large-scale public health intervention strategy, like nutrition. This strategy can be implemented by health professionals and paraprofessionals across the spectrum of care and has benefits for multiple populations. Dr. Jeremy Nobel, MD, MPH and Founder and President of The Foundation for Art and Healing says, “The idea of art having healing capabilities for individuals and society is at least four thousand years old as far as we can tell. This is not new. That said, there are ways of making it available to people as well as to evaluate on a more rigorous scientific basis, to see how it works and how to make it work better."

To that end Dr. Nobel coauthored with Heather L. Stuckey, DEd “The Connection Between Art, Healing and Public Health: A Review of the Current Literature,” published by the American Journal of Public Health, February 2010, Vol 100, No. 2. This article examines the efficacy of using creative expression in healing in multiple types of health settings using multiple artistic modalities, and found the following benefits:

Music engagement, which can include the passive experience of listening to music or the active experience of creating music, was seen to have effectiveness in decreasing anxiety and tension, calming neural activity in the brain, and reducing heart and respiratory rates.

Visual arts are any endeavor that results in a physical work that can be viewed, and includes painting, sculpture, collage, photography or anything else that is expressed visually. Engaging in visual expression has been linked to enhanced self worth and identity through achievement, reduced stress, increased positive emotions, and decreased markers of emotional distress. It also results in a desire to continue in the healing process.

Movement, including formal, informal and free form dance, has been observed to contribute to a positive body image as well as increased self-awareness, problem solving abilities, self-esteem, and cognitive and psychological well-being.

Expressive writing, which can involve journaling, storytelling, free writing, poetry, or personal memoir, can improve control over pain, depressed mood, and pain severity. It can also positively affect anger expression, feelings of social support and other general quality of life measures.

CREATIVE EXPRESSION: "The language that lives in the heart and the spirit. It's the language that emerges when you find the safety to really listen to your heart."

Because this article included a survey of available research, the outcomes for different modalities are based on different measures, but it is likely that many creative activities contribute to a common set of physical, emotional, cognitive, social and spiritual gains. Dr. Nobel summarizes the major benefits of creative expression as follows: “Art allows you to do three things, and this is where the healing comes from. Art puts you in the moment, puts you in touch with yourself and allows you to bring forth something that did not exist before. And those three things taken together are incredibly powerful in terms of adjusting your understanding of yourself, your relationship to yourself, your relationship to the world and your sense about possibilities for the future."

Creative expression has elements that are specifically relevant to integrating the experiences of sexual assault, domestic violence or child abuse. Survivors have had the experience of their voices being taken away. That feeling of invisibility is a response to the exposure to a set of events where it was not safe to voice one's boundaries or needs. In some situations it was not safe to have feelings at all. That lack of access to one's inner voice can make a person feel disconnected and unmoored. The results of those feelings can be that a vision of a life where one’s feelings and thoughts and desires are honored and deserving of respect can seem out of reach. According to Cathy Salser, creating art can be the "first step in making something that seems impossible, tangible, visible. It can create the new future of respecting what you feel and think and want.”

Just as engaging in creative projects benefits individuals, practicing creativity can be beneficial to organizations. Organizations, like people, can get stuck in ineffective patterns. Deborah Obalil, Executive Director of Foundation for Art & Healing, describes this organizational challenge, “If something stays the same too long, it gets stratified in a way that is not useful, because the world is changing around us. What we thought we were doing that worked, or that we thought worked, may no longer be the best organizational practice.” This lack of flexibility can inhibit program effectiveness and organizational growth.

One way to combat this organizational torpor is by introducing creativity as an organizational value. This can be done experientially by implementing creative projects as part of organizational thinking. If your organization is in the middle of a strategic planning process, you may want to have staff and board paint, collage or write a poem about what they see as next steps. This process may yield richer results than a strictly intellectual discussion group. Ms. Obalil explains the rationale behind this approach: “Creative expression can be used as a tool to help people and organizations think differently. When you use creative exercises to think through problems in a certain way, all of a sudden you get different answers.” The results of creative exercises may transform an organizational culture by increasing creativity, flexibility and forward thinking.

Creative expression can also contribute to staff morale, a sense of job satisfaction and individual sustainability. Creative expression can be used as a tool for individual self-care and as a way to manage trauma exposure response. Many people are reinvigorated by seeing the results that creative work can have. They may have been drawn to helping professions out of a desire to connect with clients or community members in a deeper way than they are able during the normal course of their duties. When they are able to have that deeper connection using art, their sense job satisfaction increases and they are more able to manage the inevitable setbacks and disappointments of doing the work.

At its most powerful, creative expression can be a tool for individual and organizational transformation. It can help people externalize and name painful feelings and thoughts. It can enable people to connect to their inner voice and allow them to make themselves heard. It can flow through the barriers that separate our conscious from our unconscious, our public personas from our private selves. It can be a mechanism for healing and growth and community. At its more mundane, creative expression can enrich our lives in everyday ways, by brightening our mood with a glimpse of color or inspiring our imagination with a beautiful phrase or by providing a path to joy with soul-stirring music. In any and all of its incarnations, creative expression can benefit everyone who interacts with it.

Contrary to what some of us learned in school, creative expression is not some complex, rule-laden process. It is something we all have inside of us. Creative expression is a natural human trait and has been practiced for centuries by individuals and communities all over the world. You don’t need special training or extraordinary talent to be creative. You just need to be willing to give yourself permission to release your inner creative and artistic self.

Here are some steps to get started on your creative journey:

Identify what you are drawn to. This doesn’t have to be what you think you are good at, or what you feel you should do, just what feels attractive to you. Are you interested in painting? Writing poetry? Knitting? Japanese flower arranging? Think about what feeds your spirit and try that first.

“To draw, you must close your eyes and sing.” —Pablo Picasso

Set a time to do it! Make a commitment to yourself and set aside a time and space to feed your creative self. It doesn’t have to be a big commitment of time or money. If you want to paint, you can start by collecting images that inspire you, or browsing the paint section at an art supply store. You can build your creative muscles as you make creativity a part of your schedule.

Keep at it. You can’t mow the lawn just once. Creative expression is an ongoing process. Continue the process by committing to find opportunities to be creative and exploring new avenues that interest you.