She’d have me relocate myself at the scene of the accident, then she’d put her index finger in front of my eyes and start to move it from right to left and back again. She told me to follow the movement with my eyes, at first. Then she directed me to try and move her finger with the force of my eyes. The sessions never lasted long and she always asked my stress level before and after. Results were always the same: higher stress before we started, lower stress after.

I tried to figure out why it worked so well and at my last session with her I shared my opinion.

“It’s like creativity,” I said. “Creativity always heals us but people never know how or why. It doesn’t matter. They’re just happy they feel better.”

“What about this felt like creativity?” she asked.

“You gave me something to focus on so I couldn’t think about anything else. I had to be located in the present moment or I could not do the assignment. And when any of us are rooted in the present moment—grounded in the eternal NOW—we are one with the absolute, completely invincible. We can’t be hurt in the present moment.”

“And this happens when you create?”

“Yes!” No matter what I’m creating—a poem, a song, a recipe—my whole attention is devoted to it. I am thinking of nothing else. And that single-mindedness aligns me with Ultimate Reality. It takes me out of myself, in a way, and moves me into a higher dimension of consciousness. In that place, I am safe, healed, one. That’s how creativity heals us.”

“I see,” she said as she nodded her head and gave it some thought.

We didn’t have to agree. I wasn’t trying to prove that EMDR is just like creativity. She was a PhD who trained for many years in the field of consciousness and I just brought one more notion to the table.

What she did healed me from anxiety and PTSD. It didn’t make sense to me that someone moving a finger in front of my eyes would have that kind of power, so I had to connect some other dots. When I thought about creativity, a lot of things cleared up. And maybe the most important one was my insight into creative work as a healing act.

Whenever any of us feel fractured or fragmented by an event, the best thing we can do for ourselves is to enter right into it, to create something with it or about it that helps us explore and express it. That very attentiveness may be the pathway to wholeness. That single-mindedness will connect us to the infinite, root us in the eternal, and shift our awareness toward the oneness that we already always are part of.

Creativity is my sure cure.

* Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.

How has creativity played a role in your journey to healing? Tell us in the comments section below. 

 

Learn More About the Author

Jan is a writer, storyteller and workshop facilitator who provokes thought and inspires action. Her retreats and presentations are multi-media, multi-sensory events that connect the heart and brain. She uses images, music, poetry and stories to evoke non-dualistic original thinking and expression. Jan is founder and Executive Director of the Livingkindness Foundation. She has published 10 award-winning books and 3 CDs of original music. Learn more about her and her work at www.janphillips.com.