The art of making art
The missing piece to our healing journey
I came to the realization that the scariest part of being an artist is being unfiltered in a world full of filters. For my entire life, I was a people-pleaser, afraid of disagreeing with someone as it could possibly put them in an uncomfortable position. As I started to embark on my own healing journey, I was able to transform a lot of limiting beliefs, especially around people-pleasing, but the missing piece after so much theoretical work was coming into a state of creation. (Yes, I cringed at myself at first and wondered what the girl I went to school with 14 years ago would think of me.)
Hey there, I’m Sarah and I write about the reality of living a life away from the norm.
Subscribe for free to enjoy occasional posts from me. Or, even better, join our community of badass spirits to unlock ALL my content, including exclusive writing and resources, to help you live the life you REALLY crave.
I’d love you to join me,
Sarah
Nowadays, there’s so much talk about wellness, mindfulness, and healing. One aspect I often miss in these conversations is that we don’t need fancy yoga clothes, pricey ginger shots, or red light therapy when we can simply do art.
In a society conditioned to consume more, better, and faster, the easiest act of rebellion is to leave this state of consumption and enter a state of creation. Consuming will reward us with dopamine, which, as you probably know by this point, is highly addictive and in this case, not very friendly for our bank accounts, let alone our environment.
Research indicates that when we engage in art making, chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and beta-endorphins are released into our bloodstream. This process mimics the pain-relieving effects of morphine, leading to the emergence of pleasurable feelings (Vallianos, 2015). Additionally, endorphins contribute positively to our emotions by generating a sense of pleasure, which in turn empowers us and fosters a positive self-perception (Endorphins 101, 2013). Okay, this is great news!
Personally, I find that creating art is healing because it naturally puts me in a flow state (the same state we find in meditation). The difference is that many people are afraid of meditation because they can’t seem to quiet their minds actively. Well, creating art doesn’t require us to actively quiet our minds; it inevitably quiets our minds through the process of creation.
So why are we afraid of creating art or why do we shy away from calling ourselves artists?
Because sharing our art means sharing our voice. It means inviting the world to dive into the depths of our soul and then allowing them to reject us for it. Of course, that realization hurts since we all naturally fear rejection. Therefore, let’s remind ourselves that, contrary to our ancestors, we nowadays don’t die if we get rejected by our social circle.
Once we overcome the fear of rejection and the fear of appearing cringe, there will be people awaiting our art with open arms. We will only be able to heal the right people through our art if we’re okay with appearing cringe in front of the wrong people. I've come to the conclusion that there’s absolutely no different solution to this. To kick off our artist journey, we either are bold enough to take the leap or we get so tired of hiding ourselves that one day, we vomit our art into the world.
After living a life hiding the most vulnerable parts of ourselves, entering a state of creation equals a rebirth.
It’s like tasting the cold snow on a mountain, after living our whole lives in the dry desert.
It’s freeing.
And once we got a taste, we want to eat the whole damn mountain.
Create some art today,
x Sarah