Many of us were creative, expressive and playful as children but stopped expressing ourselves creatively after childhood. Growing up, we explored music, art, dance, drama, storytelling and other creative pursuits. Our classes and extracurricular activities exposed us to different art forms, and many of us were intrigued enough to continue studying them. For a lot of us, our creativity made us happy and brought us a sense of satisfaction we may not have understood yet. As adults, however, many of us start to abandon our creative interests, and we begin to replace them with work, duty and obligation. We’ve forgotten how good it feels to create, to express ourselves, and to watch something beautiful come out of our own ingenuity. We’ve forgotten how it feels to develop a talent or skill and express it in ways that feel good to us. For many of us, we’ve lost the satisfaction with life and the sense of fulfillment that only creativity can bring.
When we feel this deeply unfulfilled and discontent, it is very easy for us to develop mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety. We feel sad, uneasy, restless, misguided, misaligned and bored. We struggle to remember what we once loved about life. We have a hard time finding meaning in our lives. We no longer feel connected to our purpose or to our inner light. Along with our mental health issues, we can also find our dissatisfaction with life contributing to the development of addictions. When we don’t feel grounded and connected within ourselves, we find ourselves feeling like we need the escapism of drugs, alcohol and other addictive substances and behaviors in order to feel better about ourselves and our lives. We’re more susceptible to developing addictions when we don’t have healthy coping skills, such as creative interests, to help us stay the course amidst difficult life challenges.
Creative expression is a tool we can use in our recovery to rediscover the truth of who we are. Creativity helps us reconnect with our inner selves. It magnifies the light within us. It helps us to transcend the darkness and negativity in our lives. It provides a healthy escape from the monotony of our daily schedules and brings back a sense of excitement and satisfaction. It allows us to regain the fulfillment and purposefulness that come with actively pursuing our interests. We start letting ourselves dream again. We let ourselves enjoy ourselves again. We find happiness and peace in expressing ourselves creatively, and this is a powerful element of healing.
Your new life starts today. Let Riverside Recovery be your support system as you do the work to heal. Call (800) 871-5440 for more information on our addiction recovery. treatment programs.