Creativity and Healing

According to an article in the June 2008 edition of Scientific American, blogging is good for you! Apparently expressive writing not only serves as a means to cope with stress, but also

• improves memory and sleep

• boosts immune cell activity

• reduces viral load in AIDS patients

• speeds healing after surgery

Furthermore, cancer patients who write just before treatment fare better mentally and physically than patients who do not. Like running, listening to music, and looking at art, blogging might trigger the release of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with the pleasure systems of the brain.

Wow! Here I was thinking it would help me, and maybe even help someone else, to put some of my thoughts down on virtual paper and send them out there into the blogosphere, and . . . I was right!

This confirms what I’ve suspected for some time now: that creativity is crucial to healing. I don’t think anyone’s saying that writing or singing or dancing will cure cancer or MS or other illnesses (although I’ve met people who swear it does), but I think it can speed the healing process, possibly prevent illness, or at the very least, help people cope with illness and enjoy better quality of life.

Creativity seems to counteract the stress response, which has been shown over and over again to induce a wide array of illnesses, from heart disease to cancer. When we are working on a creative project, we enter into a state that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls "flow," during which we are making something happen, rather than passively experiencing the world. Often in these situations we are stretching our abilities while trying to accomplish something challenging but worthwhile to us. We lose track of time, stop thinking about the past and the future, and are completely alive in the present moment. In that way, being creative is like meditating, which also has healing benefits.

Often people who are unwell physically or emotionally feel isolated. Being creative is a form of communication, and although many people are perfectly content to keep their creations to themselves, many others derive immense pleasure from sharing (this is especially true for blogging, where you are potentially—if not actually—sharing your thoughts with millions of people out in cyberspace). Communication, especially in the blogosphere, leads to community, an important marker of health. A study undertaken by Statistics Canada, for example, reported that Canadians who have a strong sense of belonging to the community in which they live experience excellent or very good general health, whereas those with a weak sense of belonging don’t view their health as favorably. Creativity often leads to or is part of community building, which is in turn good for your health.

Finally, creativity is about self-expression. More and more health experts are insisting that one’s ability to express oneself and one’s emotions is crucial to good health, and vice versa, that emotional inhibition can lead to ill health (see, for example, this book, or this one). Creativity is one of the most efficient ways to get in touch with, explore, and express your emotions.

In the past I always believed that creativity was about accomplishing something, some perfect finished product. So for many years I didn’t do anything creative, because the stakes were too high, and I knew I wouldn’t measure up. Now I realize that it’s the process, the pleasure, the enjoyment, the expression, and the communication that count. And certainly when I look back at the times of my life that I loved, they were spent lost in play or creativity. When the demands (some real, most self-inflicted or perceived) of perfectionism come into play, stress starts and can eventually lead to ill health. Real creativity is about getting back to that childhood state when you get lost in the present moment. The big question for me is: can this bring about physical healing? Is anyone else out there finding that creativity is bringing about mental, physical, spiritual, or emotional healing?