Creative Healing Force
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eativity plays a great role in our quality of life. Treatment approaches that address only physical health may be good for our bodies but not enough for wellness. In contrast, holistic treatment approaches that include self-regulation techniques (what individuals can do for themselves to harness the healing potential of positive emotions) promote wellness by tapping into our creativity. Examples of such approaches include meditation and visualization, aromatherapy, Ayurvedic medicine, energy-based therapies, prayerful intention, and also arts. Medical professionals are beginning to recognize the role that creative arts play in the healing process; increasingly, arts are being used in medical programs throughout the United States and worldwide.
Art is one of the most creative ways to bring balance to the body and mind. For many of us, healing art is a spiritual path, transformational process, a way of being. According to Samuels, the founder and director of the project , art has the power to elicit the creative process, which frees the body’s mechanisms to heal and which unites body, mind, and spirit. Healing by art includes storytelling, poetry, music, dance, visual arts, paintings, sculpture—everything that is usually thought of as creativity. In art and healing, no interpretation or therapy is necessary. Here, art is transformational in itself. The artists are usually not trained art therapists; they are ordinary people who use the creative process of art to heal themselves, others, and the Earth.
We can heal ourselves with art, music, and dance. This essential process of healing involves our own personal change. When we are ill with physical or mental problems or when we need to grow, we start to heal ourselves with art by opening ourselves up to our inner voices of change. We allow ourselves to listen to those voices and to let their messages to us emerge. Healing by art has been used throughout the history, and each person can use its creative spirit to be healed from any illness, physical or mental. Art helps people express experiences that are too difficult to put into words, such as diagnosis with cancer. What’s more, research has shown that medical patients who receive art therapy tend to experience emotional release, less pain, and shorter hospital stays.
Art opens up our creativity to a life force that enables balance among different parts of our lives. By immersing ourselves in creative activities and step-by-step exercises designed for igniting the creative process, we become aware of the transformative power of art. This enables us to keep body, mind, and spirit in balance, and to deal constructively with life.
Sources: Anandarajah, G. (2008). The 3H and BMSEST models for spirituality in multicultural whole-person medicine. Ann Fam Med, 6 (5), 448-458.
http://www.artandhealingblog.com/
Johnson, S. S., Kushner, R. (2001). Mind/body medicine: an introduction for the generalist physician and nutritionist. Nutrition in Clinical Care, (4), 5, 256-264.
Samuels M., Rockwood L. M. (1998). Creative healing : Bringing the transformative power of art, writing, music, and dance, into your life. San Francisco: Harper
Stuckey, H. L., Nobel, J. (2010). The connection between art, healing, and public health: A review of current literature. American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 100 (2), 254-263.
Author: Dace Jansone, St. Joseph's College, West Hartford, CT
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