Over the last 18 months, I’ve been combining a practice of daily cacao and breathwork. I’ve discovered that one of the primary gifts of both cacao and breathwork is providing a boost to creativity. It has been delightful to find that conscious connected breathwork brings this gift, and I’ve received inspiration and creative insight as a result. What a powerful combination and stimulating journey. My experience of combining the two practices has brought mental clarity and vision beyond what I’d normally experience from day to day. I am thrilled to say that I’ve been stimulated to tap deeply into my creativity.
Creativity is something that has been ever present for me in life, but was most prevalent in childhood. As I moved into adulthood my creativity started to shut down, and I had to make a concerted effort to find ways to express my creative urge. I think some of that was perhaps related to periods of trauma and emotional challenges as I grew up. That will be a familiar story for many I’m sure.
Later in my life, during a period of depressive illness, I was encouraged to find ways to express myself creatively and this was a key to finding personal healing. I hauled out all my half completed projects – embroideries, knitting, sewing, writings and paintings and got great pleasure in completing them, and moved on to new projects as my creative flow returned. As I reconnected to the flow of my creative juices, I was inspired to create more. I moved away from the black dog of depression, and was able to reconnect with my emotions and my heart connection. I found the whole process very healing, and it convinces me that creativity comes from the heart and creative expression is vital to our health.
I’ve realised that when faced with strong emotions, and trauma, there is a natural tendency to avoid those feelings, to shut down the creative flow and go into the head. Our logical monkey egoic mind takes over, and we retreat from big feelings and strong emotions, as we might withdraw from being burned by touching something hot.
I am fascinated by the inter-relationship and inter-play of breath and cacao in healing trauma and the relationship of creativity to our healing, as well as healthy self expression.
I was interested to read a theory expressed by Hollywood film producer, Barnet Bain, in Dan Brule’s book ‘Just Breathe’ that backs up some of my own experience.
“When there’s too much aliveness in the body, we evacuate the building. When feelings in the body become too strong, we abandon ship and take up residence in the head. Creativity is not born in the head; it comes as a gift from beyond. It’s a heart thing. It’s an emotional thing. It’s a feeling thing. And so in the process of avoiding intense feelings, we cut ourselves off from the body, and therefore our creativity. The solution is to get back in touch with the body, to connect with feeling and there is only one way to do that; breathing. Breathing is the whole deal!”.*
* From ‘Just Breathe’ by Dan Brule, Ch 3, Breathing to Transform Your Mind p 103
We probably all experience trauma at some stage in our lives, and some trauma is just too big to deal with at the time. The residue can get locked into our bodies, and we can get triggered into re-experiencing feelings associated with trauma at other times in our lives – leading to irrational fears, panic attacks, anxiety or even more severe symptoms and dissassociation.
Trauma is a huge area and not to be treated lightly. One thing which drew me to breathwork is that it offers a way to deal with trauma in a gentle but deeply effective way. Breathing with the memory of trauma in a safe and held environment offers a wonderful way to release and find healing. If in a breathwork we encounter a release of emotion, we can feel that emotion without the attachment of a traumatic story, and release it with our breath. The power of the breath can help to unlock residue of emotional trauma locked in our bodies, and through using the breath we are able to re-experience the echoes of trauma locked inside or perhaps in our bodies and receive the blessing of healing. Gradually reducing the impact in a safe held space.
So my reflection on creativity is that it gets shut down by traumatic experiences, and by opening up to deal with trauma, we also open up to our creativity. So for me, unlocking trauma and unlocking creativity go hand in hand on the healing journey. It’s led me to profound experiences, and deep healing, and I hope to be able to share some of those gifts with others.
Healing journey with Clare Drury 