Healing Trauma Through Creative Expression

by Josephine Faulk, MPH · Published January 12, 2015 · Updated January 14, 2019

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Art is magical and the creating of it takes you to an enchanting realm – the right side of your brain. Even better is that when you are thoroughly immersed in the right side of your brain, the left side gets the dimmer switch, or even completely muted. Since the left side of your brain is where your self-critic resides (like a troll, lying in wait under the bridge) it gives you a much needed respite from its litany of self-defeating verbiage. While you are participating in your marathon recovery program you will find that right brained activities are nearly as refreshing to your soul as a week in Fiji.

The list of possibilities could be a book all on its own. Activities that are physical and require great concentration work equally well. It just needs to be something you thoroughly enjoy. What matters is that you follow your fascination. Perhaps you have always wanted to play the piano and right now you can’t play as much as a children’s rendition of “Happy Birthday to You.” Yet the desire has been lying dormant in your heart for years, waiting to be fulfilled.

Let yourself be drawn Or maybe you’ve always fantasized about being in a band; now that you are in your late forties it just seems ridiculous. It isn’t. Hey, have you seen Mick Jagger lately? Just start at point A and continue tiny step by tiny step. This is not about ending up at Carnegie Hall, in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or in the Getty Museum. It’s about pleasure, your pleasure, your journey to self-love and self-acceptance. What may surprise you is where this can lead you eventually. The phenomenon of doing what you love consistently leads people to discovering their life’s purpose.