Art is one of the most powerful ways to heal.

Whenever I see beautiful art that really touches me, my heart tugs with so much intensity it can’t be ignored.

Although I always start with The Healing Codes in helping my clients heal their issues of the heart, I love to give clients other tools to help in their healing journey.

McKella Sawyer explains beautifully how art can bring deep healing to your life. I am honored to have her as a guest writer today. She will inspire you to not only bring art into your life but to use it as the healing gift it is. Art truly heals on so many levels!

I hope you will also take some time to visit her site and see more of her wonderful gifts.

How Creativity Heals Us

By McKella Sawyer

Have you ever felt something stir inside you when you heard a beautiful song, stood before a powerful piece of art, read an amazing book, or attended an amazing performance? Have you ever dropped into the “zone” while you created something, even if you were just coloring a scene from The Little Mermaid in your kid’s coloring book?

Did those things change you?

Art is one of the most potent medicines on the planet that heals our bodies, minds, and spirits. Nothing speaks to the soul like creating or experiencing art. Nothing.

The process of creation is meditative

which is great if you have a hard with the whole eyes closed, lotus pose, flowy shawl kind of meditation like I do. I try, but sometimes all I need is a brush in my hand and some good instrumental music on Pandora to get into that blissful zone where I don’t have to think. Your poor overworked brain needs this downtime, just like your body needs a day off from your Crossfit routine.

Sometimes it isn’t all blissful and in the zone though. Sometimes our masterpiece doesn’t work the way we planned. We make “mistakes”. This happens at least a few times with every piece I create. The paint might drip, I might decide I don’t like that tree there or realize something I was going to paint just won’t work. What do I do? I just figure it out. Usually, the piece turns out better than I’d imagined, but sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, it reminds me that everything will turn out ok, even if I end up having to gesso over the whole thing and start fresh. The creative process mirrors life, and therein lies healing lessons.

The gift of creative expression heals us.

Emotions are nebulous, tricky things, and we don’t always know what to do with them. They feel huge sometimes, like they’re run us over or rip us apart from the inside. But the first step to embracing those emotions is to actually feel them, and creativity provides us with a safe way to do this. Whether we paint our emotions, dance them, sing them, or play them on the drums, expressing them gives them voice so they can pass through and be release.

Even if we don’t create it, experiencing art nourishes us on a deep level. Reading a good book, looking at a painting, listening to music, watching someone dance, it all brings beauty into our lives. It calms and invigorates us. Art speaks a language we can only understand on a deep, soul level. It transcends logical thought and speaks directly to the deepest part of us.

And when the spirit is light and joyful, the mind and body follow, and that’s when the healing magic happens!