Recovery - Using Both Sides of Your Brain
Did you know using both sides of your brain is an excellent way to move through abuse recovery? It's a way to move through the time line. We are, like God, creative beings.
When I was going through the first years of recovery, I wrote poetry. It was my way to express my pain in allegory form, using metaphors that could not be easily understood by my parents or anyone else. I have several abuse-recovery friends that moved through recovery by the creative act of writing (fiction, poetry, etc.)
Also, at one point, I did collages: gathered pictures from magazines and glued them to a framed board. I was a way of "seeing" what my life had been and what it could be. The piano at the top of this page is a prime example. (The image was copyrighted in 1989 by me, and I ask you to respect its copyright.)
Fortunately, I was musically talented and one of my "super highways" through recovery has always been music. Like the graphic says, "Music Always Takes Me…" Where ever I need to go emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, it is usually music that is my vehicle. I have my MP3 Player going constantly because it makes me focus. I believe whole-heartedly in music therapy because I have used it on myself for many years!
I have other friends who are very creative seamstresses, quilt-makers, and cooks and making jewelry, ceramics and painting. These activities are creative and force them to use both sides of their brain.
I started learning Adobe Photoshop in the 1980's and when I work for months on a compilation (like the image above), it relaxes me unbelievably, and I feel absolutely no stress. When my eyes were in better shape I would work in Photoshop from morning until bedtime and never know how the time went so fast! During that time, I had no perception of problems that I would have otherwise been stressing over (and I had plenty of those!).
God, the Master Artist, created us to be creative. Those who use only the analytical side of their brains are usually the ones who never become whole!
What medium are you creative in? There are hundreds of ways to express creativity! Do you have a bent for arranging flowers? How about decorating rooms? And you men, do you love woodwork? Landscaping? Oh, the list is so long!
Whether your abuse was physical, sexual, verbal, mental, or emotional, the same rule applies: heal through creativity!
Author of God's Battered Child: Journey From Abuse to Leader, April Lorier offers her Christian view on domestic abuse, issues of society and of women, politics, divorce recovery, books, and modern-day "Christianity." The daughter of a pastor, her perspective is sometimes humorous, sometimes thought-provoking, but always a helpful faith-based resource for seekers of emotional and spiritual growth.
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