This final post in my series is about using our bodily senses to self soothe. Our Sight. Ways that we can sooth ourselves by looking. Natural Vistas As I’ve already mentioned in a previous post, nature and landscapes are very calming. For example, looking at dappled...
The Art of Self-soothing 3: Creativity
The Art of Self-Soothing 2: Nature
This month’s way to self soothe is by being in nature. It’s long been known and proven that being outside and preferably in nature can improve our mental health. Take a Short Walk The simplest ways are often the most effective. Such as going for a short walk from your...
The Art of Self Soothing
There is so much going on in the world now. It’s hard watching the news, in fact I am more likely to just quickly check a news ap than I am to watch the news in real time. Many people I speak to are unable to watch the news at all because they struggle to think of the...
Interpreting Dreams
In the last of my series on dreaming we look at common images and symbols in dream interpretation. I love working with the unconscious and find dreams fascinating. We can think of them as metaphors for what might be going on in the dreamer’s life and/or the...
Nightmares and Night terrors
It seems difficult for people to talk about their nightmares. Even if the person has told me during their assessment that they suffer from nightmares, I often find people don’t talk about them in any detail until we have been working together for a while. Maybe by...
Types of dreams
Types of Dreams Every dream is as unique as the dreamer, but there are specific types of dreamsthat most commonly find their way into my consulting room. These are daydreams, vivid dreams, recurring dreams, lucid dreams, nightmares and night terrors. This month, I...
Dream Journaling
How To Remember Your Dreams I often work with people who dream frequently and are interested in their dreams. Many suffer from nightmares and night terrors which they remember vividly. I will be exploring these in a later post. But a lot of people don’t remember...
Dreaming
Photography by Gregory Pappas on UnsplashPsychotherapy and Dreams During an initial consultation with a potential client, I often ask about their dreams. Do they dream regularly? Do they have significant dreams from childhood? Do they have recurring dreams? This is...
Time for a Mindset Spring Clean
March is a hopeful month. Officially the first month of spring with emerging colour, bulbs bravely shooting through the ground and trees starting to sprout buds. A couple of years ago in the UK we had a mini heatwave in March. With the unpredictability of the climate,...
Cyber Bullying
Cyber Bullying When researching this subject, I was shocked to see the number of people who had taken their lives due to cyber bullying and sextortion. Between March 2019 and March 2020 19% or one in five children between the age of 10 and 15 in England and Wales...
Creativity is a sure way to self-soothe. People have lost themselves in creative pursuits since time began.
Getting in touch with our creativity is a way of reaching something within ourselves. By allowing this to develop we can usually make something bigger than ourselves.
Creativity encompasses so many activities. Since early times people have embraced their creativity. We know about Neolithic cave paintings and stories passed down orally before most people could write.
Nowadays, we think of more formal ways of being creative such as fine art and paintings but creativity means so much more.
The only need for creativity is time. Time for the space to create. In that space so many things can occur.
Ways to be creative
As well as the obvious arts and crafts there are numerous less obvious ways to be creative:
Taking time out to think and dream and wonder is creative. This can include time to rethink our job or our hobbies or our home.
Allowing ourselves time to daydream on a train journey.
Maybe brainstorming ideas at work because it’s usually more productive to think something through with a colleague than by yourself. There is a buzz in the energy that emerges in some creative exchanges.
Practical jobs can be creative too. Watching a plasterer and carpenter at work recently reinforced my admiration for their skills. The ability to make something beautiful out of raw materials is a very rewarding. As is DIY for the amateur. The process of problem solving, planning the job and carrying it out is absorbing and fulfilling.
Cooking and baking can also be soothing. The mindful way of chopping an onion or literally creating a meal for others to be sustained and hopefully enjoy, as well as in a Bake Off artistic ‘cheffy’ kind of way!
I find my work very creative. I provide a space for 2 people to think together. What emerges in that space is very special. Each session with a client or supervisee is unique and can never be repeated. We come together bringing all that we do and have experienced on that particular day to think about the patient and their issues. What emerges in that space is also unique and cannot be repeated. The alchemy and destination achieved between us is the result of the creative process between us.
Psychoanalysts and Creativity
Freud, Jung and Winnicott (founding psychoanalysts) all wrote theories about creativity, highlighting the need for and importance of it. Freud wrote about it in relation to culture and being a part of society. Winnicott wrote about it in relation to the mother and baby and the need for creativity within the relationship between them.
Jung used and encouraged the idea of active imagination which is creating a silent space for an individual to see what comes into their mind and to use any form of artistic medium to express the thought or image which comes to mind. The resulting piece is then thought about in relation to the creator and why they might have created that piece and its significance to them creating that now at this point of their life. Why not try the practice of active imagination yourself?
And so, this month you may find it helpful to think about a way that you can do something creative. So that you can get out of your day-to-day thoughts and To Do list and tap into something else which may calm and soothe you. It may even lead to something interesting and exciting …