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You are here: Home / Archives for Creativity

Creativity

Caught in Panic

by John Folk-Williams 18 Comments

sculptured face in stone

I think of creativity as an opposite of depression. As the driver in my life that connects and communicates, it represents everything I cannot do in the midst of the illness. Yet there was a time when it led to panic. Creativity is usually discussed in connection with the arts, and the idea gets overblown […]

Filed Under: Anxiety, Creativity Tagged With: depression, panic, pattern

Peak Experience in Depression

by John Folk-Williams 18 Comments

leaping dancer silouette in sun

So much is written about peak experience, the feeling of oneness, the effortless flow of energy as you feel yourself at one with what you are doing. I often struggle with myself to achieve these moments, but depression has its ways of blocking them. If you’ve ever played a sport that involves hitting a ball, […]

Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: boundaries, Buddhism, experience, fulfillment, oneness

A Teacher of Imagination and Resilience

by John Folk-Williams 1 Comment

Hands of magician with wand and black hat

I once knew a gifted man, a born teacher of imagination and play. He taught children as a natural part of his instinct for life, and he taught the rest of us resilience in the face of illness. Steven and his lifelong friend Maria arrived in town one day, found an old office space they […]

Filed Under: Creativity Tagged With: children, illness, play, resilience, spirit, teaching

Revisiting: Recovery and Creative Experience

by John Folk-Williams 4 Comments

All that I am, all that life has made me, every past experience that I have had – woven into the tissue of my life – I must give to … new experience. … [The] past … has indeed not been useless, but its use is not in guiding present conduct by past situations. We […]

Filed Under: Creativity, Reconnecting, Recovery Tagged With: change, life

Writing, Creativity and Healing – 2

by John Folk-Williams 15 Comments

Thanks again to isabella at moritherapy and her post about Mental Health Camp, I’ve been reading Louise DeSalvo’s Writing as a Way of Healing. She discusses at length not only the healing power of the writing process but also the need for a writer to care for the creative self. Her own breakthrough in becoming […]

Filed Under: Creativity, Healing, Writing Tagged With: detachment, life, meditation, mind, mood, personality, reality

Writing, Creativity and Healing

by John Folk-Williams 18 Comments

Some Rights Reserved by tore_urnes at Flickr Thanks to isabella, and her recent posts on writing and healing (like this one), I’ve been thinking more about the way writing, creativity and healing fit together. From the beginning of this blog, I had no doubt that creative expression of all kinds, and writing for me, could […]

Filed Under: Creativity, Recovery, Writing Tagged With: depression, mind, psychology, self

Many Selves, One Mindful Direction

by John Folk-Williams 14 Comments

1. I walk around with a crowd inside – so many selves wanting to go in different directions. Too many voices are talking all at once, and it’s hard to pick out the one I need to listen to right now. Here’s the intuitive talker, waking up with the big picture and the ideas for […]

Filed Under: Anxiety, Creativity, Mindfulness Tagged With: awareness, brain, consciousness, depression, love, self, tension

Facing My Double Again

by John Folk-Williams 11 Comments

catatonickid recently published a post about facing your double, reaching a place where nothing can be explained, a place where no choice could possibly be right. She calls that the “ideal argument for healing,” or, in the quoted words of Marie-Louise von Franz: “the beginning of the process of individuation” – the joining of the […]

Filed Under: Creativity, Spirituality Tagged With: awareness, emotion, personality, self

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Depression affects emotions, mental abilities, self-concept, behavior, relationships and the entire body. These core posts describe the full range of symptoms affecting daily life. Read More.

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Hoping for recovery gives you a motive but not a method for getting there. This section has posts about therapies and healing methods you can work with either on your own or with professional guidance. Read more.

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