Shadow Work & The Creative Spirit
Reconnecting with your creative spirit through shadow work
Aspects of our ourselves that we identify as undesirable are often buried, ignored and denied. These split-off aspects become part of our shadow. Working to uncover these fragments can reveal essential facets of our true nature, and enable a recovery of authentic creativity. A useful analogy for this might be to think of a precious stone that is partially obscured by a coating. Shadow-work is like a gradual chipping-away of the superficial layer, and polishing of the surface, so the beauty of what is hidden can be revealed.
Are there aspects of your natural creative spirit that are hidden?
The shadow, adaptation, and belonging
Rejecting aspects of ourselves is an unavoidable part of growing up and interacting with other people, not all of whom may understand us. As children, we always seek love and yearn for acceptance. Any rejection is tantamount to a threat to survival, and so we tame and mould ourselves into ‘acceptable’ versions. If you were a wild-child in a family of introverts your expressive behaviour might not have been encouraged. Over time, you might have become more inhibited. Equally, as a quiet, sensitive soul you may have adapted by creating an extroverted ‘mask’ as a coping mechanism.
This is an inevitable process that everyone goes through in one way or another. We all repress essential aspects of our authenticity in order to be accepted. Even as adults we learn to adapt our behaviour, and create various different personas. This can be a useful skill because it helps us to build and maintain relationships. Difficulties may arise when we are not conscious of our motivations and begin to sacrifice essential aspects of who we really are, in exchange for belonging.
Negativity, positivity, and creativity
Managing various aspects of our personality can end up requiring complex strategies based on paradoxical rules. Perhaps a trait is valued or accepted in one situation, by certain people, and only at a certain ‘level’. Emotions can be similarly affected - natural expression can become limited (or chaotic) if it has elicited unpleasant or confusing responses from others in the past. Even positive emotions such as joy and happiness may have a pre-established limit in your unconscious mind. Although it seems counter-intuitive, your ability for creative expression might be limited if it threatens to bring you into a positive state.
Do you ever feel yourself reaching a high and then plummeting into anxiety or negative thoughts for no clear reason?
It could be that the positive feelings have set off an automatic alert, warning that you are feeling ‘too good’. This could be an internal system that was established decades ago in response to a completely different situation. If the same emotional constellation reoccurs it may start a pre-emptive reaction. Under the surface of your awareness, there can be panic. “The last time I felt this happy/free/content something terrible happened! That means I must be heading for danger and need to shut down these positive emotions and put up defences immediately!”
Creative blocks and trauma
In the excellent book, The Inner World of Trauma, Donald Kalsched discusses how split-off aspects of the personality can form a self-care system. Although this system is created to protect the vulnerable self from re-experiencing trauma, it can become over-zealous and ultimately an obstacle to healing and growth.
Your natural creative spirit may be similarly stifled because of past events or traumatic experience. It is important to note that this is not necessarily caused by an extreme event; trauma can be caused by incidents that may seem minor or mundane to others. Perhaps you find it difficult to express what may be stirring within you because it doesn’t feel safe, reliable, or is simply unknown.
Cultural creative repression
As Iain McGilchrist points out in The Master and His Emissary, the current educational system rewards left-brain linearity. Natural spontaneous expression, creativity, and imagination are not encouraged in the classroom or other institutional environments. Stepping out of line is typically penalised. For most people in contemporary Western society, this training began early and is deeply ingrained. Although creativity is lauded, it is the highly marketable, economically viable version that typically finds support as opposed to the free-spirited, inventions-in-daydreams type. As a result, the right-brain and its incredible capacities are often uncultivated and left in the shadows.
Has your creative spirit been suppressed by cultural expectations?
A drive for creative achievement
Sometimes creativity is also expressed through a shadow aspect. In The Drama of Being A Child, Alice Miller emphasises that our earliest needs for acceptance can be tied up with our ability and external achievements. If praise is conditional on what you do, rather than who you are, it may be difficult to feel accepted when you are not performing to a certain (often unachievable) standard. This can lead to pathological perfectionism and an unquenchable thirst for approval. Self-worth and creative achievement can be inextricably linked. We may have rejected our authentic creativity, while simultaneously be expressing creative urges through other aspects of ourselves.
The important thing to remember is that your natural creative spirit is still alive with you. It may need a little attention, a little tending, some compassion. You may need to gently coax it out of hiding, or encourage tentative movement towards authentic expression. Creative play is one way to rediscover buried aspects of your true self that may have been lost in the tumultuous journey to adulthood or put aside amidst life’s challenges. This could be as simple as carving out 10-15 minutes with some basic art materials and no agenda.
Do you need a little help in fostering a spontaneous, playful frame of mind? Check out the posts below for more ideas on engaging in spontaneous creative expression and ways to kickstart your imagination.
Anti Colouring and the Power of imagination (includes free pdf download with creative exercise)
References
Miller, A. (1987). The drama of being a child: The search for the true self. Virago.