Letting go of your feelings

We are all creative beings, even those of us who are not ‘good’ at art, music or writing. We are natural innovative thinkers and ideas people. That is why the human race has survived and thrived and why therapists often use artistic expression as a way to help people confront difficult feelings. It’s often said that unexpressed anger turns into depression. The ‘unsent letter’ is one of my favourite tools to help people release anger, especially if they have been holding it for a long time. You can do this on your own; just sit down and write or type exactly what you dream you would say given a no holds barred opportunity. Read and re-read it, tweak it and add to it again and again until you feel completely satisfied that nothing has been left unsaid. You will feel a ‘release’ or several little releases as you write and get nearer to the end.

Steve Jobs on Creativity in Wired (1996): “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people. Unfortunately, that’s too rare a commodity.” [Wired, February 1996]