By Arielle Giordano
Give yourself the gift of creativity to expand your expression and transform your entire essence of being.
What better month than February, with its focus on love and honoring relationships, to open ourselves up to creative potential. Expressing yourself through creativity can bring renewal and regeneration, whether it is through dance, movement, music and choreography, visual arts, writing, cooking, making, building, or just living. Creativity can transform our painful reactions to situations, and help us to heal from traumatic life experiences. Creativity gives us a renewed strength and offers a unique way to give voice to difficult thoughts and feelings.
Through my own processes, I have healed old wounds with catharses of the heart. I have expressed myself in ways that satisfied and transformed me and my life experiences. I now know that seeing life through the lens of creativity is a unique experience that can expand consciousness and human potential.
If you are ready to open that door and step through, start with something simple such as thinking about a topic and then drawing in relation to it. I have found this an interesting and revealing experience in my own creative growth. Moreover, when I am feeling down and dance, the movements exuberate and enliven my body, heart, and soul. Thoughts and feelings are integrated and whatever I was upset about is either no longer bothering me, a solution presents itself, or I just let it go. Dancing takes me out of my own self. I dance to the music and become one with it. It empowers my ability to reach new depths of being alive through the freedom and victory of self-expression.
Understand that enjoying the creative process inspires and remodels our inner reality, our thoughts, feelings, and perceptions. Our view of the world shifts in a subtle way. As we take pleasure in looking at a painting, the painting becomes alive as the viewer puts himself or herself into what is real in the moment. Paintings reflect a story in one’s life, imitate and mimic reality, or can be an aesthetic experience that inspires and enlivens.
Creating and being creative is a natural impulse for human beings. Self-expression through creativity is an opportunity to gain deeper insights and understanding within ourselves. We get to feel our feelings and think our thoughts. We get to see new aspects within ourselves, our lives, and others. A new awareness gets to have form, a voice, a structure, and a constructive expression for our inner and outer harmony, chaos, and conflict.
In her article “Giving Life to Carl Rogers theory of Creativity” Natalie Rogers writes that “using the expressive arts gives people a safe place to explore their shadow side…The shadow is the part we have repressed in our lives. Some people have denied their anger and rage for a lifetime.” Referring to expressive arts therapy, she says: “The creative process is life force energy. If offers a safe, empathic, non-judgmental environment, and a transformative process for constructive change…Using movement, sound, color, and drama offer opportunities to first become aware of one’s shadow, and then to explore it fully through many media.”
As human beings we have natural propensity for and love of beauty. Throughout history, we have followed and appreciated the greats of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, the Renaissance, and the Egyptian civilization, to name just a few. As human beings, we honor the love of aesthetics and the transformational process of creativity, art and self-expression. Let these powerful ways heal human consciousness on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels.
So as you look to create more love and joy in your life, explore creative options. Enjoy doodling, scribbling, painting, dancing, baking, cooking, building, a new project, experimenting, and living creatively from the inside out Let your heart sing as you explore your own expression!
Arielle Giordano, with a Master’s of Arts and Master’s of Education, is a professional dancer, choreographer, teacher, facilitator, and published author. From belly dancer and snake charmer to Salsa and Hawaiian Hula dancer, she enjoys sharing her gifts and talents with an authentic style rich in grace in dance, psychology, philosophy, and the expressive arts. Arielle is a Lead Faculty Area Chairperson and Faculty Member for College of Humanities at the University of Phoenix. She inspires students with her profound knowledge of Humanities, Art, Psychology, and Philosophy. She is a published author of two books and many magazine articles. In 2013, she published the Psychology, A Journey, 4th ed. Study Guide. In 2011, she wrote the Barlow Abnormal Psychology 3rd ed. Instructor’s Manual, and in 2009, the Psychology, A Journey 3rd ed. Study Guide, published by Nelson Education. She has been a guest speaker and interviewed on radio and television. In addition, Arielle has been featured in newspapers and magazines across the United States and Canada. For more information, visit dancingfromtheinsideout.com or email agbeautifuldance@gmail.com.