The Creative Power of a Broken Heart

What do we do when life presents us with unavoidable heart break? When no matter what decision we make we are confronted by an outcome we don't want, or when we try and move forward with life, the heartbreak of our past comes a knocking - not so ready to let us go.

Most of us try and escape our heart break by either running for the hills or trying to numb our feelings through addiction. We just want to go to sleep, hoping that when we wake up it will be all over. However, what if by flying to another continent or sleeping away our pain, we are actually missing out on an important catalyst for creativity. What if our breaking hearts provide not only gaps for the light to come in, as Rumi suggests, but also cracks for the light to beam out into the world. Alchemy would not be possible without the primary ingredients, the heavy stuff, to alchemize in the first place.

I have an active dream world. Some nights I have dreams of the people in my life who have passed away. Some of these people were kind and loving, some difficult and challenging, but the heartbreak I experienced around their deaths is true for each one of them. When I listen to what they say to me and how they interact with me in my dreams, I continue to learn from them beyond the grave. My broken heart is a timeless teacher. The heartbreak I am processing in my psyche is giving me wisdom and further still inspiring new creative work.

I recently realized, one of the main reasons I am compelled to create, is when nothing I do or decide provides me a way out of the underlying suffering of being human. Like a compass always pointing back to my own medicine, my broken heart returns me to creativity each and every time. Whether I am soothed by the cathartic nature of weaving and spinning, or am finding relief in releasing the surreal experience of my inner landscape as a drawing or painting, my heart knows the antidote to its aches and groans and returns me every time to her canvas.

At this point in my life, it has become more and more clear that I no longer have the option whether or not to create or live a creative life. All other ways of living no longer fit - and trust me I have tried. The compass arrows are turning me inwards to a life lead by creativity.