The Creative Energy Equation

Diffusing the Noise of the News to Restore Creative Balance

Another United States citizen was murdered in Minneapolis last weekend. There should not be one, let alone many. When I heard the news, it felt like a huge bag of sand had been dropped on me, a load too big to carry or even remain standing beneath. It is a hopeless, helpless feeling. I’d watched the videos and was horrified.

Legitimate law enforcement would never handle a situation in that manner. They would never conceal their identity unless working undercover. They would wear badges, carry identification, have name patches on uniforms that matched those of their brothers and sisters in their department. Nor would they shoot someone in the back, after that person’s weapon had been removed – a weapon that was never brandished or unholstered, and certainly, after there was no longer a threat. Legitimate law enforcement would have immediately rendered aid.

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That is not who committed the most recent atrocity in Minneapolis, the killing of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who cared for our American Veterans.

After many hours of shock and horror, my mind turned to upcoming events. Specifically, to the Silent Writing session I was booked to host in A Writing Room the following Monday morning.

How would I, how could I possibly, help my cohort, my colleagues, my friends as we all processed and grieved another unnecessary, 100% preventable loss of life?

How could we quiet our minds and emotions enough to be able to settle into our creativity, our writing?

The emotions and questions of my heart were a rerun.

The previous Monday, the world was grieving the murder of Renee Good, a poet, wife and mother, in Minneapolis. We all saw that video too: shocked and horrified. The administration then set about in a flurry of lies in an effort to change the narrative, to gaslight the world into thinking that we could not believe what we had seen with our own eyes.

Photo by Taras Chernus on Unsplash

The energy in the Zoom room reflected the distress and sadness and rage that we were, and are, feeling.

How did we pivot from despair to being able to write?

We acknowledged the reality of what we were feeling and the events that occurred. We reminded each other that writing is our way of pouring hope into the world.

Writing and sharing our work is a crucial way that we can help.

We took a few deep breaths, to shift from Flight-Fight or Freeze states into a calmer, more embodied, Ventral Vagal state of being.

Then we wrote together, in silence, in Community, for the next hour.

As we spent that time together, our nervous systems gradually regulated. Not everyone wrote. Some edited their works-in-progress, some did research, some brainstormed, some may have walked their dog, washed the dishes, folded the laundry, or simply rested. The important thing is that we were together.

By being together, we all rested and reset.

The emotions that were stuck, down deep, in our bodies, were freed up to receive healing. Our creative energy swirled together like fresh water from a river flows into the salt water of the sea: cloudy, murky, unbalanced at first. But soon, blended and harmonious. A trickle at first. But building, swirling, growing into a gorgeous powerful creative crescendo.

Photo by Anastasia Zhenina on Unsplash

It felt like the hour passed faster than possible, because we were deeply immersed in being together in healing Community. The timer sounded. The energy of the room felt lighter. It was also visible on each face – the hour in safety and solace was the balm we needed on those two mornings.

It wasn’t me. It was the nourishing power of creative Community. It was the willingness of each writer to lay their burdens to the side to connect and support each other through a rough time, to do what we can.

It is the exponential creative power that builds every time we gather. It is more than each of us, and all of us combined.

I signed off that day with immense gratitude for each writer and for A Writing Room. That is one way we are getting through this difficult time in history.

I pray we never have to face another Monday so full of anguish. However, if the need arises, I know that creative Community will rise to the occasion, open hearts, and reach out across the world to hold each other tight in our virtual arms.

We will keep writing, sharing, and using our voices to bring deep healing to ourselves, and to each other.

Photo by Mingjun Liu on Unsplash

As our chair yoga instructor Bobbi asks often: “Where will love lead us today?

Love is the source of creativity and healing. Community multiplies that love and makes it possible for us to share it with our world.

Where will love lead us today?

What will we write today?

What will we share today, and with whom?