Creativity and Health
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Stress and Illness
Creative Relationships
| Stressed Relationships |
Introduction
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Lessons from The Little Prince
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Keeping Our Relationships Real
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Creative Parenting
^ Introduction
Being true to our real, creative self
is the path to true success - including in our friendships and relationships.
Staying real and unforced, and free from compulsion and stress helps create a social climate of tolerance and trust.
To let go of anger, fear, shame and greed, and other such forces that make us stressed is to allow us to be exactly who we really are.
Only then is our innate creativity - along with our love, joy and imagination - free to express.
It’s in that state that we humans enjoy our greatest health
and satisfaction, as well as social connection.
^ Lessons from The Little Prince
The fox tells the Little Prince that thanks to him, the wheat in the fields will hold new meaning, because it will forever remind the fox of the prince’s golden hair. Meanwhile, the fox explains that the rose the prince waters is precious to him precisely because of what she means to the prince personally.
As the fox says, “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” The fox goes on to explain that, “One sees clearly only with the heart. Anything essential is invisible to the eyes.”
As de Saint-Exupéry explained, “The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched” because such things can only be “felt with the heart”.
^ Keeping Our Relationships Real
Where we come unstuck is to let “stress forces” like fear
come after us and cut us off from our heart. Now, we lose touch with the all-important inner, personal dimension, and find ourselves marooned in the impersonal “without”.
When our relationships are stripped of creativity, all we have to fall back on is the functional aspect that revolves around set role play.
Then, we forget that it’s OK to stay open-minded, and sometimes to have surprises to the upside; or to see punishing expectations set aside... or to let an offensive insult pass us by. In other words, we can reject forces like anger
and fear
- that would subjugate us to their reign.
Being creative from the outset, creative qualities like love are ends in themselves, and look after us without being told.
Fear etc.
herd us through their false assurances, yet wrap us in a tapestry of false identities. Love, by contrast, keeps us real in our self. In doing so, love opens up whole new worlds. Love comes with no clever deceptions or pledges, but speaks honestly while offering real security - the only kind that there is.
Fear
makes us so risk-averse that we crouch behind barriers and walls, never daring to put our best foot forward. Love asks us, instead, to emerge from our shell - and to go for broke through our vulnerableness and willingness to let go.
When relationships go wrong
[Nb this website is not a replacement for professional help where needed.]
[Nb this website is not a replacement for professional help where needed.]