In a recent personal coaching session, a client shared how her worry for her spouse’s health has grown so large that it has overshadowed every aspect of her present. Her relationships are getting affected. And she is not able to experience joy in her life.
So we did a psychodrama play where she spoke to different parts of herself. By the end of the play, it was revealed that she craved a connection with her creativity, which had been very alive when she was the happiest in her life.
This was a powerful turning point in the play for the client of course. But it also reminded me about how crucial the creative force is for us to feel whole and balanced.
Creativity to me is as important as the necessities. We must understand what creativity is – it is the product of spontaneity. And spontaneity, as Moreno, the founder of psychodrama, described it, is our ability to come up with new solutions to old problems and adequate solutions to new problems.
Anxiety and spontaneity are inversely proportional. When anxiety is high, we lose our ability to think innovatively. We keep hitting the wall with the same old hammer, expecting the result to be different. But when anxiety is low, spontaneity has a better chance and we experience flow in work, play, leisure, and even regular everyday stuff.
We have the opportunity also to do the reverse – nourish our spontaneity. And that will automatically lower anxiety and make us better able to live life with balance and joy.
How can we nourish our spontaneity? We can do so by building a strong authentic connection with ourselves. If we look for this nourishment outside, we will always bob up and down like a ball on a wave of water, responding to external pull and push. But once the connection within is strong, as the Buddha said, “The spiritual person carries her security with her wherever she goes.”
There are many ways to build this connection with self. Psychodrama is one.
If you would like to explore psychodrama to explore issues in your personal or professional life, book a personal coaching session or register for the Thrive group coaching program.