Creativity Can Eat You Alive
This is not a political post but it may seem like one initially, so please bear with me.
If you haven't lived under a rock since October 7, 2023, you know about the horrors that took place in Israel on that day and resulted in over 1,400 deaths and 200 hostages taken by Hamas.
In the 48 hours following the attack, I was reading many reactions that dove into politics before showing basic human empathy towards the victims. I felt that I had to respond, and wrote a LinkedIn post that ended up resonating with many—Israelis, Palestinians, and others.
One of the most touching messages I received was from a lovely woman who said I voiced things she felt but didn't have the courage to express in a public forum due to the potentially volatile reactions.
That made me think back to my process of writing the post. I was scrolling through social media first thing in the morning (yes, terrible habit), feeling pressure building in my chest, until I just had to do something to release it. The post poured out of me in what seemed like no more than five minutes. I read it once to check for typos and hit "post". Why wasn't I afraid of the reactions? It’s not that I wasn't afraid—it didn't occur to me to be afraid. Not doing it wasn't an option.
Brené Brown said, “Unused creativity isn’t benign. It metastasizes.” Every time we want to express something and don't, we hurt ourselves. When we keep something inside that should come out, it eats at us. That morning, the need to express myself was eating at me. Over the past few years, I got so used to noticing when that happened that I immediately attended to the need to write and share.
Now, what about those dreaded toxic responses? I got none. A couple of responses were far from positive but could be characterized as (heated) political disagreement, rather than personal attacks or trolling. I believe that when we create from our heart, not our head, what we create resonates with people at the heart level. By and large, when people see that we have good intentions, even if they disagree, they do so respectfully.
You don't have to start with a public post. You can take a small step that feels manageable—write something in your journal, sketch, or record a voice note. Perhaps share with one person who will understand. In highly charged political or social matters, sharing publicly could have grave consequences. I'm not suggesting that you pull a Salman Rushdie just to express your creativity—that is a high-stakes decision that shouldn't be taken lightly. But don't keep what you feel bottled up. Get in the habit of expressing it in some way. Over time you will find the outlets that are right for you.
The question is not what you want to express. It's not what you're afraid to express. It's what you cannot not express or it will eat you alive.
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