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The Need For Time And Space To Process Emotion
Do we allow ourselves to process our feelings?
Creative Productivity On Hold
About fifteen years ago, circumstances had me stuck in a new town without a musical instrument or the means to access the internet. These circumstances lasted for about a month until my mum sent over my guitar. I don’t think I’ve ever been so productive: I wrote ten songs in the next four weeks. It was non-stop. The reality is those songs had been brewing in my head for a while, and my guitar’s arrival was simply the catalyst that triggered the writing craze.
Necessary Distance
Contrary to popular belief, emotional turmoil might not be conducive to abundant creative production, at least not immediately. I look at the periods of my life when I have been most emotionally afflicted — loss, breakups, farewells — and they haven’t been especially fruitful. However, they are often the preamble to my most fertile creative phases.
Recently, I asked a poet about this and she confirmed that she felt similarly. The destruction caused by war and the displacement of loved ones are immensely distressing moments, more excruciating than most of us will hopefully ever experience. We only have to look at post-WW2 art to perceive the impact catastrophe can have on artists. Yet…