06/08/2026
"Creativity takes courage."
When I was young, I was discouraged from engaging with and pursuing art.
As all kids do, I wanted to be all kinds of people when I grew up. I did the roundsβathlete, space explorer, physio, nurse, artist, writer, surgeon, and many, many others.
As life unfolded, something shifted.
Trauma has a way of teaching us that being accepted is often safer than being authentic. So, little by little, I stopped looking inward and started looking outward - searching for approval, certainty, and validation instead of trusting my own voice.
The need to express ourselves never disappears.
When it isn't given space to emerge through creativity, curiosity, or connection, it often finds other ways. Sometimes that looks like perfectionism. Sometimes people-pleasing. Sometimes overworking, overachieving, or other coping strategies that help us survive but leave little room for who we really are.
Looking back, I don't think I lost my creativity.
I think I lost my connection to it.
Years later, when I was working as a beauty therapist and nail technician, I remember joking to a client, *"I'm not creative."*
She stopped what she was doing, looked at me, and said something along the lines of,
"Yes, you are. You do nails. Creating these designs takes creativity. You're incredibly creative."
I've never forgotten that moment.
She wasn't just talking about nails.
She was gently challenging the story I had been carrying for years.
That conversation helped me see creativity differently.
Creativity isn't confined to a canvas or a sketchbook. It's how we solve problems, connect with others, care for people, make something with our hands, write, imagine, build, adapt, and bring ideas to life. It's one of the many ways we express who we are.
Perhaps that's why trauma can make us feel disconnected from it. Not because our creativity disappears, but because survival asks us to focus on being safe rather than expressing ourselves.
Healing, then, isn't about becoming creative.
It's about reconnecting with the creativity that was there all along.It's taken me a long time to realise that reconnecting with creativity has been about so much more than making something beautiful.
It's been about returning to myself.
Which brings me back to this quote:
*"Creativity takes courage."*
Not because we need courage to paint, write, or make something.
But because creativity asks us to express ourselves without knowing how it will be received. It asks us to trust our own voice after spending so long listening to everyone else's.
For many of us, healing asks us to create, too.
To create moments of rest.
To create safety.
To create connection.
To create hope.
To create a life that feels more like our own.
And every one of those creations begins with a little courage.
You don't need certainty before you begin.
Sometimes courage comes first, and confidence follows.
Maybe creativity isn't something we lose.
Maybe it's something we reconnect with when we finally feel safe enough to be ourselves.
β¨β¨β¨
*What part of yourself have you been telling yourself you're "not", simply because you've been looking for it in the wrong places?
What might become possible if you found the courage to reconnect with that part of you?* π·
