Feel Better With Poetry
The power of poetry and the dipper truth behind it
Let’s look at Poetry as a Form of Emotional Expression and Healing. You are invited to explore with me the following questions:
- How and Why can poetry provide an emotional relief?
- What is the dipper truth behind it?
I got curious about this topic and went out there (to the internet) to check what the experts are saying about it.
What the experts are saying
Janice Bell wrote a gorgeous article about it, which brought me to tears,
and here is a short quote from it:
“Poetry is artistic writing where the author focuses on a powerful image,
and then describes it.
It is self-expression of one’s feelings and can convert suffering into imagery.
After a traumatic experience, this expression of feelings offers a cathartic release, often leaving the author feeling relieved.”
I am going to look deeply into this quote.
But before I do that, let me just say that I agree with it.
I think its beautiful, helpful, deeply touching, and I support it fully.
I am sure that working with Janice Bell’s ideas contributes very much to people’s well being.
WHY does poetry bring relief & healing
And now, I invite you to join me, and take a step back.
I am here to take another perspective on this.
To take a pick behind the curtain,
To explore: WHY does poetry bring relief?
To do that, we will examine
the basic functions of all human beings.
Before we start,
Let’s have a look at one big question:
Why should you care?
Which benefits come from looking at this?
The bigger deep picture
Here is how I see it,
this is the opinion of a non-expert,
a poet,
a searcher (and finder) of well being:
It’s worthwhile to explore the basic functions
of all human beings because
when we better understand –
we can more easily function.
When we can see WHY writing poetry is such a relief,
then we get the bigger picture:
“oh, this is not actually tied to poetry writing,
this is a natural function that I have going for me.”
Then we know how to find this relief again,
With or without writing poetry.
Basic human functions
That function, that power,
is a constant you can rely on.
Like gravity, like electricity.
When we better understand our own
“operating system” (so to speak),
and the operating system
of other people in our lives –
We can more easily function within
This operating system.
The purpose is not to change someone,
Not to control something,
not be better and not to feel better.
The purpose is only –
understanding how it works.
Feeling better inevitably follows.
This is a deep understanding,
It is NOT intellectual,
You feel it,
As a calm emotion.
“I need to know what to do”
“What is the point?” you ask,
“I need to know what to do! How will this help me?”
The answer is this: from that place of calmness and stillness
we can clearly find our next best steps.
We know what to do.
Quoting Janice Bell again:
“A poem may not solve the problem,
but it provides the emotional release
needed to move onward and cope
with the next step.”
Poetry & Creativity as healing powers
Now that we’ve established WHY we are taking a look
behind the curtain of poetry as a Form of
Emotional Expression and Healing –
Let’s explore.
Poetry is self-expression of one’s feelings.
It can convert suffering into powerful imagery.
(says Janice Bell).
How?
By finding a new perspective on a painful thing,
a fresh surprising way of seeing and describing it.
Poetry > New Thought
When a person opens themselves to writing poetry, Creativity comes rushing in,
Creativity is Wisdom.
Not intellectual wisdom,
but natural heartful insight.
That is where creativity lives.
When that comes into play –
We have flow,
We have healing,
We have new perspective
On a painful experience.
We get to feel our experience a new
through the bigger intelligence that is behind all life.
It is the same power that grows plans from seeds.
Again, that is where creativity lives.
Basic human functions: Circumstances > Thought > Feeling
Now, let’s step back from poetry,
to talk about those basic human functions.
We will circle back to poetry soon.
We assume that our feelings
are caused by our circumstances.
That is the common way of seeing life.
So common, that you might wonder
why even bother mentioning it.
Here is why.
We don’t realize that our feelings
are caused by our THINKING
about our circumstances.
Not directly by the circumstances,
But by our THINKING about it.
Thought
We feel our thinking
Thought is the creative agent we use to direct us through life.
We feel our thinking.
Let’s say you go out to the movies with a friend.
Each of you are in your own thoughts and feelings
As you arrive,
Then you are sitting down together
To watch the same movie.
In this example, the movie is the circumstance
That you are both experiencing.
Each of you is going to watch the movie
Through your own filters,
Through your own thoughts and feelings.
Each of you will have different thoughts about
what is happening in the movie,
And following your thoughts,
You will feel your feelings about what happened.
You might come out of the movie deeply touched,
And your friend might say it was just ok,
and will not understand your deep feelings about it.
Even though you both experienced the same circumstance,
You experienced it differently.
Each of you, had Thought about the movie.
Again, Thought is the creative agent we use to direct us through life.
And your thoughts directed you through this movie.
We feel our thinking.
What you felt, and what your friend felt,
Was NOT the movie,
But you each felt your THINKING
About the movie.
Do Circumstances Create Feelings?
Feelings are not put into us by circumstances:
events or people.
Feelings come up in us following
what WE THINK of events or
what we think of actions of people,
or words of people.
Back to Poetry & Creativity as healing powers
If we experienced suffering following words or actions or whatever happened –
Poetry can convert this suffering into imagery.
- How does poetry convert the suffering?
- Why does imagery heal?
Using imagery means –
finding a new perspective on a painful experience,
a fresh surprising way of seeing and describing it.
After a traumatic experience,
this expression of feelings
offers a cathartic release,
often leaving the author feeling relieved.
And here is how it happens:
- Traumatic Experience >
- Thought >
- Feeling >
- Poetry >
- New thought about the experince >
- New feeling about the experience >
- Release and Relief
We feel our thinking about the circumstances,
We do not feel our circumstances.
So when poetry and creativity come in,
inviting us to have new thoughts
About an experience we had / are having,
And we RSVP Yes,
A new feeling immediately follows too,
And we feel release and relief,
Even though nothing had changed out in “reality”.
And this is it, we are coming to a close.
Summing up:
We looked at how we can Feel Better with Poetry,
Explored the power of poetry and the dipper truth behind it.
- WHY does poetry bring relief & healing
- What is The bigger deep picture
- What are the Basic human functions
- Circumstances > Thought > Feeling
- We feel our thinking and not our circumstances.
- Circumstances do not create feelings.
- That is how poetry can bring a new feeling about an experience, by inviting new thought about it.
- That is how Poetry & Creativity in general hold healing powers.
- That is how Poetry & Creativity bring relief Even though nothing had changed out in “reality”.
Thank you for taking the time to read!
(Inspired by and quoting Michael Neill and colleagues, Mara Gleason, Sydney Banks, and Wikipedia)
