The healing power of creating (even when life hurts)

You ever notice how the sky never looks the same twice?

One day it’s bold and fiery, the next it’s soft and tender - painting new colors without asking permission. That’s creation. That’s life doing what it does best…making beauty out of change. 

And I think we were made the same way. 

In the early days and months after life broke open a few years ago, I was going through the motions, but my body felt numb - like it hadn’t caught up to what my heart already knew. 

Yes, I stayed busy. Over-functioning is my go-to when I’m stressed.  

I went into organizing, cleaning, checking things off lists - trying to keep the pain from swallowing me whole. 

In a way, all that doing was a form of protection - it kept me upright when I could have easily fallen apart. But eventually, my body began to remember what my soul already knew: I needed to slow down and listen. 

Then one morning, a wave of inspiration came through - a nudge from within saying, “Put words to it. Give voice to what you’re feeling, what you’re walking through, and the wisdom rising from it.”

 

So I did. 

Some days it was only a few lines. Other days it poured out like rain.

 

It wasn’t perfect or pretty, but it was real. 

And in that realness, I started to breathe again. 

As I kept writing, something inside me began to stir - curiosity, a pull toward color and movement I hadn’t felt in years. 

Eventually, I found myself reaching for a paintbrush, something I hadn’t really done since I was about eleven or twelve, except for the occasional “painting with a twist” night once in a blue moon. 

There was no plan, no masterpiece in mind. 

Just color. 

Movement. 

A blank canvas. 

And for the first time in a long time, I felt present - still, alive, open for flow. 

As I reflect on how creativity has carried me - and so many others - through difficult seasons, I remember how natural it felt as a child to create simply for the joy of it...those moments when creating felt pure, joyful, full of freedom, and giving. 

Even as a little girl making mud pies in the yard - my childhood was obviously in the ’70s, haha - or baking “gourmet” Easy-Bake cakes for my sisters. Those moments were full of joy and freedom.

 

Somewhere along the way, we seem to forget just how soothing and healing that can be. 

Science says creativity lowers stress hormones and calms the nervous system - yet what I know in my bones is this…when we create, we give our pain a place to go. 

We let God breathe through it. 

It doesn’t erase grief - it transforms it. It turns survival into something meaningful. 

When we create, we’re not trying to fix ourselves. We’re letting the Divine flow through our hands, our words, our hearts - and in that flow, something softens, something shifts. 

So if your heart’s been heavy lately, don’t overthink it. Just go create something. 

Write a line. Stir a pot of gumbo :) (or whatever your comfort food is), plant a seed. Sing in your kitchen. 

Let it move through you. 

Let it remind you who you are - a soul of strength, of softness, of divine creation. 

We were never meant to stay stuck in the ache.

 

We were made to co-create with God.  

With love and grace,

Francine xo