Creativity and Emotional Health

My name is Ryan Smith and I am the head of the School of Music and Worship at C3 college. I’ve been married to Michelle for 23 years and we have 3 terrific, healthy teenagers. I have been involved in creative ministry for 20 years leading worship teams, travelling and ministering in different parts of the world, and teaching and discipling young creatives. I love teaching at C3 college because it’s the perfect forum for me to teach emerging creative ministers on the importance of integrating emotional health and wellbeing with their creative expression.

My basic belief is that it doesn’t matter how talented and equipped you may think you are, if you’re not healthy in your inner life you will do a lot of damage to other people when you lead in creative environments. Creativity is seductive which has always provided the perfect escape for artists causing an untamed creative soul to always find an opportunity to dodge accountability with God, with others and with self. Therefore, the best way to counteract this inevitable occurrence is to pay close attention to the inner life and particularly to our soul. Creativity ultimately comes from the soul which means that our soul is worth taking care of and not disconnecting from. To become self-aware of what’s really going on in our heart and to get honest with God so that we can become healthy if we’re not. This spiritual formation practice is always driven by love. Firstly, a love for God and His truth so that we can honour Him in our journey towards Christlikeness. Secondly, a love for others so that we can protect people from ourselves when we become aware of areas in our inner life that need healing and growth. Thirdly, a love and honour of our selves so that we make sure that the greatest gift we have on offer to the world, which is ourselves, is in great emotional condition.

So how do you take care of yourself and recognise the indicators of a warped and wayward soul?

It’s something we seldom talk about, yet it’s probably one of the most important areas of our life that is frequently malnourished. If we find that we are easily triggered or reactive, flooded or scattered, not present and moving at a pace that is way too fast, ignoring what we are really feeling, then chances are our soul is inflamed and in need of attention. Stopping to delight in God and remind ourselves that we are humans created in the image of God who are worthy of care and rest is God’s constant invitation to us. It’s only once we have stopped and slowed down our interior world to pay attention to our authentic selves and our current emotional state, that we can be receptive to what God might be saying to us and what our bodies might be saying to us as well. It’s in this place that we can answer the high-value questions that our inner self is asking and spend the quality time needed to catch up to our soul. It’s here that we detach and disentangle from belief systems that are incorrect and where our mind is renewed but mostly it’s here that we allow the holy spirit to challenge the ideas that we have about ourselves. To some of you, this act would appear to bring a degree of pain to our lives but we must remember that the pain of waiting, slowing down and processing what’s really going on inside of us is nothing compared to the pain of rushing and ignoring our inner life which eventually always surfaces in the end. Onwards.