Cultivating Holy Hope
June: Engaging our Imagination & Creativity in Midst of Overwhelm & Stress
To all subscribers: Thank you for reading! It’s a gift to have you here. I will be pausing paid subscriptions this summer, taking a break from Substack writing.
“Imagination is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives…
“When people are compulsively and constantly pulled back into the past, to the last time they felt intense involvement and deep emotions, they suffer from a failure of imagination, a loss of the mental flexibility. Without imagination there is no hope, no chance to envision a better future, no place to go, no goal to reach.”
~ Bessel Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score
In spiritual direction and soul care appointments, people often discuss the challenge of being creative or dreaming about what’s next when they are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, and anxious.
This is completely normal. Stress and trauma exposure affect our creativity and limit us to either/or thinking. In her book, Trauma Stewardship, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky names diminished creativity as one of the 16 most common trauma exposure responses.
Stress and trauma also affect our ability to imagine. In a study with Vietnam veterans, Bessel van der Kolk saw a dramatic difference in the ability to imagine among those who had severe PTSD. Perhaps take a moment to re-read his quote above.
Without imagination there is no hope ~ Bessel van Der Kolk
How does this resonate with you?
Perhaps notice where you feel it in your body.
Honoring your capacity in this moment.
Inhale: kindle my imagination
Exhale: that I might hope
In my last newsletter, I invited readers into an imaginative practice, to imagine the Kingdom, to hope, and create, and imagine beauty beyond our rational comprehension.
Sometimes we know this in our heads and yet forget it when we are ourselves are caught in spirals of anxiety. I was meeting with my spiritual director the other day, and started talking about my own upcoming move to a different state.
She asked me, what would it look like to move forward with eyes open, with curiosity and hope in how the Beloved, the mystery we call God will meet some of our needs? To treat it like sort of an adventure unfolding before us.
Holy Hope. Holy unfolding. When I am caught in the ‘what if not’s, with head down in worry, may I notice that with grace and come back to center.
Perhaps you are in a season of transition as the summer approaches. Perhaps the many unknowns and constant changes in our world are affecting your mental health and well-being.
What might it look like to have compassion on yourself:
Yes, this is hard.
Yes I am human for feeling all of this.
And yes, I can extend kindness toward myself.
And to engage your imagination, to return to practices that invite you to be creative, to play, to dance as medicine for your soul.
Thank you for reading! Below are some resources and a fun short dance video to inspire your practices and creativity.
with gratitude and holy hope,
Bethany Dearborn Hiser
P.S. If you missed it before: I have some new guided meditations available on Insight Timer to engage your imagination and prayerful reflection, you can check them out here: https://insighttimer.com/bethanydhiser/guided-meditations
Recommended Resources
BOOKS
Drinking from the Wells of New Creation: The Holy Spirit and the Imagination in Reconciliation, by Kerry Dearborn. Considering imagination as a gift from the Holy Spirit, a third way, for reconciliation.
The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. If you never done the Artist’s Way, I highly recommend it. Not for just for those who think they are ‘artists’ but for all of us.
The Gift of Wonder, by Christine Sine. Tangible practices for engaging wonder, curiosity and creativity in your daily life.
MOVEMENT:
Live Yoga with Dr. Arielle Schwartz: “Join Dr. Arielle Schwartz for her upcoming therapeutic yoga class, focusing on vagal tone, stress reduction, and trauma recovery. All classes are donation based.” https://drarielleschwartz.com/vagus-nerve-yoga/
SONG:
VIDEO
A little dance video to inspire to find your own beat to the communal song…