How Art Helps Transform Emotions
- Sara Duerst
- 1 day ago
- 11 min read
Blocked by Feelings: When Emotions Paralyze Creativity
There are those days when everything just feels like too much. You know there’s something there – an inner tension, a pressure, a wave of emotion – but you don’t want to go into it. Not now. Not like this. It feels too heavy, too overwhelming. So we push it away, distract ourselves, or just keep functioning.
But I’ve learned something essential: when we try to bring ourselves into a relaxed state – even through something seemingly simple like coloring, doodling, or gentle movement – we can begin to approach those feelings. Not forcefully, but in a quiet, mindful way. It’s as if an inner door opens, allowing us to gently approach what wants to be felt, from a safe distance. And the more we stay in that state, the more something can begin to shift, integrate – and eventually heal.
But that’s often easier said than done. Mental exhaustion, lack of motivation – they allow neither conscious feeling nor creative impulses. What remains is a paralyzing standstill. My impulsive creativity usually flows when I feel alive – when my mind is clear, my heart is open, and I look at the world with curiosity.
But what I had to learn: it’s precisely when I least want it that I need it the most.
Because in those moments – when we’re stuck in our heads, overwhelmed, when thoughts are racing but the feeling is missing – that’s exactly when it would help to look inward. And yet, that’s exactly when we tend not to.
Flow – that’s what really gets things moving. And for me, that became the purpose of art: a safe space where this inner flow becomes possible again. A place where feeling is allowed to happen gently. Creativity, for me, is not just expression – it’s a path. A way back to myself.
What this has to do with our nervous system, and how we can rediscover this inner access, is something we will explore together in the next few minutes.
Why We Often Avoid What Would Actually Help Us
We all have our strategies for dealing with uncomfortable emotions. Some people distract themselves. Others control, plan, analyze. Many just keep going – hoping that the inner discomfort will eventually quiet down on its own.
But emotions that are pushed away don’t disappear. They simply retreat – into the body, into the nervous system, into that subtle tension we eventually come to see as normal.
Emotions don’t go away when ignored. They only leave once they’ve been felt.
And that’s the challenge. Because the moment an emotion surfaces, we’re often already overwhelmed. Before we can consciously respond, the nervous system takes over – a deeply rooted protective mechanism.
Our nervous system decides in a split second whether a situation feels safe or dangerous. Under emotional pressure, it often switches to “survival” instead of “feeling.”
Withdrawal or distraction are not weaknesses, but automatic protective responses of the nervous system.
Avoiding emotions is often an attempt to prevent overwhelm – not a sign of laziness or lack of depth.
Planning, thinking, and analyzing are often compensation strategies used to control emotions.
This may provide short-term safety, but the underlying feeling remains unchanged in the long run.
Unprocessed emotions often stay stored in the body's memory as tension, blockages, or psychosomatic symptoms.
Many people have never learned to recognize emotions early or deal with them effectively.
Real change often begins only when the suffering becomes so intense that we see no other way out.
Art as Access: The Path Through Relaxation – Not Against, But With the Emotion
Emotional healing doesn’t have to be loud, dramatic, or intellectual. Often, it is quiet, physical, creative. Many people believe that emotions need to be “processed” or “analyzed” in order to heal. But what I learned during my somatic therapy training is this: Transformation begins where the nervous system feels safe.
When we feel internally overwhelmed, our systems tend to shut down – we enter protective mechanisms. Feeling becomes exhausting, sometimes even frightening. And that’s exactly when a gentle, creative approach can help – one that doesn’t analyze, but expresses.
Art can offer exactly that:
It opens a safe, in-between space.
Emotions are allowed to become visible, but not overwhelming.
Expression happens without words, without pressure, and without needing a “solution.”
The nervous system can begin to regulate and relax in the process.
The creative act fosters a sense of self-efficacy: “I can do something with my feeling.”
Artistic expression often works faster and deeper than cognitive reflection alone.
Creativity brings body, emotion, and intuition into alignment.
I’ve often experienced while painting or writing that I can meet the emotion – without being overwhelmed by it. Afterward, I feel clearer, calmer, changed. I was suddenly no longer trapped inside the emotion. I could look at it from the outside. I am not the feeling – I am the one who expresses it. And that changes everything.
A state of safe relaxation – for example, through colors, gentle movement, rhythmic doodling, or music – allows the body to open up. And it’s exactly there, in this regulation, that transformation happens. Emotions lose their intensity when we let them flow – through color, form, or sound. This makes the emotion visible – and therefore processable.
Briefly Explained: The Vagus Nerve and Our Emotional Balance
In somatic work, the vagus nerve plays a central role. There isn’t just one nervous system – but rather two main branches that function in completely different ways. As part of the autonomic nervous system, the vagus nerve crucially regulates whether we feel safe or threatened – not only in response to the outside world, but also in relation to our internal states.
The so-called Polyvagal Theory by Dr. Stephen Porges explains how our nervous system shifts between different states:
Our autonomic nervous system consists of:
Sympathetic Nervous System (Activation): The fight-or-flight mode is activated when we feel threatened. Heart rate and breathing increase, and muscles tense up. This response is helpful in acute danger, but chronic activation leads to stress, anxiety, and overwhelm.
Dorsal Vagus (Shutdown/Freeze): When we feel extremely threatened, the nervous system may shift from fight-or-flight into a freeze response. This protects us through dissociation, numbness, and energy conservation – often accompanied by feelings of emptiness, helplessness, or disconnection.
Ventral Vagus (Social Connection & Safety): When we feel safe and secure, our breathing is calm, heart rate steady, and muscles relaxed. In this state, creativity, social bonding, empathy, and self-regulation can thrive. This is the state we aim to cultivate in both therapeutic and creative processes.
When we are emotionally overwhelmed, the sympathetic nervous system or - at the extreme - the so-called dorsal vagus (part of the parasympathetic nervous system) usually takes over, which can lead to numbness, exhaustion or inner withdrawal. The aim of somatic work is not just to “process” feelings - but to create a state in which the system feels safe enough to allow them.
This happens through:
Regulation through the body: breathing, movement, grounding
Creative processes: Painting, singing, dancing, writing
Body awareness and touch
When the ventral vagus is active, we can allow ourselves to feel without being overwhelmed. It plays a crucial role when it comes to reducing stress, regulating emotions and feeling safety in the body. We experience self-efficacy - the feeling that we are not at the mercy of others, but that we can help shape things.
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When we consciously breathe, sing, move rhythmically - or paint, write, create - the vagus nerve is stimulated.
This switches us from fight or flight mode (sympathetic nervous system) to the “rest & digest” state - and this is exactly where emotional integration takes place.
Read more about the Polyvagal Theory:
Flow: the state in which everything can change
Flow is that special state in which time becomes blurred, thinking becomes quieter and we are completely in the moment. It is the state in which many people say: “I have forgotten myself - and at the same time I have felt myself completely.”
In creative flow, our ventral vagal system is activated - we are simultaneously focused and relaxed, connected and with ourselves. It is precisely in this state that emotional integration can take place.
Why is flow so powerful for emotional processes?
Because it arises without pressure - but with focus.
Because it creates space for expression.
Because it takes us from the head into the body - to where change begins.
Because we often intuitively do exactly what is good for us - without knowing it cognitively.
At this moment, art becomes more than a means - it becomes a place where emotion, body and mind come into harmony.
So what initially appears to be a simple creative impulse can actually be a profound process: access to oneself through color, form, movement - gentle, safe, transformative.
Coloring is a particularly simple, inexpensive and accessible way to enter this state. It calms the breathing, centers the attention and gently activates our parasympathetic nervous system - the perfect introduction to inner peace and creative self-awareness.
I have developed “Colorful Reflections” for this purpose: a coloring book with diverse, inspiring drawings to color in - combined with mindful questions for self-reflection. Because when our system is relaxed, it is easier for us to get in touch with our inner processes.
👉 Download the digital version or order the printed book here:
What flow has done to me
Over the years, I've come to understand that it's not just the art - it's the state you get into through creative activity.
That moment when you no longer think about whether it's “good enough”.
Where your inner critic takes a break.
Where you don't plan - you just are.
And it is precisely then - in this quiet, active presence - that something very important emerges.
For me today, it is a tool for emotional processing.
What happens inside us when we get creative
When I talk about art today, I don't mean the beautiful or the skillful. I mean the real thing. What comes from within. And it's often not the picture that counts - but the process.
You may know those moments when you lose yourself in an activity. Time seems to disappear. Your mind goes quiet. You are completely in the here and now - connected to yourself, but in a surprisingly light way.
These states are not only pleasant - they also have a profound effect on the body and mind. Because when we work creatively, our entire physiological and neuronal activity actually changes:
What happens in the body and brain in the process:
🧠 The prefrontal cortex - the center for planning, control and evaluation - fades into the background. The brooding stops.
❤️ The limbic system - our emotional center - is activated more strongly. Emotions are given space and are allowed to move.
🌿 The vagus nerve is stimulated: The parasympathetic system kicks into action. We feel safer, calmer and more present.
😊 Dopamine (motivational and learning neurotransmitter) and endorphins (the body's own “happiness hormones”) are released - we experience joy and drive without any external pressure.
💓 The heartbeat becomes calmer, breathing deeper - signs of healthy self-regulation.
These neurobiological changes explain why creative processes have such a regulating, healing and often transformative effect - even without words or rational explanation. They take us from thinking to feeling, from functioning to being.
When we become creative, we not only activate our imagination - we strengthen our entire system: emotionally, neurologically and physically. Creativity is therefore not only expression, but also self-healing power.
So what initially appears to be a simple creative impulse can actually be a profound process: an access to oneself through color, form, movement - gentle, safe, transformative.
Tools, rituals and small steps towards emotional liberation
Sometimes we think we have to create something big for it to work.But in art in particular - especially when it comes to emotional processing - it is often the small, simple impulses that bring about change. You don't need a studio, a canvas or perfect technique.
All it takes is honesty, a few pencils - and some time.
Here are a few things you can try if you feel like you're “stuck” somewhere:
1. Doodling without a goal
A white sheet. A pencil. And no task.
Move your hand with your breath. Or with music. Or with your thoughts.
Often something arises - sometimes not. But that's not the point.
It's about the movement - not the result.
2. Write without thinking
Set yourself a timer (e.g. 5 minutes) and write without putting down your pen.
No matter what. No censor. No filter.
Then you can read it, tear it up, draw on it, add to it - or just leave it.
But you let it out.
3. The creative walk
Take 20 minutes. Go out - into nature, through the city, whatever.
Your only goal: to observe.
What do you see? What colors, patterns, sounds?
Then: sketch, write or spontaneously paint what you have noticed.
This creates a connection - and gets you out of the thought loop.
Painting task: The “time face” - past, present, future
Here is an exercise that I love - and that I also use in workshops:
Draw a face. It doesn't have to be beautiful. It can also be a symbol or an abstract shape.
Divide it mentally (or with lines) into three zones:
Left side = past. What was often said to you? Which sentences still shape you today? What old patterns emerge?
Center = present. How are you feeling now? What do you feel, what do you need? What is bothering you?
Right side = future. What do you wish for? Which positive thoughts do you want to anchor? Which affirmations would you like to hear more often?
Let yourself drift. Draw, write, add to it. It doesn't have to make sense - just be tangible.
👉 Here is an example picture for inspiration:
How you can integrate creative expression into your everyday life
It's not about “making negative feelings go away”.
Some things don't need to be solved - they just need to be felt.
Art allows you to do just that:
It is a container.
A place where feelings can be there without overwhelming you.
They don't have to be expressed perfectly. It is enough that they are given a form.
It doesn't take much to open this space regularly:
Ritualize 10 minutes a week for yourself
Create a small “emotion box”: pens, paper, notebook
Create a personal “mood playlist” (you can find my playlist here:https://open.spotify.com/playlist/79kfttjbbtcyU4M8V5f9IG?si=jk-6JsqPShSsWIfCrjV3_A)
Find your own ritual - a candlelight, a scent, a sound
And remember:
You don't have to feel inspired to get started.
Inspiration often comes from doing.
Would you like to experience Collective Flow? Then visit one of our live events - be creative, feel, share and grow together. Click here for the events:
What I wish I had known earlier
You don't have to “be able” to do anything to be creative.
Feelings are not resolved by thinking - but by feeling.
That creative activities are more than just a hobby - they are a form of self-regulation and inner dialog.
That the body often knows the answers that the mind is still searching for.
That self-care is not selfish, but an act of responsibility.
That small rituals (such as painting, breathing, moving) can bring about big changes.
That the nervous system is the key to emotional freedom - not understanding alone.
That healing is not a goal, but a living, creative process.
That you don't have to put everything into words - some feelings can only be expressed in color.
Creativity is more than just a nice pastime. It is a path - back to ourselves, in connection with what lives within us. If we give space to expression, without pressure, without judgment, then something real emerges. Something that strengthens us.
Perhaps this text was an impulse to connect with your inner self in a new way. Maybe you feel like just giving it a try - taking pen in hand, without a plan, but with feeling.
And maybe you'll realize that you don't have to solve anything. You can just be there. And that's enough.
Stay curious. Stay creative. And above all: stay with yourself.