The art you create is the life you reclaim
Distributed By | Simon & Schuster
Published By | She Writes Press
Published March 17, 2026
Chapter One: Stepping into Midlife – The Ground is Shifting Beneath Your Feet
Midlife along life’s journey,
I woke to find myself
in a dark wood.
– Dante Aligheri,
Today, maybe more than ever before, when we are faced with overwhelm and exhaustion from both natural and man-made disasters, it is not unusual that we also feel a tumultuous transition within ourselves. So how, we may ask, do we look at the world around us with optimism and hope?
We are all acting as a conduit of the effects of that which is taking place in our environment. The projection of anxieties both from without and from within is noted. We may notice we feel more tired than usual, or our focus and alertness are not so present, even if on an unconscious level. This is the time when it is extra helpful for our health of mind, hope, and well-being to move even further within.
By connecting to the joy that lies in wait for all of us, the process of moving into the flow of creativity will happen one step at a time . . .
Chapter Two: Developing Your Inner Artist
Becoming human means discovering our fullness and learning to live from it. This involves bringing forth more of who we really are and becoming more available to whatever life presents.
—John Welwood
You may be asking yourself, “Is there an inner artist in me? If so, why have I not met this artist earlier in my life, or have I? Can I remember any creative activities I did, and how did I feel about those once completed?” There likely is more than one answer to these questions and reflecting on your experience with art as a child will provide insights into how you can bring back that sense of joy and wonder into your life today.
Throughout my early work as an art therapist, I often worked with young children. Their sense of clarity, color combinations, and balance in composition is so instinctually well-crafted because they haven’t adopted the “inner critic” of most adults. Many of us are taught that composition is difficult and that it takes years of practice to learn. But when we can allow ourselves to simply “be” with the voice of our own creative lens, composition has a natural ease and flow. From the moment we are born, we are composers, as may be found in your early, yet often well-balanced pictures of both colors and objects.
It is not unusual to notice that people’s inborn instinct for expression is overtaken by their conscious minds. What we may not realize is that our expressive instinct is still within us. We have the capacity to change, to grow and transform with our authentic creative imagination at the core of every human being.
Chapter Three: Reframing Creativity as Essential to Your Life
A human being would certainly not grow to be seventy or eighty years old if this longevity had no meaning for the species.
The afternoon of life must have a significance of its own and cannot be merely a pitiful appendage of life’s morning.
C.G.Jung
As we age, it is not unusual to look back on our lives and consider how we behaved and what beliefs motivated us. How has my life made a difference, if not for others, then at least for myself? What have I learned from my mistakes and from my successes? At midlife, our thoughts about who we are as humans begin to shift.
When we transition to a new roadmap and creative quest at this stage, we are slowly getting used to hearing a new voice from within. As is often the case with something new, even if it is how we use our own voice, we may find that we are not always immediately accepting of this shift. That is the time when our recognition and patience in letting go of conditioned judgments and regrets can be our most important learning opportunities and allies on our journey.
Chapter Four: Cultivating Your Artful Lens
Our souls are naturally hungry for beauty. The primary way of cultivating our artful lens is to become aware of our need to find beauty in the world. We often look for beauty in art, music, landscapes, gardening, clothes, friendships, and ourselves. When we do not see the beauty around us, the beauty cannot possibly be present as an affirmation of our own inner beauty.
At midlife, we may feel that the beauty of life that brought us joy in our youth is slipping away. My experience is that there is no better guide to finding beauty again than reconnecting to the kinds of play we knew as children. It is in the universal and ageless act of play that we release our imagination. Playing not only facilitates emotional health and a sense of joy, but it is also in playing that we are able to communicate the beauty that spontaneously comes forward from the depth of our soul, our inner voice. As children, playing was the most natural way of being, it became a way of communicating long before we were able to use language.
When we embark on the second half of our life, we’ve often lost the belief that play is natural. But we can trust that its presence is still underneath layers upon layers of life experiences that have accumulated impressions and memories since childhood. In cultivating our artful lens, we are supported in the meeting of our old friend “play” again. The rejoicing brought forward by this meeting can show us the way to unexpected surprises and spontaneous expressions. The door to our creative potential is once again open when we release our imagination and become the child in us that is forever present but not always recognized as our true Self. Play in midlife, which can be fun, relaxing, and eye opening, will lead us on our new creative path to magic, mystery, and continued curiosity.
Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel
and kiss the ground
-Rumi
Roberto Marquez, Galileo's Riddle
Chapter Five: Finding Inspiration in Nature
If there’s one thing we know as we are reaching midlife, is that there are always transitions, often unexpected, that we need to navigate. It has been said that the only thing in life that does not change is change itself. What we don’t know, however, is how we are able to cope with those changes. How do we appraise changes that come to us? Do we see change as a challenge, disturbance, or a threat? Or do we see it as an unforeseen opportunity? Maybe it is different from day to day, like a flickering flame, our moods, interactions, and environmental influences are in a constant fluid dancing movement. It is as whimsical as the ever-changing wind, like the ripples on the ocean. That is who we are. We are nature, we are a living breathing organ like millions of other species on this planet, and, we have intelligence, which may be our biggest strength in the universe.
During the recent pandemic, Sofie was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. Sofie was then in her late sixties, a full-time teacher, and physically active on daylong hikes in upstate New York on most weekends. After Sofie’s husband died a few years earlier, she now lived by herself in an apartment close to Central Park in the middle of Manhattan. Her beloved wild nature and peaceful day hikes could no longer be reached. Sofie’s treatment continued over a period of two years, and the relief was deeply felt once she had regained enough strength to walk the short distance into the nearby park. Here, she was able to feel the deep connection with the nature of the trees which she also felt within herself.
For Sofie, these trees became companions, guides and silent witnesses to her own journey. together these images form a visual meditation on life’s unfolding. Through spring, autumn, and winter, the Elm remains-adapting, transforming, yet unwavering. They simply exist, trust, and continue–a lesson in resilience for all who pause to notice.
“Often forgotten is the fact that we are a part of nature. Our need to connect with it is innate. When it’s lost, we suffer.
When it’s restored, we thrive”.
Tom Stoner, Nature Sacred
Chapter Six: Tapping into Your Senses
It is not unusual to say or feel that we sense something. There is a special, maybe abstract feeling that seems to linger in our atmosphere. Even though we may not immediately have the words for what it is that weaves this tapestry of sense together, we may be aware that it has a background of previous experiences. It could be a variation of a singular, or combination of senses, such as a special scent, a sound, a taste, a vision, or a recognition of connection to our body in an environment and levels of closeness. When we use the word “sense “as in sensing that something is occurring, or sensing a special emotion, it means that all our senses are being tapped for information.
Ancestral humans lived in close contact with nature, where everyday challenges of the external world, often life and death challenges, had to be creatively attended to in ways that involved all their senses. Sight, sound, touch, smell, and hearing evolved so humans could engage with the natural world. By listening to the messages from their senses, individuals used their whole bodies, breath, and muscles in their creative endeavours. We talk about our five senses, but it’s likely there are more senses that inform us of our surroundings and various energy levels shared by objects in our environment.
“ It is important to know that all knowledge begins with sensory perception.”
Joan M Ericson, Wisdom of the Senses.
Chapter Seven: Finding Deeper Meaning
When we reach midlife, that which brings new meaning often shifts through different periods of transitions of obligations, both career wise and in our private lives. There is a shapeshifting taking place, and we start to become aware of a silent calling from within, a calling for our own unique voice to be heard, and for an opening into endless possibilities that will bring meaning and fulfillment on our path ahead.
Expressing our emotions through creative images helps us chip away at the layers of unconsciousness to help us become aware of what action to take when determining our priorities. We will notice a feeling of ease when we experience our movement of colors and shapes on the page There are no punctuation, sentences or paragraphs that stop you, but a dynamic forward vision of colors, shapes, and forms.
Here is an invitation to use something as simple as our smartphones (available, easy, and an immediate inroad that may spark further curiosity) which may assist you in seeing new ways of being. Next time that you go for a walk in your village or city, or maybe just around your home, allow your smart phone to be the artful lens to view colors. Take five or more pictures of colors, focus on the color as much as possible, not the full item or its environment. Create an album in your smartphone where you will move all your images from these exercises for ease of later recall. After you have finished this exercise, you will become more attuned to and in harmony with your environment. After you have found your images, without too much time, write down a few words of what emotions each color brings up for you.
We need art to live fully and to grow healthy. Without it we are like dry husks drifting aimlessly on every ill wind,
our futures are without promise and our present without grace.
–Maya Angelou