How often have you used something as a solution that was made/meant for something else?  I didn’t realize it until recently,  but I do it all the time. A thick book as a lift. Pinecones as deco. A piece of wood panel art as a table top. Bags for planters. Hooks as a doorstop. If you’re a cat lover….drum roll…the cardboard box becomes the best toy ever.

Unusual versions of being creative, but creativity nonetheless.

Chinese Medicine teaches us that as a human being, we are designed for emotions to flow through us.

We’re NOT designed to:

• Sit in them
• Weave them into the fabric of our system
• Store them
• Torture ourselves with them (aka consent to the regular habit of being consumed by them)
• Project them
• Use them as justification for not be enough.

Yet we do. We’ve got pumped-up muscles for the latter, and flaccid muscles for the former.

To be clear, I’m not talking about emotions like grief over the loss of someone deeply loved, or honest to goodness sadness that is situational, or the joy for something beautiful. Those are all normal emotions that have their time and place. Nor am I talking about the emotions that truly need medical attention.

Hopefully that’s clear.

What I’m talking about are the emotions we’ve gathered along our journey of life that are running the show. The ones that are in the airwaves that stick to us like glue. The anxiety that takes over a body and life. Trauma that narrows a person to a peephole when there’s actually no door. Worry that keeps a person stuck. Fear that drives terrible choices, limits options, and enslaves people.

Repurpose means:  adapt for use in a different purpose.              Adapt means:  modify, alter, transform.

Examples might be things like:

• Turning anger into a cause for good
• Forgiving self or another in order to be free of toxicity
• Redirecting fear into excitement that causes a change for the better
• Healing trauma to liberate authenticity

What about the seemingly constant daily (or shall we say hourly?) emotions like annoyance, irritability, judgement, frustration, anxiety, fear, worry? And those flashes of guilt, shame, doubt.

Chinese Medicine is all about Qi. What is Qi but Life Force, Source, Spirit, Energy, the Creative Impulse.  Same same.

Having a conscious mind, unlike all other mammals, we have the gift of being directive. Energy LOVES direction.

Thoughts and emotions are considered to be among the most subtle forms of Qi. Not like an arm or a desk that’s solid and hard to miss, but more like the wind. We can’t “see” the wind, but we can’t say it doesn’t exists as the tree branch sways.

I’ve learned, and practice daily, directing and repurposing the “energy” of certain emotions into a higher serving version of energy. And it works 80% of the time.

In my book, I’ll take it! It’s a hell of a lot better than drowning in the emotional cesspool.

What’s the other 20% you might ask?

It seems to be a combination of a deeper emotion that truly needs healing which means it needs more attention than a quick repurpose. Or, an emotion that’s helping me evolve my heart and soul so isn’t quite ready to be repurposed.

Either way, it’s a win-win. I’m happy to sweep up the small stuff with ongoing repurposing which gives me excellent clarity on what truly needs tending.

I’m no longer willing to give my days to the never ending train of distractive emotions, and building this repurpose muscle is a little hard in the beginning (think going back to the gym for the first time after a year or more!), but once some traction is gained, it’s like waving a magic wand. Poof, you are no longer anxiety, you are peace.

What’s an emotion you’d love to repurpose?  Are you ready to practice waving your magic wand?  Worth noting: this practice won’t hurt you but it may make you feel magical.

Feel free to hop on over here to check out ways to practice waving your wand: https://createtohealstudio.com/creative-health-process/