Creativity to Beat Cancer

Photograph by Rich Reid

If you, or anyone close to you, have ever been diagnosed with cancer, there’s a likelihood you have suddenly become open to lot of different methods, in addition to the conventional treatments, to survive. Until you heard that terrible diagnosis, words such as  ‘death’ and ‘cancer’ might have been whispered, but rarely spoken out loud.  Many people want to be involved in some way in their own healing but if they aren’t doctors, it’s hard to know what to do.

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Some physicians, feeling this frustration and also realizing the limitations of conventional medicine, have tried to find ways to assist patients in coping with cancer.  Dr. Bernie Siegel, who wrote Love, Medicine and Miracles[1], could see that patients were not always being completely healed by the regular treatments offered. He started support groups for what he called “Exceptional Cancer Patients” and taught his cancer patients ways of assisting in their own recovery by not just complying with the doctors, but doing extraordinary things to help themselves.

Dr. Pinki Feinstein, an Israeli doctor with an artistic passion, continued in Dr. Siegels footsteps. He developed a theory that suggested that the lack of creativity in our everyday lives was leading to ‘creative blocks’ in our bodies, which were actually manifesting as quickly-multiplying cancer cells. To clear the creative blocks, Dr. Feinstein came up with a method called “Intuitive Painting,” loosely based on The Artist’s Way[2], by which people would combine a psychological reflective process on their creativity with a 12-week course in which they would practice the art of creativity.

Dr. Feinstein’s first Intuitive Painting group included people in a Cancer support groups called ‘Cancer patients fight’. I too was in that first group, working through my own grief.  Although Intuitive Painting has never claimed to actually save lives, it does promise to enhance life - and I enjoyed many frivolous as well as deep moments while doing the writing and the drawing tasks set out for me in the course. The little girl in me came alive again, and despite a reality which was difficult, to say the least, I found myself singing as I painted and feeling extremely alive. Remember the taboo word – ‘death?’  Turn on some loud sad music and fill a page with color while thinking of that word.

The most significant benefit of Intuitive Painting is its ability to empower people and to reconnect one with the basic intuitive urge to create. While this is common in children – think of the 2 year old who is able to stand up to the adult parents in his life and proudly display his crayon scribbles all over the wall – as adults we seem to have lost the way. We find ourselves all too easily stuck in habits that were forced upon us, doing things we ‘should’ more often that what we want and yearn to do. How many times a day, or should I ask, a year, do you take time to ask yourself if you are on the right track in your life? Sadly, it often takes a scare with cancer or the death of loved one to realize that life is too short to just do what you ‘have to.’ 

What happens in an intuitive painting workshop? You take the first step to overcoming your fear of failure, that terrible fear of not getting it right. These are the most difficult hurdles to creativity.  Cameron and Dr. Feinstein are not alone in the realization that we are our own worst enemy. Once given the permission to ‘go for it’ along with the safe structure of how long you may paint and on what size paper, it’s quite amazing how people are able to relax and enjoy the experience. As one former student of Dr. Feinstein put it:  “The more you do, the easier it is to let go. Letting someone else draw on your paper was hard at first! But the painting is refreshing, relaxing, enjoyable, you lose yourself for those 2 hours – focusing on something different, being absorbed into another activity which is even mysterious at times.” 

Research into the value of creativity in healing continues worldwide. "Individuals can do things (in the creative arts) to affect their health and functioning," says Gene D. Cohen, director of George Washington University’s Center on Aging, Health and Humanities. "You can develop programs that make a difference... These programs can lower the (medical) burden on society."[3] 

It’s not easy to break old habits, nor to try new things, but the threat of cancer can actually help unshackle those chains. Combine that with an empowering workshop that allows you to paint while shutting off your internal critic and you will be taking that first brave step towards discovering someone you once knew and loved very dearly – your own self.  

So, if you know someone who is sick with cancer, or if you yourself want to give it a try -Please contact for more details.

(This article was published during Feb and March 2011 on the Access Cancerlink site: http://www.access-nl.org/about-access/what-we-do/cancerlink.aspx)

[1]  Siegel, Bernie S. Dr., Love, Medicine and Miracles. HarperCollins, New York, 1986

[2] Cameron, Julia , The Artist’s Way. Tarcher/Putnam. New York, 1992

[3] "The Creative Age: Awakening Human Potential in the Second Half of Life" (HarperCollins, 2000 )