Take away a person’s creativity and you fracture a part of their soul.

Take away a person’s creativity and you fracture a part of their soul. This is my opinion based on my own experience with toxic relationships and from what I have seen from relationships around me.

If you have ever been in a toxic relationship, do you notice that the first the aggressor in the relationship tries to take away from their partner is their creativity? You would think it would the friends first, but there’s a smaller insidious subtle step that people in that situation don’t really notice. 

The partner stops making art, whether it’s playing music, photography, painting, dancing, writing, acting, sewing..etc. But how could someone stop anyone from being creative? 

It’s usually done slowly over time, either by constantly making fun of the art in the name of “teasing” or even hating on it in the name of “constructive criticism”, or convincing the person that they’re not good at what they do or that it’s not important enough, or by simple filling up the person schedule with different plans to the point that they have no time to be creative, and whenever they try to be creative, they get distracted by the aggressor one way or another.

Once the person’s creativity is blocked over time, there is no longer any outlet for them to express themselves and becomes easier to manipulate. If doubt is instilled in them about their own creativity that comes from within, with a bit of tactic it would be simple to infuse doubt about other things and people and slowly but surely they are driven away from the people they love.

My advice is:

Be with someone who cherishes your creativity, not hinders it.