Expressing Creative Energy Through Limitation

"I suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder, and I’d describe myself as an artistic person – always quite good at painting, drawing, music. But I’ve got chronic pain, nerve pain in my arm. I can’t play guitar anymore. That creative force is still within, and it drives me crazy when those outlets are taken away. Rupert says: ‘Use your faculties, whatever they are, in service of this energy you feel pulsating through your body. Whatever your faculties are, use them to express this energy. There was a painter called Sargy Mann who went slowly blind but never considered his blindness a handicap – he would feel his wife sitting in a chair and paint what he felt. My mother was the same; as she lost her sight and developed Alzheimer’s, she made exquisite little drawings. And there’s the true story in the book and movie The Diving Bell and the Butterfly – someone completely paralysed who could only blink one eye, yet wrote a beautiful book. Use whatever faculties you have to express love and understanding.’"

From event 21 - 28 November, 2025 Seven-Day Retreat at The Vedanta, 21–28 November 2025

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