Why I Create: Healing Through Art After Workplace Trauma

There are moments in life when the world becomes too unjust, too targeted, too cruel. For me, that moment came three years ago, in a place I was supposed to feel safe—my workplace.

What began as subtle exclusion turned into harassment, retaliation, and the slow erosion of my mental well-being. I gave everything—my time, my loyalty, my heart—but in return, I was met with silence, gaslighting, and isolation. The psychological weight of that experience stayed with me long after I walked away from the job. It followed me into sleepless nights, anxious thoughts, and a lingering sense of invisibility. I was no longer the version of myself I used to know.

But amid the wreckage, something quiet called to me: my art.

🎨 The Healing Begins With My Hands

I didn’t start creating with the intention of healing. I was just trying to breathe.

At first, it was simple—cutting scraps of fabric, stitching patterns with trembling hands, writing in a journal I had once abandoned. Each thread, each sketch, each written page was a small act of defiance. A whisper to myself: I still exist. I still matter.

Unlike the workplace that failed me, art never required me to betray my ethics or participate in anything that felt wrong. Art never demanded silence, compliance, or betrayal of what I knew was right. It simply held space for my pain without judgment—and offered me something rare and holy: a voice.

✂️ Why Creation Matters in the Wake of Destruction

When we experience trauma—especially in a workplace where we are expected to perform and please—we often lose our sense of worth, our self-esteem, and  our identity. We shrink. We hide. We internalize.

Creating gave me the opposite experience. It let me expand.

Through storytelling, sewing, poetry, painting—whatever medium my heart needed that day—I began reclaiming the parts of myself that had been buried under betrayal, disbelief, and the silent weight of fear. I could process my grief on a blank canvas. I could find beauty even in broken pieces.

🧶 Art as Protest. Art as Prayer.

There is something radical about choosing softness in a world that has hardened you. Every piece I create whether it’s a handmade journal, a digital design, a painted bookmark, or a sewn amulet—carries a bit of my healing. My art is not just decorative; it’s sacred. It’s layered with stories, emotion, and survival.

And now, it’s also an offering. To others who have been hurt, silenced, or erased. To those still struggling to believe they are worthy of rest, joy, and safety.

🌿 A Space to Breathe Again

I don’t create because I’ve healed completely. I create because I am still healing—and because creating gives me a space to breathe and my mind to focus on renewal, positivity, and possibilities.

If you’ve been hurt in places that were supposed to protect you, I want you to know this: you are not alone. And there is no “right” way to heal. But if you’ve ever felt the pull to make something—anything—follow it.

That thread, that brushstroke, that handwritten line on the page… it might just lead you back to yourself.