Sadness is the greatest inspiration for creativity.

I am heartbroken. It is debilitating. I don’t wish it upon anyone. At the same time, I feel the seeds of longing planted in my veins. You will understand what I mean soon.

People confuse depression with sadness. After separating from a romantic partner you may fall into a depressive state. However, a romantic breakup in itself, does not cause depression. You may be very sad. You may be heartbroken, but you are not depressed. Depression is a black hole that swallows us. Depression is no good.

The in-between state

Above depression and below happiness is where we are most introspective. We feel everything around us. We are stoutly acute to the people around us. We look for the emotions in others. We are looking for something more, beyond this temporary feeling of shit. We are, as Susan Cain likes to call, longing.

This in-between feeling is the sweet spot for creativity. Creative people are trying to bring whatever it is they are longing for, to the here and now. This is the definition of creativity. According to Robert E. Franken of Human Motivation, “Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others.” The Creative process flows easier when you are solving the largest problem of all - The Human Experience.

A study for heartbroken people

This study illustrates the point perfectly. It took two groups of motivational speakers. The first group of speakers spoke to a welcoming audience. The crowd was clapping, yelling, and cheering the speakers. This made the speakers happy. They were smiling and laughing. It was an enjoyable experience.

The other speakers came out to an audience with blank stares on their faces. The speakers couldn’t even get a clap out of these folks. These speakers did not enjoy themselves. They were hit harder than the scientists thought.

Then the scientists asked the participants to create artistic collages. The collages were rated by real artists on their creativity and artistic expression. The second group of speakers were rated much higher by the artists.

How?

For the same reason orphans make up an unusually high percentage of artists. They were LONGING. Longing for something. Just as cathartic musicians long to bring new sound into the world, visionary entrepreneurs long to change the way we live, and brilliant writers long to bring unthinkable worlds to life.

We long, therefore we seek. We seek therefore we find. Keep longing. You and I will both find. Find what? That’s up to you.

Apparently, then, our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. And to be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honour beyond all our merits and also the healing of that old ache.

C.S. Lewis

P.S. The cover art is my heartproject NFT #1565