Welcome to this Open Writer’s Studio

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[This is a sticky post, which means it never moves down the page. Newer posts are found a little further down right after this one. Just scroll down a bit. Thanks! ~Demian]

Demian Portrait I am Demian E Yumei, 56, author (Little Yellow Pear Tomatoes), singer/songwriter (DreamSinger) and activist, (Keeping the Dream).

Have you ever been to an open art studio? Well, this blog is kind of like that. In an open studio, you can watch the sculptor sculpt and the painter paint. Here, you can watch the author write. Only unlike the artist studio where you would be ill advised to slap some paint onto someone else’s canvas or chisel off a piece of someone else’s marble, you are invited to add to this manuscript, this work in progress.

In this writer’s artist studio, you are welcome to pick up your “pen”. Here you are welcome to agree or disagree, to clarify or challenge, to share your ideas and experiences.

This year, 2012, I am reclaiming my relationship with my mother, my heritage, but to do that, I must look at the dynamics that had separated us through all these years.

I am chronicling that journey in my blog, Miyasan’s Daughter. This journey, by way of family dynamics and a father who had gaslighting down to an art, guarantees facing the “beast of the shadows” — covert abuse.

Miyasan’s Daughter is the context, the lens through which I will explore these dynamics.

This blog is the distillation of that knowledge and plants the seeds through the posts I will be writing for the eventual publication of a book… Continue reading »

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Reclaiming Your Creative Passion 1

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How can we lose something that is such a part of our being? And yet we can, and when we place ourselves in situations that drain our very soul, we do.

Our creative passion can help us to hold on to what is true within us. In the midst of usury and abuse, we can turn our focus inward and let it escape outward in song, in poetry and color and form. Our creative passion can be as a buttress to that which weighs us down, a fortress in which we seek refuge.

But fortresses are to protect those who need it, and onslaughts wear down the strongest walls. Eventually, your creativity as protection will need to be so fortified that it no longer flows, and creativity that does not flow isn’t creativity at all. It can no longer protect you.

There are all kinds of ways to die. One doesn’t have to die to one’s body. When you die to your dreams, to your creative spark, that is a kind of death.

I remember waking up as a little kid in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and seeing my mother hunched over the kitchen table painting. That image of her lost in her world of art, creating what she would call her goddesses, will always stay with me.

I never asked why she didn’t paint during the day. Even though we never spoke of it, I sensed, even at that early age, that her art was something she had to steal time for. Funny, how I never made the connection of my getting up in the middle of the night to write with my own mother’s rising in the dark to paint.

My mother’s creative passion gave her life, somehow held her through all the years of mental and emotional abuse from my father. But the lack of support and the constant tearing down of her worth as a human being drew more and more life out of her, so that eventually, not even her painting could save her. And she could no longer save her painting.

Your creative passion is the expression of your soul, the vehicle through which your spirit can dance. While it can be a mighty protection against the things that wear you down, it’s not meant to be a bunker for you to hide in. And it too, in time, will wear down…until perhaps, one day you lose it.

And then what will you do?

After being on my own for years now, I find I am still reclaiming the creative pieces of my self. I could not see how much I was losing until I started looking for it.

Some people create beautifully in adversity. I have. The arts is a wonderful way to express your deepest feelings, a release for your emotions. Some of the most beautiful works of art come out of sorrow.

But covert abuse isn’t just sorrow. It doesn’t just break your heart. It goes straight for the jugular, and you bleed out. It saps you of the life force that makes your heart beat — your creative heart and eventually, perhaps, your physical one.

Creative passion comes from deep within. It takes the skills of discipline and study to refine and shape that passion into an art form, but the spirit of it — the inspiration, the muse, as it were — comes from the same place your soul dwells. It’s speaks truth, even when you can’t.

Covert abuse, attacks your soul.

I continued to create while I was in my covert abuse relationship, because I had to. To me it was like breathing and my desire to survive was strong. But it was a struggle.

I did not see, at that time, how the battle for my creativity was actually distancing me from my creativity. I spent more time defending my right to create than actually doing it. Until one day, I wasn’t creating at all…and what’s worse, I didn’t have it in me to try.

In just one year’s time after I left and was on my own, I finally completed a project I had started and struggled to work on for over a decade.

For accuracy sake, I cannot say it was all sabotage. Just the very nature, the dynamics of covert abuse, itself, kills creative passion. When you’re in a covert abuse relationship, the mind games, the manipulation, the lies, the anxiety and stress, the heartbreaks, and the tears will burn up your energy — all of it, including your creative energy.

If you are in an abusive relationship, do not give up on your creative passion. It’s more important than you realize. Create the space, claim the time you need to nourish and express this essential part of who you are. But understand the toll this fight, and it will be a fight, will take on you.

I believe it is far better for your creativity to liberate yourself from an abusive relationship, because it’s far better for you, for your health, for your peace of mind. There is no separation here. Creative passion is not what you do or have. It’s who you are.

I’m learning to honor myself now. I’m not just writing a book. I’m not just writing for other people. I am writing for myself. I am writing for my life.

It’s part of my recovery, a reclaiming of what was lost, stolen and even thrown away.

Because without my creativity I’m dead. ..and yet…somehow, for a long and terrible while, I had stopped breathing. I was no longer singing and no longer writing. The notes that used to jump all over the scale were just as flat-line as my emotions, my spirit. The words I used to write about idealism and hope seemed to have long abandoned my pen, and the ones that had tumbled out effortlessly onto paper, in what seemed like a previous life, now mocked me for my naivete.

Time and space is giving me the opportunity to resuscitate my creative passion, the creative artist that I am. And by doing so, I am reclaiming not only the creativity, but the idealism and the hope that is a part of creative passion.

You can’t believe in nothing and be creative.

Just the act of creating is a belief in something that is yet to come into being. Re-ignite your creativity, and you open the door to finding your faith again.

* * * * * * * *

POINTS TO PONDER
What steps do you take to protect your creative passion? What do you need to do to resuscitate your creativity?

Loss of Passion Series:
Loss of Sexual Passion (Hypo-Sexuality)
Loss of Sexual Passion (Hyper-Sexuality)
Loss of Creative Passion (Deliberate Intention)
Loss of Creative Passion (Covert Attacks)
Loss of Creative Passion (Real Support vs Self-Serving)

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Loss of Creative Passion (Real Support vs Self-Serving)

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Covert abusers can say the right things and they can be encouraging. That’s what’s so confusing. But when saying the right things and being encouraging is not followed through with action, then it’s just not real.

To some people, saying something is as good as doing it. It doesn’t matter if they hadn’t actually done it. It doesn’t matter that they don’t take any steps to actually support you. That they say they do is all that matters. They take credit for it as if it were real.

In fact, their words of support go to making them feel good about themselves. Not to actually support you. Their verbal support is only self-serving.

But to a person who takes what people say on face value, especially those we love, it can be confusing. Being with a covert abuser means mixed messages. There are plenty of them. For whatever reason, whether because of our own issues or our propensity to believe in the best in others, giving others the benefit of the doubt, mixed messages and our selective vision or rationalization or even goodwill can be a dangerous combination for our own health and peace of mind — and certainly to our passion.

Those who are threatened by someone’s passion can be supportive of it if it serves their purpose. For instance, it’s probably in their best interest to be supportive when they first meet an individual and want to make a good impression. Another time would be when they benefit either directly or indirectly from the success your passion might bring.

People who derive their self worth from riding on someone else’s coattails often do not have the discipline or commitment to get there on their own. They are, in fact, often threatened by the very discipline and commitment of others who do have what it takes. However, if their jealousy cannot sabotage your success, they’re only too happy to hijack it or bask in your success when it happens as if it were their own.

As incredulous as it seems, they may expect (or demand) you to thank them for making your success possible. It’s crazy-making, especially if your creativity has been a source of friction and arguments, and you succeeded only through your own tenacity. But good luck if you refuse or show even the slightest hesitation to sing their praises for making this all possible.

Such people may enjoy you having written or having performed or having shown your completed work. They like the attention you get when they think it reflects well on them. But often, especially in covert abuse, the one who likes to bask in the light of the other person’s success, never seems to appreciate or respect the process for getting there. They just like the laurels, of which they expect you to share with them.

When it comes to the actual creative process, the work, when real support — not just lip service – but real support matters, those who are involved with covert abusers know how long and difficult it can be, how much time is spent justifying your need to work on your craft, how many arguments are made, how much guilt is heaped upon you — and covert abusers know how to do guilt. They have it down to an art form.

Sometimes family members and loved ones do have legitimate complaints or concerns you are spending too much time on your creativity. They may assert you are neglecting them or the children. And sometimes you are. Passion can be all consuming at times, especially when you’re really into the flow of it.

The difference is people who are truly supportive of you seek a compromise, a resolution that includes your passion as well as them. They desire a balance between the passion for your art and the love you have for them. They truly accept your passion is a part of you, and if they feel it’s becoming all of you, then out of respect for themselves and the relationship, they address their concerns to work something out.

It’s part of being in a healthy relationship where people grow with bonds that breath and stretch and come back, always returning to the core of the love you share.

People who need to manipulate to get what they want, have a hard time understanding these qualities of love.

Manipulation, of which covert abuse is largely about, comes from the belief of lack. It arises from not trusting you will be loved for who you are, and confusing need and control for love.

The complaints a covert abuser might have about the time you spend with your passion isn’t so much about the time as much as the love they perceive you giving to your passion…and not them.

Unlike someone who truly loves you, a covert abuser can never be satisfied with compromise or creating space for your creative life and them. Nothing short of giving up your passion entirely or relegating it to the diminished capacity of a hobby, which would be like keeping a pond koi in a goldfish bowl, will satisfy them.

But you can try to make it work. At least that’s what you tell yourself. So you try to find a solution on your own.

You wake up predawn for your creativity so that you will be available during the day, but you are criticized for not being able to stay up late. So you get up at night, but you are criticized for sneaking out of bed after they fall asleep and not being there to cuddle if they should wake up, or being tired in the morning. So you ask for specific time during the day, in which you promise to start and stop on time. But anything more than a couple times a week, if that, is asking too much.

Perhaps you decide to devote an entire day just to them, to show them how much you love them, to cultivate happy memories together, to support and nourish your love. But the next day you find it’s not enough. They want that same undivided attention again, and the day after that, and the day after that. And it begins to dawn on you that there really is no room in your relationship for your passion.

In time you will find yourself spending more and more time protecting, defending and fighting for the right to your creativity than actually creating. And that’s a kind of sabotage, a covert attack upon your passion, burning up your passion with anger and frustration and depression, rather than using it to write, sing, dance, paint or whatever form your passion takes.

Or maybe you just give up. Perhaps you tell yourself that love is about sacrifice, after all. But is it about suicide? Because passion really isn’t something you do. It’s what you are. It’s a part of what makes you you.

It doesn’t matter how supportive your covert abuser claims to be. What matters is the reality of the situation. Look to the health of your passion and the state of your creative life. It will tell you more than any words.

********

POINTS TO PONDER
In what ways have you been supported in your creative life? Do you receive the support you need in terms of space, time or in other ways specific to your passion?

Loss of Passion Series:
Loss of Sexual Passion (Hypo-Sexuality)
Loss of Sexual Passion (Hyper-Sexuality)
Loss of Creative Passion (Deliberate Intention)
Loss of Creative Passion (Covert Attacks)

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Loss of Creative Passion (Covert Attacks)

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So what does it look like when your creative passion is covertly attacked?

Covert abusers are cautious about being obvious with their intent, especially at first. They want to win your trust, or more accurately, lower your defenses. True to their covert nature, when they do start withdrawing their support, it will be indirectly.

They can become miserable, sullen, or pouty when you attempt to tend to your creativity. They may become resentful, slam a door or two or become moody and silent. Their behavior and attitude slowly replaces the joy you feel for your creativity with guilt.

They may sabotage you with cheap shots or irresponsibility. A covert abuser may not come out and forbid you from following your passion, but they can make the journey fraught with more potholes and mishaps than necessary.

They’ll pick a fight the night before or day of your performance, book reading or art show. Or they’ll wait to say something mean or shocking just as you’re about to go up front to sing or speak or engage with the public in some way. It might be a valid topic for discussion — under different circumstances. But the timing is horrible, yet calculated. You are thrown off balance just when you need to be centered and focused the most. That’s the point.

Or perhaps they neglect to do what they say they will, and you find when you walk up to the stage to perform that the PA system hasn’t been completely set up, or just as you grab the microphone you realize the music tracks were left behind, or the display stands for your art pieces were never packed, or parts of the tent for your booth were misplaced. Things you had entrusted to the covert abuser to take care of are not.

And you’re left to scramble at the very last moment to make things work, to remember your lyrics when you’re unnerved, to compose yourself and look like a professional when it appears you’re not, to improvise and make do with what should have been an easy set up or smooth performance.

Or they can suddenly become helpless or just interrupt the hell out of you.

Try writing a book when your partner suddenly becomes the most incompetent person in the world and needs to ask you how to do things they’ve always been able to do before, like changing the baby’s diaper (it’s been peed in), locating various kitchen utensils (when they love to cook), needing to share news trivia or feeling compelled to visit you with the kids, dog, cat and anything else they can drag into your tiny workspace, because they “miss you”.

And you haven’t even been there for an hour yet.

They can drive the creative into distraction with interruptions to rival that of a toddler. They may inundate you with so many interruptions that you begin to feel it’s better to not start at all than to face such maddening frustration.

If you have the good fortune to go to a recording, writing or art studio they may call you before your session is up asking if you’re done yet. Or they may show up unannounced a half hour or so before you’re scheduled to leave, and wait not so patiently for you to finish.

Or you’re at the potter’s wheel, or at the writer’s desk, or the painter’s easel and they walk by and kiss you. That’s sweet, right? So you respond in kind, and they leave. And then they come by again, and then they come by again, and then again. And each time they expect you to stop and give your full appreciative attention to them.

Meanwhile your pottery languishes, your creative flow is thwarted and you lose momentum. Ideas and inspiration slip away, escaping your pen or brush. You get frustrated, annoyed even. You tactfully try to tell them you need to focus, and then BAM, you have a fight on your hands.

How can you be so selfish when they just want to love you? Excuse me for offending you with a kiss.

It takes discipline, time and effort to bring what you envision to fruition. When you follow your passion, you truly are carried on a current of creative energy, that synergy of toil and joy bringing ideas into color, form, shape and sound. Without these ingredients of discipline, time and effort, creative ideas remain ideas.

And when the artistic ideas don’t come together,
the collection of songs never get recorded, the landscapes never painted and poetry never written, the pottery never fired, or the book never published, the covert abuser can use that against you. It becomes a perfect opportunity.

They don’t call you fat. They don’t say you’re ugly. That’s not the form this covert abuse takes.

No, they just say you were never really that serious, never that good. They say you never complete anything. They say I told you so. They say you’re involved in too many things, (namely your creative endeavors).

They tell you to get realistic. They say it’s just a hobby or a waste of time. Get a real job or stick with your real job, and spend the rest of your time with them…unless they don’t want you to, like when they have something better to do, which they will always make time for.

********

POINTS TO PONDER
So what are the things in your life that sabotage your creativity? How do they specifically play out in your life?

Loss of Passion Series
Loss of Sexual Passion (Hypo-Sexuality
Loss of Sexual Passion (Hyper-Sexuality)
Loss of Creative Passion (Deliberate Intention)

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Loss of Creative Passion (Deliberate Intention)

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Passion isn’t just about sexuality. Sex is actually only a part of what passion is, and not even an essential part, albeit, pleasurable and important in the lives of many.

Have you ever met a passionate person? You may know absolutely nothing about their sex life, but you can see they are filled with passion. There’s something about them — their vivaciousness, their enthusiasm, the way they talk about certain things, their drive and commitment, the way they laugh, loud or soft. They have an uncanny resiliency in the face of obstacles and an energy that weaves through and around their voice, their lives. They possess a “livingness” that is almost contagious, and can get you to remember your own passion if you’re not careful.

There’s a passion that no bed or bedroom can contain — the passion you have for living, for ideas, for adventure and invention. There’s the passion for creating and discovering, anything that brings you enjoyment in a celebratory way. This is the passion that gets you up out of bed in the morning more effectively than any alarm clock, that enables you to start the day with anticipation.

Passion is energy, and covert abuse is an energy drainer. You can find yourself losing your passion for the things that used to inspire you just from the characteristic fatigue that comes with covert abuse. If you’re physically, psychologically and emotionally drained, how you can pull up anything for your creativity when the very wellspring of who you are is dry?

But you can also lose your passion, not just as a byproduct of covert abuse, but through deliberate intention.

Covert abuse is jealous.

Sometimes it’s because of insecurity. People who covertly abuse, who need to manipulate to control, do not possess much self esteem or regard for themselves. They hide this insecurity under bravado. If they perceive you as being talented — and many covert abusers are attracted to people with admirable traits — then by gradually tearing you down they give themselves the illusion of being uplifted.

Your fall becomes their rise.

But sometimes it doesn’t have as much to do with pulling you down as seeing your passion as competition. Sure it was fine when they first met you, exciting and attractive even, but once they came into your life, they are supposed to take center stage. Your passion is supposed to take a back seat…way back seat, as in out of the building. Because if you’re taking care of your passion or spending time with it, you’re not taking care of or spending time with them.

That taking care of your passion makes you whole, makes you better able to love others is lost to a covert abuser. They can’t understand, because more often than not, they have become a stranger to their own passion or are now only acquainted with it’s substitution, obsession.

And forget about extending or including your passion for creativity in your love for them. With the mind that can conceive of power only as “power over”, there is no sharing, no widening of the dance floor. There’s only either/or, me or it, black or white. They win or they lose. There are no other states of being.

It’s an irony, that very thing that may attract such a person to you in the first place is the very thing they will target once they get secure in your love for them. How confusing it is.

But then that’s covert abuse, and being covert, it will do its attacking while calling it something else.

* * * * * * * *

POINTS TO PONDER

What kind of relationship do you have with your creativity? Is it a part of your life, an intrusion or is it totally nonexistent?

Loss of Passion Series:

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Loss of Passion (Hyper-Sexuality)

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There is another face to loss of passion. At first glance it appears exactly the opposite, but if they are opposites they are opposite sides of the same coin. Someone on Facebook, reading my previous post on losing one’s passion, pointed out that while exploitation could make one hypo sexual it could also make you hyper sexual.

This was difficult for me to look at, because as an incest victim, identifying myself through sex was ingrained in me from a very early age, even before I could articulate what sex was. It fills me to this day with great pain and no small amount of shame, regardless of how much of the healing journey I have already traveled. I walk gently around it when it sleeps. But these past two weeks, it has awakened with a fury, so I need to address it.

Hyper sexuality is the unnatural weight sex has in your life in making decisions, interpreting the actions of other people, your perception of them and yourself as a person. It can look like multiple partners, but it can also look like serial monogamy. It can look like risky behavior — choosing dangerous places and potentially dangerous strangers, but it can also look like your own home and your significant other.

Whether in a dangerous place or in familiar surroundings, whether with yet another stranger or someone you love, if sex makes decisions for you, confers meaning on things for you, judges the value or worth or veracity of anything for you, if sex lives you then that’s hyper sexuality — because sex is too present in places it should not be. It is where it does not belong. Sex takes over decision making and other faculties that you should be in control. That may translate into quantity of partners or exoticism of places, but it doesn’t have to.

When sex is in balance, it is a vibrant and beautiful part of who you are through which you can choose to express your emotions, your joy, your pleasure, you sense of fun and love. But when sex is imbalanced, it usurps your role as decider and definer. Hyper sexuality kills the real passion you have a right to.

Real passion is your passion. It honors you, uplifts and respects you. It increases your sense of self-worth and is creative. Hyper sexuality degrades you, diminishes and disrespects you. It lowers your sense of self worth and is destructive. Despite momentary pleasure, it fills you with shame.

Real passion empowers you. Hyper sexuality enslaves you.

Real passion is joyous. Hyper sexuality is desperate.

Real passion is secure in its self and its relationships, knowing that if things don’t work out, it might be a reflection of choices, preferences, compatibility or any number of things but not your value as a human being. Hyper sexuality is afraid, believing that if things don’t work out the fears you have about yourself might be right…or not daring to believe in anything in the first place, it doesn’t matter.

Real passion embraces the moment and respects the future. Hyper sexuality is compulsive and fearing the future, ignores its consequences.

Real passion is secure and empowered. Hyper sexuality is fearful and controlled by its own desperation.

Real passion is truthful. It knows itself and celebrates itself for what it is. It does not hijack the identities of other qualities as its own.

Hyper sexuality deceives itself. It perceives intensity as depth and usury as caring. It usurps the meaning of integrity and trustworthiness, transplanting them within the mere existence of itself.

Real passion can be a conduit for love, but never mistakes itself for love.

Hyper sexuality sees itself as love. Sex comes to equate or stand in for all the qualities that make up love. It becomes proof of the existence of love even when all evidence points to its absence.

Real passion opens avenues to the depth of your feeling. It intensifies the colors in your world, drawing you ever closer to the present moment and creating deeper connections to those around you and your world.

Hyper sexuality keeps you walking on the sharp stones of a shallow stream, and calls the pain you feel depth of feeling. It does not see the truth of what’s there, but reinterprets everything to create a storyline involving predestination, soul mates or free spirit to justify its existence. It creates distance between you and those around you, because you cannot see them.

Real passion celebrates your worth.

Hyper sexuality attempts to cover the underlying fear of your lack of worth.

Hyper sexuality is sometimes referred to as sexual addiction. And while there is a strong component of compulsiveness, and its effects and impact are very much like addiction, I don’t think that term adequately conveys the full spectrum of what it is. Nor is it helpful in identifying these dynamics if you don’t exhibit the commonly held characteristics of sexual addiction.

I don’t even like the term hyper sexuality, because I don’t think it really conveys an accurate picture either. But it’s all I got right now. If anyone can think of a better term, please let me know!

All of the things real passion is, covert abuse will attack as it attacks you. Covert abuse seeks to knock you off balance. And it’s good at it. A lot of times, you don’t see it happening until you’re already paying a price for it.

Covert abusers will take that vulnerable side of every person desiring to be loved, and exploit it. When the human spirit is diminished it rebels. Sometimes that rebellion may take the form of hyper sexuality. Other times it shuts down, losing its connection to sexuality altogether.

Both carry shame. Both are losses of passion, real passion.

But perhaps it’s not a loss as much as a “putting away”, a putting away that, when the moment is right, can be found, tucked away wrapped in soft cloth in a chest under our bed, or planted in a secret place in the corner of our garden germinating, waiting for the moment to break through and rise above the earth again.

I don’t know. But I like to believe so.

* * * * * * * *

POINTS TO PONDER

  • What does passion mean to you?
  • Does your sexual self reflect who you are?
  • To what degree does your sexual life celebrate who you are?
  • To what amount does shame revolve around your sexual life?
  • In your life, do you choose sex or does sex do the choosing for you?
  • Does having sex with your partner reassure you that everything is all right? That they love you? Is any of that supported or evidenced in other areas of your relationship?
  • What does it look like to you to be empowered? How would that translate sexually for you?

Loss of Passion Series:
Loss of Passion 1 – Sexual (Hypo-Sexuality)
Loss of Passion 2 – Sexual (Hyper-Sexuality)

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