Terminal Diagnosis as Catalyst for Creative Urgency and Healing
TL;DR
- A terminal diagnosis can catalyze creative urgency, shifting focus from inertia to immediate action by confronting the finite nature of time.
- Creativity can serve as a radical form of optimism, enabling individuals to reframe illness and find healing by expressing unspeakable emotions.
- The "why me" question can be a significant barrier to sharing one's story or creative work, stemming from a perceived lack of legitimacy.
- Creative practice involves a continuous exploration of themes, where subconscious insights surface over time, often revealed through feedback or reflection.
- Engaging in creative activities, even for short durations, can induce a theta state, offering a non-thinking space that fosters profound personal expression.
- Shifting the temporal frame from a ten-year plan to ten months or weeks can create a more immediate sense of purpose and drive action.
- The somatic effects of creativity, involving the body through movement and vibration, can be a powerful, underexplored route to health and well-being.
Deep Dive
Dr. Angela Chan's experience with a terminal cancer diagnosis, initially projected to be 10-18 months, led to a profound re-evaluation of her creative practice, demonstrating that urgency can unlock latent creative potential and serve as a powerful, albeit unconventional, motivator. This shift, fueled by the imminent constraint of time, highlights how perceived limitations can paradoxically expand one's capacity for expression and healing, suggesting that the act of creation itself possesses a therapeutic and life-affirming quality, independent of the outcome.
Chan's narrative reveals a powerful causal chain where confronting mortality prompts a prioritization of creative endeavors previously deferred. Her diagnosis, initially a source of despair, became a catalyst for action, leading her to book jazz gigs and actively pursue visual art, activities she had long desired but felt lacked the impetus to undertake. This demonstrates that the urgency of a limited timeframe can overcome deeply ingrained creative inertia and self-doubt. Furthermore, her experience illustrates the healing potential of creativity, not as a cure, but as a means of processing grief, finding peace, and communicating unspeakable emotions. By channeling her feelings into painting and singing, she was able to navigate her illness in a way that traditional therapy did not provide, suggesting that creative expression offers a unique pathway to emotional regulation and self-understanding, particularly when facing profound personal challenges. The unexpected remission of her cancer, while not directly attributed to creativity, occurred during a period of intense creative output, underscoring the synergistic relationship between her re-invigorated creative life and her physical well-being, implying that a positive, active engagement with life, particularly through creative pursuits, may contribute to better health outcomes.
The core implication of Chan's story is that the perceived "ten years" in a creative plan can be a psychological barrier, allowing for procrastination. Her challenge to reframe this to "ten months" or even "ten weeks" emphasizes the power of shorter, more immediate horizons to drive action and achieve significant progress. This suggests that by adopting a sense of temporal urgency, individuals can unlock greater creativity and achieve goals that might otherwise remain perpetually in the future, demonstrating that the perceived breadth of time can be less conducive to action than a more focused, compressed timeframe. Ultimately, Chan’s journey underscores that creativity is not merely an output but a fundamental aspect of human expression and a vital tool for navigating life's most profound challenges, offering a powerful testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the transformative power of creative engagement.
Action Items
- Create a "ten-month plan" framework: Define 3-5 key creative projects and actionable steps to achieve them within a year, prioritizing high-impact activities.
- Audit personal creative practice: Identify 2-3 disciplines or mediums to explore deeply, focusing on thematic connections and subconscious expression.
- Implement daily creative habit: Dedicate 10-15 minutes daily to a readily accessible creative activity (e.g., sketching, writing) to build momentum and consistency.
- Document creative process insights: Record observations on how creative expression through different mediums (painting, singing, writing) impacts personal well-being and communication.
Key Quotes
"My first instinct on diagnosis was, 'Oh my God, I haven't done all the things that I wanted to do,' and most of those were creative endeavors. But my God, if you ever needed a motivation to get out of your creative inertia, someone telling you you don't have ten years to think about it, maybe you've got ten months if you're lucky, maybe you've got ten years, nobody knows, but it gives you a sense of urgency that I've never had before, and I'm really, really going for it."
Dr. Angela Chan explains that receiving a terminal diagnosis, which limited her perceived time, acted as a powerful motivator for her creative pursuits. This urgency, she notes, is a potent catalyst for overcoming inertia and engaging with creative endeavors that might otherwise be postponed.
"And I think I came to the conclusion that, and this really sounds kooky, but I really came to the conclusion that my creativity could save me. And I'm sure it's not an original thought. I think how to glitter a turd, you know, I'd call it radical optimism. And you know, the one thing they know is that people who frame their illness differently and who have a positive outlook and who feel optimistic about their journey, not necessarily about the outcome, but about the journey, do better."
Dr. Angela Chan reflects on her belief that creativity could be a form of salvation, framing it as "radical optimism." She connects this perspective to research suggesting that individuals who adopt a positive outlook on their illness journey, regardless of the ultimate outcome, tend to experience better results.
"So I really believed I couldn't paint, and I would skillfully avoid anything that involved mark making. I took up photography as a teenager because it felt comfortable to carve my own space. I became a filmmaker professionally. I did almost anything creative I could think of other than paint."
Dr. Angela Chan describes her lifelong avoidance of painting, stemming from a childhood belief that she lacked artistic ability. This led her to pursue other creative fields like photography and filmmaking, actively steering clear of activities that involved direct mark-making, such as painting.
"But I just started to use it for expression. I don't think of myself as somebody who can do representative art very well, but sometimes I do, sometimes I choose not to, most of the time. So I really paint things that I feel are emotionally expressive. And it is incredible when people come to our open studios, sometimes we have nearly 2,000 people through the studio, and the way people respond to something is incredibly accurate in terms of reflecting the feeling I've put into it or what I was feeling at the time."
Dr. Angela Chan explains her approach to painting as a means of emotional expression rather than precise representation. She notes that the audience's reactions to her emotionally expressive art often accurately mirror the feelings she intended to convey, which surprises and builds her confidence.
"So I think your framing of 'In Ten Years' Time' is a great one. If you have ten years, I'm sure there's some older people listening to your podcast who also don't know if they have ten years. You know, we are all dying, and it shouldn't be a shocking thing to say, it's just a matter of when. I just happen to know what I'll probably die of, but I've become much more careful about crossing the road because it would be really ridiculous to go through all this trouble and put all these other people through all this trouble giving me medication and trying to keep me alive if I were to walk out in front of a truck."
Dr. Angela Chan acknowledges the podcast's "In Ten Years' Time" framework, extending it to the universal reality of mortality. She emphasizes that while she has a specific prognosis, everyone faces an unknown end, and this awareness encourages a more mindful approach to daily life, even in mundane actions like crossing the road.
"So what are you waiting for? No one is going to come and do it for you. Absolutely. I think that's one thing I've really learned, that just that sentence that you just said really resonates with me, the fact that I spent about 25 years of my life waiting for somebody to ask me to sing, and no one ever did."
Dr. Angela Chan directly challenges listeners to act on their creative aspirations, stating that external validation or invitation is unlikely to materialize. Tricia Duffy echoes this sentiment, reflecting on her own 25-year wait for an opportunity to sing professionally, highlighting the necessity of self-initiation.
Resources
External Resources
Books
- Trust the Process by Sean McNiff - Mentioned as a foundational text for understanding the artist's process, emphasizing human expression over output.
- How Not to Paint by Marian Miller - Referenced for its exploration of automatic painting and its connection to psychology and surfacing subconscious material.
Articles & Papers
- The Breathe Blog by Dr. Angela Chan - Discussed as a profound, funny, and thought-provoking blog for people living with secondary cancer.
People
- Dr. Angela Chan - Guest, artist, academic, researcher, singer, inclusion and AI expert, professor, and friend of the host.
- Dean Terry - Mentioned as a deceased artist friend who never had a solo show, inspiring the host to organize one for him posthumously.
- Lloyd Cole - Quoted for the lyric "I'll believe in anything if it gets me what I want."
Websites & Online Resources
- in ten years' time dot com - The host's website, offering a toolkit of free resources and a platform for suggestions and "buy me a coffee" donations.
- instagram or facebook at in ten years' time official - Social media platforms where listeners can connect with the host.
Other Resources
- The 10-year plan philosophy - The host's core concept for setting a long-term vision and taking small daily steps towards creative goals.
- The "why me" question - A concept discussed as a potential barrier to sharing one's story or creative work, particularly in the context of illness.
- Creative practice - Defined as a body of work where one explores themes deeply, often subconsciously, and finds meaning through continued engagement.
- Somatic effect of the arts - The idea that creativity, through vibration and bodily engagement, has a profound physical impact on health and well-being.