There’s a great deal written on the subject of creativity as it’s seemingly a topic of continued fascination. Rick Rubin’s book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being was one of these many reads on my list for awhile so I checked it out of the library on a rainy day last month. Immediately, I felt expansive. There was pause between thoughts, time slowed down and I was connected to another stream of insight. Have you had this experience? Maybe it was with a book or simply a natural moment of pure awareness shining through. Something unlocked inside, I could feel the metal gears aligning inside like they they do in the inner walls of a vault. As the words dialed in, something shifted. It was the perfect combination of words.
Similarly, I’ve found Mary Oliver’s poetry to have this effect. I read one or two to start each morning from her books Devotions or Why I Wake Early. Maybe it’s the blank canvas of the heart before it’s cluttered with emails or… maybe it’s Maybelline.
If this stream of expansiveness was like water in a kinked hose, sometimes we simply pinch ourselves off from the flow of life. Where we are the hose and the water flowing inside is awareness, creative energy, or prana. Always there and ready to move once we get out of our own way.
Perhaps it’s less about finding more water, more about working out the kinks and getting out of its way so the water can flow.
We could very well disagree on the definition but all be channeling creativity at the same time and I find this fascinating. Where is it, what is it? How much creativity is learned vs. innate? While the jury is still out on these questions, one thing is certain: without it, we’d be unwell. The most conscious self-care inherently requires creativity. In fact, I have a hard time talking about self-care without bring up creativity. It must be the health coach in me.
The Sanskrit root word of yoga is “yuj” which means, “to yoke”. In essence, two or more things are brought together to have a particular effect. In yoga, these unified elements are broadly said to be the mind, body, and spirit. A striking similarity to the word “synergy" which describes this coming together of pieces and parts to have an effect that they otherwise would not on their own.
If yoking were a mathematical equation, it would be 1 + 1 = 2, but the math of synergy says 1 + 1 = 7.
And while it makes less sense on paper, in application, it has a tremendous energy. If you take a step back, can you spot the synergy at play in your life? Whether it’s synergy or something else, it all comes down to collaboration and combination. Collaboration with 2 or more people, with 2 or more things, 2 or more thoughts and emotions.
This month, I collaborated with Mental Health Connecticut in a virtual workshop on these overlapping circles of creativity and self-care. View the recorded conversation and the 3 simple ingredients for creativity to take root.
Create something incredible this month.
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