Why connect creativity and your health?
You may be thinking, what’s one got to do with the other? Well, the beautiful truth is, a lot.
Because we’re all born creative. We just express our creativity in different ways. Through the Arts, yes, but also in our own unique approach to whatever we enjoy doing.
That means anything and everything. Livelihood. Cooking. Parenting. Fashion! Are you a video game designer? An EMT? A teacher? Creativity can show in every profession and pursuit.
When we’re creatively engaged in life, we’re happily engaged. We’re satisfied. 100% in it, whatever it is. In the zone. Busy being ourselves. And guess what? This is what work in the 21st century will be about, according to thinkers like Daniel Pink in his bestseller, Drive.
Pink makes the case that, as outsourcing and technology continue to replace us in many work arenas, our creative capabilities will become the surest routes to our livelihoods. Rings true to me. How about you?
OK, so where’s the wellness?
As we all know, there are all kinds of adages these days about loving what you do and doing what you love. And for good reason. It makes sense to us that living and working in ways that matter to us will affect the course of our lives.
When that’s the case, our energy, our life force, flows. This is the energetic basis of our physical health. “Energy centers” within and around our bodies spin and connect as needed, rather than clogging from chronic frustration, bleeding out from too many forced yesses, or just flat-lining from freaking boredom. Yikes.
Creative life, meet the chakras
So, to shed more light on creativity and health, we’ll spend some time here on that central realm of all things energetic: the chakra system. We’ll go deep into the happy dance between creativity and wellness, because I say our happiness matters, my dears, and that it’s right here, available for the taking when we take our own creative lives seriously.
And if the chakras are new to you, there’s a nice piece on the main ones here at mindbodygreen.com. But stay with me while I make my creative case.
Because, in my words, as we express ourselves in the world, our chakras—the fields of energy spinning in several areas around and through our bodies—are aided in their healthy flow.
As we express ourselves in the world,
our chakras—the fields of energy
spinning in several areas around and
through our bodies—are aided
in their healthy flow.
So let’s start at the top and move down to the ground of our body/minds.
7th Chakra Health
Through contact with our personal creative fire, we tap into collective creative consciousness. Into universal intelligence. Whoa! Right?
And worry not if this is foreign to you. We don’t have to be 100% into this level of awareness to reap its benefits, as long as we aren’t actively, adamantly closed in our thinking.
So just stay open, intrigued by the mysteries and possible benefits of living your creative life fully. And let’s head down into chakra #6.
6th Chakra Health
Because when your particular creative urges have an honored place in your imagination, you’re fully “at play” in visioning your life. As you dream in sync with your own deep creative needs and visions, your third eye, the deep wisdom source in all of us, is active, open, and vibrating.
In short, as you dare to dream creatively, your body/mind responds in kind. Inspiration is clean fuel, my dears. Now let’s pull it downward toward actionable grounding in our lives.
5th Chakra Health
Toward creativity and health, the next step is for our creative inspirations to take their place in our outer lives, rather than just in the privacy of our imaginations. This takes our acts of will. Our clear intentions and committed follow-through.
Inspiration is clean fuel.
This satisfying way of living takes speaking our truth in life. About who we are. About what we want to contribute.
We don’t have to be the best at it, or famous for it. We just have to risk being ourselves. To act on that. To passionately, actively be, in the world, who we really are.
And not just once a year on summer vacation, but as part of the daily round of our days and nights. Beautiful. And good for us!
4th Chakra Health
Now, to make 4th chakra—heart chakra—health make sense, think of healthy creative expression as love in action. Because through and within our open heart chakras we act in the world as who we really are.
Living as our real selves is a way of giving to life, of connecting to life in ways that allow us to be fed in return. By life itself, and by others all around us.
If this seems daunting, consider that it may mean living simply. And of course our materialistic culture doesn’t exactly encourage that. But so what? Be counter-cultural. Imagine your open-hearted, creative life. Then scale your lifestyle down as needed. There’s power and wisdom here.
In particular, take care that your open-heartedness doesn’t mean giving over your power and agency to others. Our personal radar about what is healthy, real and sustainable for us matters. Balance matters. This is all part of living our truth.
Imagine your open-hearted, creative life.
Then scale down as needed.
This is healthy for the 4th chakra. Healthy for our hearts, that powerful engine of our bodies with its own deep intelligence. How can we keep our 4th chakra spinning happily by living in ways that contribute lovingly to life? It’s a great question worth asking ourselves, one season at a time.
3rd Chakra Health
Next, as we head downward, closer to the ground of our lives, the truth is that living our unique contribution to life requires personal power. It takes consistent output. And it takes regular self-renewal, my dears. We can’t fake this combo, or we end up outa gas.
On the other hand, if we’re living and working in satisfying, healthy, balanced ways, then we’re “coming from core”, as they say in yoga class. This makes what we intend actually possible.
Living our unique contribution to life
takes personal power, including
regular self-renewal.
In short, we have to own both our personal power and our responsibility to take extraordinary care of ourselves. That’s a 3rd chakra gig, my dears. Again, one season at a time. One day at a time. Creativity and health, indeed. And balance in all things.
2nd Chakra Health
Now, as we live our inner creative fire, allowing it to design our outer lives, we access healthy 2nd chakra energy. This is a sense of well-being, abundance, and gratitude. Access to our emotions. Pleasure. Sensuality. Relationship.
This is gut energy. Cojones and ovarios energy. Attraction and satisfaction, with creative self-expression fully at play in our lives.
2nd chakra energy is gut energy,
cojones and ovarios energy.
Emotions. Sensuality. Relationship!
And yes, living this way—or not—definitely affects our love lives. A nagging sense that something is missing in our relationships could be right on the money, with that missing something being… us! Because our creative satisfaction brings fire to any relationship dance we’re doing. Our honesty—our willingness to know, effectively express, and live our truth—does too.
In this way of being, does a particular relationship make the cut? From this level of awareness we can assess what is, including within ourselves, as in who we are being, and take constructive action accordingly, with minimal suffering and drama. We can always move forward. The truth shall indeed set us free.
Speaking of money, it’s a 2nd chakra issue, too. “If you build it they will come” and “do what you love and the money will follow” are both 2nd chakra mantras. Time, faith, and committed, balanced, relaxed action are a healthy 2nd chakra combo.
1st Chakra Health
1st chakra health grounds our body/minds in life.
When we design our lives to support our creative self-expression, including how we live, pay our bills, and nourish ourselves, literally and figuratively, we can truly walk our talk in the world. We’re in healthy relationship to life.
1st chakra health grounds
our body/minds in life.
Yes, the grounded path we deserve to walk wants to be satisfying, rather than a 4-alarm fire. Rather than constant, adrenaline-fueled crisis mode. Try not hurrying. Try trusting the process of flow and change in life. And do the work of getting truly clear on what matters most to you.
Where is your life force headed this season if you cooperate with it? Think and feel your way. This is different from being blown about by the winds of our emotional weather in any particular moment. Take your time. Listen into the quiet signals around and within you. Or at least stay intrigued as to whether they may be there.
So, bottom life, keep on keepin’ on in your creative life.
In the midst of it all, keep those creative juices flowing, including right on out into the real world. Don’t save it for… what? The someday that never comes?
Express yo’self in healthy, satisfying ways, as central to your beautiful life. Not with a flippant, “who cares?” intent, but by being the real you as your unique contribution to life.
After all, the journey is really the destination. Think about that. Then get all those beautiful energy centers of yours humming away as you rock today, tomorrow, next week, always, in the ways that matter the most to you. And reach out for real support on your wildish way.