Creativity Through Yoga
Recently, I came back from 5 days of Creativity Camp with my teachers, Kathlyn and Gay Hendricks. What I most appreciated was all the ways we explored expanding our creativity. Some of the questions we looked at: How do we generate creativity when we’re stuck? What are the signs we’re stuck vs. in creative living? How do we make space for creativity to flow? And one of my favorite take-aways was generating my own daily creativity practice. I thought I would never choose to draw as I’ve never felt very adept at it, but I’ve been journaling again regularly, and wanting to express my experiences through color and images. It’s been so much fun and such a great new mode of discovery for me! The other way I’ve been expanding my creativity almost daily is through dancing. I’m amusing myself with unique ways to move, delightful new patterns and signatures of expression I hadn’t discovered before. I find it super fun and expansive.
All of this is reminding me of why I love teaching yoga. I love to create new poses, innovative sequencing, original themes, different approaches to the same poses, new emphasis in alignment, etc. I got a great compliment last night from a very regular student who’s been coming 2 – 3 times per week for a few years. After I taught about creativity, she said something like: “You know, that’s one reason I love your classes; they’re never the same. You always do things differently. I always learn something new.” I couldn’t have asked for a better compliment! This is exactly why I keep teaching after 20 years. Teaching is a main outlet for my creativity. I keep it interesting for myself and for my regular students. If I didn’t, I’d be too bored to continue and I imagine they’d be too bored to return. I love to mix it up and expand my own possibilities for self expression as well as theirs.
I’m excited to see what comes forth from my new creativity explorations this Fall. I’ve been enjoying playing with different ways to flow within the poses as well as fun new flowing sequences. I’ll be testing some of this out in my Wednesday practice classes at 4:15 p.m. I hope you’ll join me!
