Feel the power of creativity: learn to express yourself

Yoga and creativity both involve expressing and exploring the body, mind, and spirit. They both rely on the mental processes of open-mindedness, awareness, concentration, and introspection.

Creating can be restorative, expressive, a place of personal autonomy, a conduit for self-awareness, and a source of meaning and purpose.

Human beings are inherently creative. Studies show that making art or engaging in other creative practices is associated with reduced stress, improved mood, and greater overall well-being. Whether you play music, throw pottery, write stories, arrange flowers, or sew fabulous outfits, tapping into your creativity generates good feelings. And you don’t have to be totally skilled so long as you enjoy the process.

Seek something soothing

The meditative quality of many creative tasks such as repetitive stitching while knitting, chopping ingredients for a recipe, or sanding wood for a carpentry project inherently soothes the brain and body can be emotionally satisfying.

Yoga helps you do what you love

Practicing yoga, we gradually build more awareness about our own creativity. We can move toward doing more of what we love. Yoga and meditation help focus the mind. With a more focused, calm mind, we can move more directly toward what we really want, toward the deep yearning of the soul, kind of like the tunnel opening at the end of the ultimate wave.

Yoga and creativity are both about expansion and stretch. Courage in the creative process takes us past the edge of our limitations. Beyond that edge are possibilities we reach only when we trust in our ability to expand and be unattached to the results. Breathe in a feeling of courage, breathe out and move past your perceived limits. In yoga, the breath-in lifts us, when we exhale we extend into a new territory.