Get Inspired! Be Inspiring!

Trite but true: A big reason creativity doesn’t flow in our lives is simply that we don’t make time for it. These creativity tips and exercises are meant to light that fire under you at least once a week and get you going so that you: Do it! Just do it!

Every book or article written on creativity tells you that you need to have a space set aside where you can do your creative work. This is important, so I am just going to assume you’ve already done it. But what is far more important is the mental space – the psychic space. Creative inspiration can flow anytime, anywhere. This exercise, along with Exercise Two, are the two techniques that have, in essence, “created” the ten books I’ve had published.

Inspiration – Just a Breath Away

The word “inspiration” comes from the Latin that means “to bring spirit in”, and in this way embodies both creativity and spirituality. It tells us that creative inspiration comes from drawing in the divine. And because “inspiration” also refers to “breathing in”, it creates an image of creative inspiration flowing into our lives as simply and surely as the air we breathe.

In yoga this relationship is found in the word prāna which both to breath and to the all-sustaining life force – a force that is also seen as the creative energy of the universe. If you’ve done much yoga, you probably know that breathing exercises are known as prānāyāma.

The following exercise creates a sacred space where you can tune in to this life force, recognize it as the source of inspiration within your own soul, and allow it to flow into your creative expression. Use this exercise whether you want to be creative or simply find a creative solution to an everyday problem.

Because it begins with the most basic of type of prānāyāma, it is a good introductory exercise for those of you who have never done any type of creative visualization or meditation.

1. Begin by exhaling, gently emptying your lungs of all air, to a slow count of eight.
2. To a count of eight, breathe in deeply – gently filling up the bottom of your lungs first, then the middle, then the top.
3. To do this, allow your muscles to expand, beginning with the muscles around the stomach, then those around your chest and ribs. Allow the air to rise up until it almost feels like it is massaging the base of your throat. This is natural breathing; it is the way a baby breathes. Hold for a count of four.
4. Then exhale. Begin by emptying first the bottom, then the middle, then the top of your lungs by gently contracting the muscles you expanded. Feel yourself become increasingly still, deeply relaxed, and in tune with your inner self.
5. Allow yourself to become increasingly aware that you are breathing in prāna – the radiant life force.
6. Concentrate on this radiance, see it glowing and sparkling within you until you are aware that you are filled with a luminous, resplendent white light. Stay for a while in this space allowing the radiance of the light to intensify.
7. Once you feel yourself filled with this shimmering light, visualize – or just imagine – it flowing upwards. See it moving to your heart, resting there for a moment and intensifying with each heartbeat. Then see it flowing to your shoulders, down your arms, out the hands, into the fingers that are resting on your paper and holding your pen – or into whatever creative tool you chose to have at hand.

Adapted from Chapter One, The Divine Feminine Fire: Creativity and Your Yearning to Express Your Self (Dreamriver Press)