The force for being more creative is already within you.

Creativity is not found outside of the Self. It’s within you.

Creativity is energy: it’s a force that resides inside of each of us. How we express that creativity is the usual topic of conversation. I want to focus today on how we nurture and cultivate this energy.

Creativity is what I love to teach to help people discover just how much they are capable of. As a teacher, I lead creativity workshops, run an online writers’ group (called The Literati Writers) and teach yoga classes locally and abroad.

I didn’t plan it this way, but it turns out that I’ve found a really special connection between writing, creativity, self-expression and yoga. That might seem like a stretch (yoga pun!), but really, yoga is a way of expressing yourself in breath and body movement — I always tell students that how they express themselves in their practices is no different than any other expression. The space of their yoga mats is their blank canvas.

From yoga to writing, everything that I teach has a common goal: to help students feel more creative, expressive and confident.

And the reason why I want to help people feel more creative in their lives is because, to me, creativity represents many positive qualities and aspirations for a life lived well.

Think about it:

Being “creative” means being innovative and inspired; fluid, not rigid. When we’re creative it means we’re able to adapt, adopt and think on our toes.

If you’re creative, you’re resourceful. You can make plenty out of less. And, self-trust comes from a creative life: creativity provides us with a source to adapt on the fly, evolve when need be, and make wrongs into right. When you’re creative, you don’t need to have all the answers — you can admit that you don’t. And, you can trust yourself enough to find your way. Maybe best of all, when you’re creative, you feel free. You feel unencumbered… or outright unstoppable.

Creativity is like water: it can take any shape, and never be stopped.

Creativity is a gateway into living fluidly, being adaptive and responsive, and especially feeling free.

We can overcome when we’re creative. Problem-solve and transcend petty problems, stubbed toes, or outright suffering. When we’re creative, we become malleable, ourselves. Our inner spirits show their nature: unbroken, unbreakable, and thus never ending.

To be more creative is to journey closer to an embodiment of God, Spirit, the Cosmos — our divine, stardust nature.

And that is the underlying magic of creativity.

It is a vessel — a gateway, a path — into awakening the Self.

When I began to explore yoga as a physical practice over four years ago, I began to realize that yoga was also teaching me about my writing.

As I got deeper into yoga, the movement was becoming my form of meditation: a deliberate practice in “showing up” and honoring the core desires, values and ideals I believed in… no matter what resulted on my mat.

It dawned on me that, however I showed up to my mat and engaged in the practice of yoga would reveal a lot about how I showed up to my creative practices of writing, and creative self-expression.

Now, we’re all geared to work towards outcomes. I’m no different. It only makes sense: “Deliberate before you act to assess if the action is worth the effort.”

But yoga and writing have taught me that the real value of a practice is not always the product or a tangible result.

In fact, the most important aspect of practices like these are the origin of the action:

Choosing. Honoring. Exploring. Confronting. Trying. Being present. Giving yourself to your desires. Acknowledging the soul-code and, witnessing ourselves through the lens of the action.

Yoga is not “about” the asanas. We use asanas to do our real yoga — the inner yoga.

Writing is not about books, essays or blog posts — we use those outcomes to do the inner work.

The most vital lessons in these practices — practices that function as personal teachers, and spiritual growth catalysts — are what we learn about ourselves through them.

I say all this to say, creativity is within you.

It’s your nature. It’s not just who you are, but what you are.

You are creative at your core.

To be human is to be creative. You can’t escape it, even if you try.

We’re creative by our nature. Creativity is in our bones and blood. We create every day, whether we mean to or not. Our bodies pull oxygen into our lungs and make magic from a cosmic recipe we never agreed on. We create skin cells and blood without trying. Our bodies change by the minute. We age.

And, out in the world, we create all the time, too.

We create smiles and laughter, hugs and tears. We create connections and adventures; stories and epic myths. We make babies and build stone walls. We plant trees, prune flowers, paint houses and design flying machines. We boil water and make tea. We hold hands. We give, we share, and we create much from that.

Which is great news! Because it means creativity is not something to be found outside of ourselves. Creativity resides within. And the journey to cultivate creativity — creative energy, and the capacities to express it — is a just that, a journey within.

We’re all equally capable of being creative and feeling creative because we’re fundamentally creative at the essence of our being.

Awakening the Self is awakening to the God of your choosing: the pervasive, ever present energetic force that is everything, everywhere.

So being creative is another way into being faith-full.

Creativity is the fundamental ability to be human, and remember all that you are.
@DaveUrsillo (Click to Tweet!)

Dave Ursillo is professional writer, 11-time author and yoga teacher who helps people use their words to live their best lives. He works with self-starters, conscientious creatives and “everyday yogis” both online and offline, from running an online writers group (LiteratiWriters.com) to leading storytelling and creativity workshops, hosting destination retreats and teaching weekly yoga classes in his home state of Rhode Island. He has been seen in CBS News Sunday Morning, Inc.com, Forbes, Psychology Today and Chicken Soup for the Soul. Find Dave and read his free weekly blog posts at DaveUrsillo.com. 

Image courtesy of Tom Eversley.