What I experience over and over again, in my own life and in the lives of my students, is a struggle to find inner balance in a world that is out of balance. We may think of our internal disarray as something unhealthy but if we look more deeply, we begin to understand that our upset is a valid response to the converging crises of climate change, poverty, hatred and hunger that are laying waste to the lives of so many and the well-being of our planet at this moment in time.
To function in a way that decreases suffering (for ourselves and one another) rather than adding to it, we must find ways to touch the wisdom, peace, compassion and vitality that lie at the heart of our being. One way to access inner balance is through meditation practice. And another, which has received so much less press and attention, is through creative self-expression. There is a magic balancing act that occurs when we actually express through one creative form or another (poetry, writing, improvising, dance, performance, visual art) what haunts the heart. While our outer circumstances might not change, our inner experience of those circumstances is transformed. And yet over and over again, we sublimate our urge to express—to write, draw, dance, sing — because we feel other activities hold more meaning and more possibility for “success.” How wrong we are to repress our natural human tendency for creative expression!
I have launched a new post: Nina’s Wednesday Creativity Tips. Each week via social media platforms, I’ll be offering a self-expressive practice that takes only a few minutes to do. By even spending 3 minutes dancing or singing, drawing or writing a poem, we can achieve a remarkable transformation in our state-of-mind and heart.
Enjoy!