Creativity as a spiritual Practice

 

Lately,  I’ve been starting my morning with Coffee and Morning Pages. I started morning pages about a year in a half ago when I moved. I never made it all the way through. So the past few months I’ve been going through them again. I am taking my time with the exercises and reading in the book. Something Julia Cameron talks about is spirituality as a creative practice. 

I never thought of creativity as being a spiritual practice. As a way to connect with God, universe, source, or whatever you want to call a higher power. Even if you don’t believe in God creativity can be a sacred act of spirituality. 

Often times I will think of being creative as just another thing on the to do list. I look at what I have to get done and then get overwhelmed by it all. I have always looked at journaling as a creative and spiritual practice. But, then I thought about the writing I do with blog as an example. I wondered how can blogging be spiritual? But, then I thought about how most of the posts I come up with where actually born through my journal writing and through my spiritual practices. When I stop trying to over think and the ideas just flow to me if I’m writing in a journal, writing morning pages, chanting or listening to a mantra. 

I also thought about how most of the time I will sit down to write a blog post and even though I have an idea I’ll be staring at a blank page and I have no idea what I’m going to write. When I first started my blog I did a lot of fun posts. I still enjoying doing those kind of posts but lately it has been on my heart to write these kinds of posts. posts that are spiritual based or that will help inspire other people. When I sit down to write a post like this the words just come out onto the page or post. Sometimes I even surprise myself with what I end up writing and it seems bigger then me somehow. 

I’ve learned a lot about myself from doing the morning pages as well as Soul writing. I discovered soul writing a few months ago. Sometimes I’m surprised what I end up writing in my soul writing journal. Or if I have a question and then I find the exact response to my question in a book, movie, TV show, or song. The divine speaks to me through some of my favorite things. I am a big believer in signs  and I don’t believe in coincidences. 

This past week I had a question on my heart and then when I passed by the movie theater I saw a movie title that answered my question. Then I heard two songs right after each other that also answered my question. It’s amazing what can happen when we tune in to all the synchronicity. That is something that Julia Cameron also talks about in The Artists way. When we are constantly going and busy and trying to get things done it can be hard to hear the voice of the divine even when the divine is all around us. 

The other day I started coloring. I forgot how much fun it was and how it brought me back to my childhood. I used to spend hours coloring. So I put on some music and started coloring. Even coloring can be a way to the divine and a spiritual practice. Scrap booking can be a spiritual practice. Art Journaling is a spiritual practice. Picking up the paints. Writing. Poetry. Drawing. Anything creative can be an act that brings us closer to the divine and connects us with our inner self. My new goal is to make writing a daily sacred practice. It might be a writing prompt for 10 minutes, working on a book, or this blog. And allowing myself room for play and fun. At times I don’t allow myself to just be playful and silly but that’s when I’m my happiest and when I feel the closest to the divine.