Spark creativity
For a long time now I have associated November with being creative. For the past ten years, on and off in my life, I’ve been taking part in Nanowrimo - national novel writing month - which represents a time when I can put other things on the back burner to knuckle down and try to meet Nanowrimo’s challenge of writing a 50k word novel in a month.
Nanowrimo isn’t just about the end goal of writing a novel - it’s a challenge to encourage people who love to write to put aside all roadblocks and go with the flow. The idea being to write as you can, not get caught up in editing or fact finding or other distractions that can hamper the creative process. They can come later - but in November, for one month only, writers can open their keyboards and type whatever flows through them onto the page.
It’s a process that brings to mind the second chakra in yoga, the sacral chakra, known in Sanskrit as Svadhisthana, where our creativity sits. This is the area that encourages us to go with the flow and unblock anything in our systems or worlds that are causing us to stall or stop. As the second chakra it comes after we have grounded through the root chakra. Knowing that we are grounded and have something anchoring us can allow us to explore and find adventure, and perhaps move away from some of the rigidity that can come if we overly focus on our root chakra. Using the energy of the sacral chakra can help us to relax a little and be adaptable. It can help us be open to change and see change as a constant, as something to pique our interest and get us excited rather than something to be nervous about. It invites us to go into the unknown and live in the moment; that little spark that we get when we’re being creative and trying something new.
When I first learned about this chakra it was one I initially struggled to work with. As someone who likes plans and planning I was very comfortable in the root chakra space, being grounded, being stable and feeling rooted. The fact that I think of November as my month for creating because there’s a set process to do so shows how regimented my version of the sacral chakra was - I was creating order to create creativity. To just create - that requires a little leap of faith. I needed to use Nanowrimo as a jumping off board into a pool of creating rather than just an event in its own right as my sole outlet for creation.
The element that is associated with the sacral chakra is water and I love swimming in the sea and paddling in rivers but the thought of swimming in the open depths of the ocean fills me with fear. Water is an element that flows, is fluid, can change its shape and fit any space, which is where it can help us to go with the flow. But water has a power and a mystery that can breed fear. It’s a leap into the unknown. The leap of faith I need to allow my creativity to flow whenever it can rather than when I draw the boundary lines for it to work within is a little like jumping off a boat into the sea and really embracing what it means to let go.
Yoga has been an amazing outlet for nurturing my more creative side. I love coming up with new sequences each week and playing around with different flows. It’s great to also use the things I dip into such as readings, poems and music to inspire my flows and help me to build a story to go with the sequence I have prepared. To help to nourish this I’ll be sharing what I’m reading and what I’m listening to each month, and would love to hear from you any recommendations you may have to help my creativity grow.
This month I’m reading… A God in Every Stone by Kamila Shamsie - a beautifully written novel set in England and India over the period of the first world war and follows the hunt for an archaeological treasure.
This month I’m listening to… Solar Power by Lorde - a gorgeous album that feels as if the sun is shining from every track.
