Creating Space to Create...And All That Jazz!

For the past 6 months or so, Thursday has been my creative day. After quitting my full-time job to focus on all things yoga, I worked on honing my teaching schedule for a number of months until I had at least 2 days off per week--1 for relaxation and getting chores done (Sunday), and 1 for creativity--or more specifically, for painting. It's been wonderful to have a day marked off in my schedule to focus on this passion, and today I'm excited to get back to it after a 3-week traveling & moving hiatus (!).

Sure, it's been difficult to justify paying for my painting studio for basically 4-5 days of use per month (and sometimes, on busy months like June & July, only 1-2 days of use--eek!), but it is 100% worth it to know that whenever I want to paint, the space is there for me. Since I've seen how important having this carved out time for creativity has been in my own life, I want to encourage YOU to do the same. Your creativity doesn't have to be of the "fine arts" variety like painting, although it can be. But maybe it's cooking or baking. Maybe it's gardening, writing (or blogging!), collaging, scrapbooking, beading, journaling, or decorating. If you feel that you don't have a place to start, and are lacking a creative activity in your life, take a dance or pottery class, which will assure that your creative time is scheduled into your week. I believe that it's SO important to work both sides of the brain, and many of us are missing out on exercising the right, more creative, side of the brain (and then there are some of us, *ahem,* who tend to live in the right side and need to do a bit more left-brained activities...).

My challenge to you? Take a look at your schedule and see how creativity fits into it. Are you making time to create--whatever "creating" may be for you? If not, make a mid-year resolution to incorporate time for creativity into your schedule. Write it into your planner and stick to it. Don't, I repeat, DON'T schedule other things during this time (I've learned this the hard way!). Save it and savor it.  I think you'll be surprised what you come up with.

And with that, I'm off to enjoy my day of creativity! I'll share my recent painting progress once I've actually made some...

Namaste,
Mary Catherine