Artistry of Life: Reflections on Yoga and Play with another Semester Starting
The late poet, Mary Oliver says in “Wild Geese”:
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
In yoga Sunday morning, my teacher, Matt, used the phrase the “Artistry of Life,” I can’t recall exactly his context because I was trying to hold all my shit together while breathing, as typical. But little nuggets seep in and stick. This phrase felt like an exclamation mark for my own work and life. And I am learning to recognize the synchronicity in life that offer me chances to reflect and connect concepts and ideas in ways I hadn’t previously done.
He talked about the blending of energies from Shiva and Shakti, which (in my understanding of Hindu and yogic philosophy) are the union of consciousness and life force, respectively. I see so much of my life as having been overly full of Shiva – masculine tendencies of drive, go-go, push/pull, do, tasks – and less of Shakti – the feminine is the creator or life force kind of energy. Shakti and creative energies feel like giving into what Mary Oliver called the “soft animal of your body” and inviting it to “love what it loves.”
From these experiences over the last few months, I am a 100% convert to the understanding that creativity in any and all of its many iterations are necessary components for a whole life worth living and loving - for the Artistry of Life. One of the many pieces I learned from doing the 12 weeks in Julia Camerons’ Artist’s Way book is that Play is a component to releasing and inviting in creativity.
In my work in US higher education, I feel there is a real disdain for the creative, especially play. Instead so much focus is put on the action of doing more. So it has often been in my life outside of work that I am have nurtured creativity/play and yoga for is one of the tools. Actually, lately, my yoga practice has become a space of delicious creativity and play.
It most certainly has not always been that way. Previously yoga for me has been exercise, strength, forcing into poses, competition with myself, comparison to others, you name it, all the shadows of ego have been present. In my shift to creative energies, my yoga practice has transformed in such beauty that it has naturally brought with it great strength, deeper poses, and presence in life. I find myself unconsciously smiling, laughing, sighing in practice.
All of this overlaps with how I think of creativity and the importance of living a playful, creative life in my personal realms and work. I have very intentionally worked in two areas since last fall semester and see now the benefits I could have never predicted:
1) Creating a new paradigm of teaching in graduate education by incorporating mindful and intentional experiential practices including art, nature walks, reflection, and community into the classroom and coursework. My students responded by contributing passion, music, soul, and love – I hold so much love and appreciation for them all for their trust and willingness to be authentic together.
2) Creating space and practices in my own days and self-work through nature, play/exercise, art, and music. My soul responded by opening up space to love my life and others in ways previously unimaginable.
This is my public declaration of committing to another semester of intentional nurturing creativity in my life and in my work with others - my graduate students, friend, and life coaching clients - all of you wonderful people.
With a new semester starting today, Sunday’s yoga practice offered me a chance to evaluate what is driving my life as I start back to the routine of work:
· Is it productivity, myths of success and achievement, performing more and more?
· Is it a nourishing approach to centering creativity with inspiration, vision, values, and holistic decisions?
· Is it giving “the soft animal of my body” more of what it loves?
· Is Play intentionally or organically invited into my day?
I have lived a decade plus in the productivity go-go and I want to live the rest of my days in the latter of creativity because I know if I choose that then the outcomes will happen.
I invite you to reflect on how you will create space in your daily routines that makes space for an Artistry of Life.
What are the things that the softest part of your being LOVES and craves?
Give in to that space to find your creative endeavors that will nourish you and inspire you then, and only then, do you put them to task to make your mark on those around you.
If you’re not sure where to start, here are some of my favorite suggestions for play:
· Spend more time in nature, just being there, without headphones or activities
· Take a walk
· Find a nourishing yoga class or other physical embodiment practice
· Meditate or sit in silence
· Be with a loved one, with eye contact and/or just touch
· Food made with love or a perfectly ripe avocado eaten out of its skin, just sayin’
· Reading uninterrupted
· Music - listening, playing, singing, dancing
· Painting, pottery, anything
· Hot bath with something that smells good
· The possibilities are endless