3 Week Creativity Challenge: Get Inspired (Part 1)

We can waste a lot of time waiting for inspiration, hiding behind indecision, and unable to get started. Some people say inspiration is mysterious, it comes and goes, and you can’t tell what it’s going to do.  As a coach, I find that’s not true. A simple conversation can get my writers sparked again. Plus, you don’t have to talk to me to do this. You can do it for yourself.

Usually all we need to do is move back into that playful and excited creative mind, and we get more work done. When we take ourselves less seriously, that’s when our juiciest work comes out. As Albert Einstein says, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

That’s why, during the next three weeks, I want to experiment with the chakras. You may never have tried playing with your chakras, maybe you’ve never even heard of them. Don’t worry, that will make it more fun.

The chakras are powerful vortices that sew your soul into your body. Six of them run from the base of your spine up to your brain, and the seventh sits on top of your head like a halo. You can really feel them when shivers run through your body.

Your halo is your crown chakra, and it’s where inspiration spins down into your system. When your crown chakra is cleared and open, new ideas can pour into your imagination. Try and place your attention on that halo on your head. You might feel a subtle warmth or tingling.

As you're feeling around for your chakras, you might think, “that’s just my imagination.” Great. Your imagination tells you when you’re in love, when you’re in danger, and it even tells you what you need to write. If you take nothing else away from this experience, remember, it’s never “just” your imagination. Trust your imagination!

In fact, our chakras are like our spiritual lungs, we don’t realize it, but we use them all the time. Yet, when we bring more awareness to them, we can keep them healthy and use them more purposefully. Just like conscious breathing.

You know your crown chakra is open when you’re not taking yourself too seriously. You let go of judgment or attachment to any one idea and let anything and everything flow onto the page. You might take an idea you were skeptical about and let it flow. Put on some music to lighten the mood.

Feel good and get started:

Jot down all the ideas that enter your imagination. What could you possibly write a book about? Work that Chakra! Do a brain dump here.

Now, intuitively feel which ideas have more momentum. Which idea has been repeating itself in your imagination? Which idea is the yummiest? Which idea would be most transformational for your life? What do you want from your life? What are your greatest dreams?

Now we’re starting to move this inspiration down from the crown chakra down to the third eye. This is where we create the vision. Keep feeling into your favorite idea and next week we’ll take that ephemeral inspiration and transform it into something powerful.