Making Your Creative Practice a Spiritual Practice is the Path through any Block

Have you ever been challenged by a glut of emotion that stopped you from writing your book? This could come in a variety of forms: anxiety, sadness, insecurity, or a bomb of self-criticism. And it seems that right on the other side of this emotional wall there is the dream of that book. You just have to get to the other side.

Here’s the thing that most people know intuitively, but not just anybody can explain: When you create something to be put out into the world, it heals you. As a writing coach, this is a pattern I see over and over again, and as I’ve recently been wrapping up another book. The final chapters aren’t easy. There’s often a struggle to follow through, but when you marry creativity with spirituality there’s always a path forward.

Take yoga. The word yoga means union or yoke, it’s a practice that ties the realm of the spirit to the material world.  We humans swing both ways, manifesting energy into matter, and liberating matter into energy, and we don’t have to be “enlightened” to do it. We’re always participating in this process, consciously or unconsciously. The more we go up and down the chakras in this yogic path, the better we get at sewing the two worlds together. It’s how we make dreams (energy) reality (matter).

When we practice the path of liberation up the chakras we start to see that life as a dream. Some use the word “illusion.” I like to think of things a little differently. Not as illusions but imaginings, a spectacular creative gift that’s always becoming more and more interesting. The Latin root of image means “to copy,” the Latin root of illusion means “to mock.” Which would you rather be, God’s reflection or God’s joke?

I like to think we are God’s imaginings. When you face an array of mirrors at one another and step into the center you see an infinite labyrinth of images reflecting the same core. When we can find or feel our way back to that core from which everything else emanates we’re less likely to get lost in the labyrinth of images, where we feel insignificant and disconnected. It’s the only truly humane solution to any problem because in that core we find the birth of love.

That birth, that care to exist, is the underlying structure of all creation. The abundant creativity and careful ingenuity of a forest, an artist or a scientist all start there, as does the connection between a parent and a child. It’s what makes music beautiful. It’s what makes catharsis a profound experience and not a meaningless one. All of these paths drive us deeper into ourselves, move us past the superficial dead layers and remind of us of our center.

In the words of Islamic, Christian and Jewish teachings we are created in the image of God. We feel, we see, we understand and we make things out of all that. We have that gift.  By reading the stories of other lives, imaginary or real, we sink more deeply into the experience of our own. When we engage in meaningful projects with all our heart, we are the created trying to understand what it’s like to be the creator.