The Creative Life Force

A brilliant friend recently suggested I listen to Madonna's interview with Jay Shetty, which focuses on her relationship with spirituality. I was immediately intrigued. Madonna does not give many interviews, this was her first ever podcast appearance, and she is famously combative with the media. As a child of the 80s, I have followed her career closely and knew of her devotion to yoga and Kabbalah. What I came away with was a deep respect for her integration of spirituality and creativity. She described herself as a vessel and channel for light. "I think when you channel artistic ideas and you have creative visions, it's magic. When you overthink it or you start thinking about how much of that you own, you stop it." She operated with the beautiful belief that she was not the light itself, she was just the manager of the light.

In Ayurvedic terms, creativity can be understood as an expression of prana, or life force. It is the current of life seeking movement through us. When that movement is repeatedly ignored, repressed or overridden, the creative impulse does not disappear. It becomes trapped and frustrated inside of us.

Active engagement with music, writing, movement and visual art has been proven to support emotional regulation, processing and wellbeing. The World Health Organization reviewed more than 3,000 studies and found that the arts play an important role in health promotion and in helping people make meaning of difficult experiences.

Creativity integrates experience, allowing knowledge to become embodied rather than merely understood.

"Knowledge is only a rumor until it lives inside the muscle." (Asaro tribe proverb)

"We move what we're learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands." (Brene Brown, Rising Strong)

Creativity is not reserved for artists. It is one of the ways human beings process being alive. We cook, sing, write, build, decorate, solve problems, cultivate gardens and tell stories because experience needs somewhere to go. When every impulse must justify itself through money, productivity or approval, that current of life is interrupted. In my experience, the unexpressed life does not vanish. It often returns as restlessness, numbness or an appetite for something outside us to make us feel alive again, whether that's another hour of scrolling or another snack we don't need.

I am aware that these newsletters may fall by the wayside, that attention is limited and that long-form writing seems obsolete. But writing these posts is my own creative act. It is the way I channel the things I see and experience through my practice.

On a recent morning walk, my partner said that, as a teacher, he would love to give each of his students the gift of creative expression as a means of survival in this life. I would like to offer you the same invitation: make something that will not earn you money, improve your status or impress anyone. Just make something that gives your life energy somewhere to move.

A ten-minute practice

Set a timer for ten minutes and make something with no purpose: a doodle, a rough melody, a few lines of writing, a small arrangement of objects on a table. Don't show anyone and don't judge it. Rick Rubin suggests creating at a regular time and place, so your mind learns when it's time to switch into a creative mode. Ayurveda calls this rhythm dinacharya, the daily routine. Even ten minutes at the same time each day gives your system a signal to expect it.

As a rough guide, people who run scattered or anxious often find grounding, hands-on activities like cooking, clay or gardening most nourishing. Those who feel heavy or stuck may prefer something that gets them moving, like dancing or singing.

Curious how your own constitution shapes the way you express yourself? Take the Inner Climate Check, a three-minute Ayurvedic self-reading.

Algorithms and the constant pursuit of public validation can pull us away from what it means to be truly alive, unique and conscious. As the Queen of Pop reminds us, "Express yourself!"