Anyone with a creative dream knows that the journey does not come without creative blocks and obstacles. I teamed up with two of the most creative and expressive women I know to have a conversation about the unique and wild ways that we connect with our authentic self, move past creative blocks, and embody our most exciting visions.
Three Practices for Creative Self-Expression:
1. Dance as meditation
“Dance meditation and authentic movement are based on listening to the sensations in the body really closely and letting those translate into a movement expression. It’s a lot more focused on what it feels like on the inside of your body and moving with that rather than what it looks like on the outside.”
“Sensing and moving in a dance space can then cross over to when you’re going about your life out in the world. How do you tap into yourself and your intuition and then use that to guide your actions and decisions? I always orient around tuning in to how I’m really feeling inside and then using that to translate that sensation into an action. I view the dance floor as the practice ground for that process of tuning in and expressing out, for all the other areas of our lives where we get to tune in and express out. Everything is a dance.”
– Lauren Pass Erickson, Somatic Therapist
The Following Practice Can Be Done With Music or in Silence:
- Find a comfortable position, and take a few moments to notice the space around you, the position of your body, and your breath.
- Allow your attention to turn toward your body sensations. Choose just one sensation in one part of your body that is standing out to you right now. Spend a few moments just feeling that sensation and imagining your breath flowing into that spot. Don’t try to change the sensation, even if it is uncomfortable, simply allow it to be.
- Now, play with the idea that this sensation is a movement impulse, contained in the body and waiting to be expressed. Ask yourself: how does this sensation want to move?
- Try not to answer this question verbally or cognitively. Let that body part start to move in any way that matches the sensation. Spend a few minutes allowing the sensation to transform into movement, without any judgement or need to understand. You may notice repetitive movements, or movements that keep changing. You may or may not notice the sensation changing. Listen deeply to what is happening in the body and allow it to express freely in movement, shapes, or stillness.
- When you feel complete, come back to a comfortable position and take a few moments to notice your breath, the position of your body, and your space.
Reflect:
- What did you notice in your experience?
- Was it easeful or challenging to notice your sensations?
- What kind of movements emerged?
- How might this inform a decision that you have ahead of you?
2. Exploring a new expressive arts medium
“When I sit down with my clients or to my own practice, I’m inviting myself and others to go inward to figure out what wants to be expressed outwardly. We are all made of this beautiful energy. Our emotions are energy, our thoughts are energy, our movements are energy, and a lot of times when we hold that energy in and we’re not expressing it outwards, that’s when our bodies start to become ill and we start to feel di-ease, uncomfortable, or mental health challenges. What I do is invite people to find their own language of expression.”
– Janis Dochterman, Expressive Arts Therapist
Encourage Creative Energy to Move By Exploring a New “Language”:
- Consider the nature of your creative project, or the area of your life where you feel stuck
- Choose a new creative medium to try that is different from the project/area of your focus. This could be engaging in dance, visual art, music, spoken word, or any other form of expressive arts that you don’t typically engage in.
- Set aside a weekly creative “date” with yourself where you spend about an hour exploring and expressing yourself in this new medium. Don’t worry about your skill level or technique during this time. Focus on curiosity, playfulness, experimentation, and noticing what parts of your want to come out that might feel fresh or different.
Reflect:
- What did you notice in your experiences with this new medium?
- What kind of self-expression emerged, and did it feel familiar or new?
- What changes did you notice in your primary creative project or area of life where you felt stuck?
- How might this new medium and/or your experiences with it inspire creative expression in your primary project or area of focus?
3. Sensual Eating
“Sensual eating is about learning to open you senses, slow down, give gratitude, and be in relationship with what you’re eating as a way to expand your capacity to bring pleasure into your life.”
“Embodiment is key to sensual eating. It all flows from the knowledge of embodiment and how important embodiment is in terms of being in tune with yourself, and then accessing your intuition and creativity. What I teach is tuning in to what your body is telling you about what you want and don’t want.”
– Lindsey Aronson, Sex and Relationships Coach
Choose a Food that You Enjoy for the Following Practice:
- Take some time to connect with your food through your senses. Before you go to take a bite, notice the color and texture, how it looks, smells, and feels.
- Reflect on the source of the food, where it came from, all the causes and conditions that have brought it to you, and cultivate a sense of gratitude and appreciation for this food.
- As you take in this sensory information, notice what you are feeling inside, perhaps hunger, excitement, or desire. Notice the sensations in your body and what desires or impulses you have in relation to the food.
- When you slowly take a bite, notice the taste and texture, how it feels as you chew and swallow, and how your body responds to the experience.
Reflect:
- Was it enjoyable or challenging to slow down the eating experience in this intentional and sensual way?
- To what extent were you able to allow yourself to experience the pleasure and enjoyment of the food?
- How might this experience relate to your ability to engage in pleasurable activities, complete creative projects, and experience joy and satisfaction from your accomplishments?
Bonus Wisdom:
When engaging in a creative project, loosen your grip on what it is “supposed” to look like. Every creation will have a flow of its own. Invite your thinking mind to step out of the way and listen closely to your intuition instead.
When working through blocks around WEWILDE, we realized “This is an intuitive course, we need to let it have it’s own flow and it’s own intuition, and that’s when everything started coming together – Lindsey
Self-care is integral to creative expression. If we are feeling exhausted, over extended, or are letting our energy seep out into things that don’t serve us, we won’t have any juice left for the things that light us up.
“The more we nourish ourselves and bring things in, the more we will be able to tap into that creative flow state. The more we feed ourselves, the more the things outside of us flow.” – Janis
This team of amazing women (along with two others: a vocal coach and a sensual sovereignty mentor) have crafted an 8-week online creative empowerment program for women called
WEWILDE: Women Empowering Women via Intuition, Love, Dance, and Expression.
If you are ready to…
* Feel a deeper connection with your intuition so that you can live a more fulfilling life
* Build more confidence so that you improve the way you show up for yourself and in the world
* Deeply explore your senses so that you feel more connected with your sensuality
* Belong to a group of empowered women so that you feel supported and not alone
* Believe in yourself so that you can live in your creative purpose
…then it’s time for you to join us!
Learn more and apply now at www.wewilde.live
