yesterday, as a part of staff wellness month, i gave 2 talks/demonstrations at the health sciences centre in winnipeg. i think it’s fantastic that the staff has this opportunity to explore different wellness modalities and i really enjoyed sharing my work and ideas with some new people. showing creative journaling to someone who hasn’t really seen it before is such an incredible treat for me. it’s like opening up a trap door and showing someone all of this magic and possibility and fun and inviting them to play along.
sharing my work and ideas with new people also helps me to see it in a new perspective. looking at where i’m at, i noticed two things yesterday. first, i went to these presentations with an intention to share what i love about creativity as a tool for wellness and answer any questions they had. back when i first started giving my workshops, going in without a plan written down would have been too scary. it’s great to see how i have grown in that way. i know i would rather hear someone be present and speak from their heart, than read from a piece of paper.
second, i found it really interesting to notice how i am very specific about the words i use in describing what i do. basically i am avoiding a key word – spirituality. at the heart of all of the creativity workshops i do and even at the heart of all of the art i do is my belief that spirituality and creativity are one. in a broader sense my whole life is linked to spirituality but nothing else is a completely and irrevocably tied to spirituality the way creativity is for me.
interesting to notice that i never say that then.
mostly, i do not want anyone to feel like i am telling them what to believe. or that to get any value out of my workshops, you have to believe what i do. for me, life is wide open. each of us is free to believe what feels true for us. i fully respect that and really cherish our differences and uniqueness.
on the flip side of that, last night i started teaching a new class at the centre for conscious living – discovery class. that was a really fantastic experience too but i found that teaching spirituality without the creativity component felt a little bit like something was missing. for me, i cannot separate the two. i know others have something that feels that strongly tied to spirituality for them – maybe being in service, or love, or sex, or nature, or music, anything. if we believe that spirit is everything then maybe whatever we are personally the most drawn to will be where spirit shows up the most strongly for us.
i’d love to hear what you think.
andrea schroeder creates creativity workshops, downloadable creativity kits and guided meditations to support you in knowing and remembering that you are a creative being and you can create anything. you can do it. let’s make some magic.
join in on her free creative journaling workshop now and learn how to use an art journal as a tool for healing, happiness and self-discovery.
