In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:1,27
New Moon: fresh start, new goals/intentions, new focus, planting seeds, meditate, visualize (tap into your beautiful, childlike imagination!)
Transit Pisces: water, dreamy, sensitive, intuitive, empathetic, imaginative, inner development, express feelings through creating! (lesson: tendency to get lost in others' feelings, high need for boundary setting in order to focus on your own emotional needs.)
February 23, 2020. Happy New Moon! I'm SO excited to move into this new intention for this lunar cycle. Keeping with the overall theme for the year, Show Yourself, I journaled and meditated a lot on what aspect of myself I want to 'show' this lunar cycle. With Dr. Seuss's Birthday on March 2 and International Women's Day on March 8, I thought CREATIVITY would be the perfect aspect of myself to lean into during this upcoming cycle.
This new moon in particular is the ultimate time to open up to this creativity because our moon is passing through Pisces! This can help us really tap into the dreamy, imaginative, creative side of ourselves.
I believe that we were all made to be creators just as God is. God is so many things--love, compassion, peace, shelter--but I find it interesting that the first thing that is shared about Him in the Bible is that He is creative! The book of Genesis shares with us that we were created in His image and likeness--meaning we, too, are creative beings.
Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.
Dr. Seuss
Dr. Seuss was such a creative spirit, and even he recognized that each person has their own unique way to express their creativity. We can't all be painters, writers, or dancers, but we can all use our own passions and skills to create a life that shows our true selves and helps others.
I have had a hard time with this, especially because of my competitive nature. Social media is a blessing that has incredible capabilities of bringing us all together, but it is also dangerous because it fosters an environment of comparison. I saw so many amazing artists and content creators out there already that I found myself relating my creativity to theirs and ended up putting myself in a box. Multiple boxes to be specific. I love art and hand lettering. I love yoga. I love music. I love dance. I love cooking, baking and nutrition. I love writing. I love reading and storytelling. I love teaching. I love animals. I love nature. I love working with people of all ages and all abilities. This is a super wide range of things to include in one profile, one business, or one community. I thought that by including all of those things, I was limiting myself to a very small, select few who had the same exact interests as me. So, I decided to narrow it down to just a couple of those interests so that I could reach as many people as possible.
I felt so much pressure to find my niche in school and online so that I could pick one path to become more marketable and more employable. Even after I started dabbling in the idea of creating my own path and my own business some day, I continued to tell myself that I had to be more specific in order to get people's attention. For a while, I had an active art account and a separate yoga account. I felt the need to keep them separate because I was afraid that if I shared something non-art related on my art account, I'd lose my followers and if I shared art on my yoga page, I'd lose my social media yogis. Eventually I realized that I was longing to create my own path, but I was still limiting myself by creating based on what I thought others wanted and what I saw was successful on other creators' accounts. I was still not yet creating in a way that showed my true self because I was too afraid that people wouldn't understand, wouldn't relate, or simply wouldn't love.
The enemy of creativity is fear.
Seth Godin
Show Creativity
Today I held my very first kids yoga workshop. I got to the studio not expecting anyone to actually show up because after a few weeks of marketing, we didn't have any sign ups. I was pleasantly surprised when my incredible yogi friend brought her 9 year old daughter! I had prepared for a few 'maybe' kiddos who were definitely much younger than her, so I pretty much improvised the entire time. I was glad I was at least able to stick to my theme of showing creativity and integrate a little more information on the new moon in Pisces. I shared a little bit about the story, the foundation of my inspiration, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. We did a little yoga flow with a lot of space and moon imagery, then started creating our own moon artworks.
It was such an incredible learning experience for me and hopefully for my yogis, too! My favorite part of the whole experience was hearing what she took away from the workshop and how she can apply it to help her everyday struggles and challenges. I'm so excited to see how these workshops grow and how it encourages my own creativity!
My prayer for all of you is that you will take these beginning days of the lunar cycle to really pause and think about what you like to do to show creativity. It doesn't have to be a typical art form like painting or singing! Creativity can look like a teacher's lesson plan, a thoughtful or encouraging message to a friend, or volunteering at a non-profit organization. If you are having trouble thinking of how you currently show creativity, now is the perfect time to implement some new goals and intentions! How can you show creativity? What can you do to work towards incorporating those practices into your life? I pray that you can each tap into that original creative space in your soul, find what you are passionate about and be brave enough to let it shine for all to see.
Namaste,
Keila