Don't we all love to do something creative?
http://youtu.be/WE4Y7rDvKbc
Christa Gallopoulos is an artist and a healer who believes that creativity is a way of expressing the energy within us. When this creativity is not expressed it gets "stuck" in our bodies and results in dis-ease.
She also blames society for limiting or making us somehow "embarrassed" of our creativity. It seems OK for children to spend hours messing around with crayons and blank paper on the kitchen table but, if you see an adult doing that, you'd think it a bit strange.
How we can exercise our creativity
Creativity in adults seems to be limited to the ultra-talented of our society. We all respect and admire these artists but we couldn't imagine ourselves devoting the effort or time into creativity because we don't consider ourselves good enough.
"Nonsense!", would be Christa's response to this. Don't worry about talent or whether you've got the right brushes or quality paper to sketch on. Everybody is walking around with a creative device on their person. The smart phone!
Christa advocates taking an image everyday. This small habit, that wouldn't take any more than a minute everyday, would put some much-needed creativity into our lives.
In order to take a picture we have to decide on the subject, frame it and click at the opportune moment. All of these decisions are exercising our free will and creativity.
As soon as I heard this idea I realised it's potential benefits and I have made sure I've taken a photograph everyday since. Of course, I couldn't help Photoshopping them a little bit as well...
Of course, it does help that the sun's been shining in London. Christa also advocates taking portraits of your beautiful self.
However, exercising creativity is just a part of what Christa Gallopoulos is about.
If Christa is about anything, she'll be about this...
"To help people feel welcome in the world"
I couldn't think of a much better aim in life personally. One of ways we can feel "at one" with the world is meditation. Christa advocates meditation to bring us back to ourselves. She also cautions that introducing people to meditation can be challenging as people may believe it something reserved for monks living a lifetime of privation.
That's not true, of course, but we can encourage people towards guided or walking meditations which can have extremely beneficial. For example, Christa shared with us this walking meditation:
For one minute a day (a similarly small time-expense as the photo-taking exercise) whilst walking from the car park to your job, for example, instead of thinking about work, say these words to yourself within the rhythm of your walk:
I am so blessed
I am such a blessing to the world
I'm extremely grateful to Christa for giving us these two extremely helpful "habits" as well as all the other gems she shared with us in the interview.
Both the photo-taking activity as well as the walking meditation if exercised everyday will make a beneficial difference to our lives. I have no doubt of this.
Christa can be found at CarryItForward.com and WomenHeal.org. And can be soon found at ensoulmagic.com.
Christa also mentioned these two luminaries that have helped her on her journey.
Martha Beck
Jonathan Faust
You can do it
You can use creativity and meditation (or, ever, creative meditation) to increase well-being and happiness in your life. Have a listen to the interview and see if you can adopt any of Christa's great ideas. Or can you come up with ideas yourself to bring creativity and light into your life? Let us know what you think in the comments.