We can all remember the time, before cell phones and computers, before we had access to polished images and infinite information right at our fingertips.
In my teens, I’d spend hours flipping through my Encyclopedia Britannica, making magazine holders out of old cereal boxes, and creating beaded bracelets for friends.
I am sure that you have also quietly affirmed to yourself that our generation was lucky to be born before computers took over.
We had to use our creativity. We had imaginations that were allowed to run free. We could waste hours and hours building fortresses out of lawn chairs and towels in our backyards
I feel especially lucky to have gone to art school for college.
In high school, I struggled with depression and anxiety. Art class was where I found refuge from my inner demons, and it was a place where I could focus and channel my energy.
After college, I found yoga, and fell in love with the promise of relief from my inner suffering. I went all in with daily practice, deep studies, and teaching full time.
Then, the pandemic happened. Everything went online. Like many of us, I experienced deep burnout.
I could no longer tolerate experiencing everything through a screen. I needed real people, real messes, and space to let my mind wander again.
I made some shifts, and found a job teaching art in public school, while I continued teaching yoga at night.
This brought me back to creating with hands again. As I fell in love with making art again, I started bringing art making into the yoga retreats that I lead.
At first, participants were worried that they wouldn’t “be good at making art”.
But, then slowly, I watched the magic happen. I saw these women slow down.
I witnessed the deep exhale that happens when we allow ourselves to stop being consumers, and start being creators again. I watched these women let go of needing to be polished and perfect, and allowed themselves to enjoy the process of creating something new from scratch.
There is a plethora of research that shows that making any kind of art, whether it is visual art, music, dance, poetry, is transformative and healing. You don’t even need to be good at any of these things to reap the benefits.
Especially these days, as we are bombarded with AI generated images, music and words; creating art is a radical act of remembering our humanity.
Consider the 60,000 year old hand stencils that were found on the walls of a cave in Indonesia. These are the oldest known art works, and they remind me of the deep, and very human impulse to create something.
One of the lessons that I teach my elementary students is how to make art by tracing their hand onto paper. I am always inspired by this simple prompt, and how different each art work ends up when we are finished.
Anytime we are doing something that enlivens our humanity, we are healing something in ourselves and on this planet.
Anytime we are directing our attention with loving awareness, we are transforming our situation in a positive way.
I recently read an article that talks about making art as just another pillar of health that is in the same category as sleep, diet, exercise, and being in nature.
Humans are born to create. We NEED to create. It connects us to the essential dignity that is at the core of every being, and dignity is what the world needs more of these days.
We are living in a time of great upheaval and change. Making art is a way to co-create the future that you want to inhabit. It is a way to ignite your imagination, channel your emotions, and expand your horizons. And, it is fun!
There are many ways to create art, here are a few ideas to spark your inspiration.
- Dance in your kitchen.
- Replace your doom scroll with a sketchbook. Create a sketchbook full of patterns. Start with a shape, a line, or a dot and repeat it until you fill the page. It will change as you repeat. Relax, breathe, and enjoy.
- Write a haiku every morning while drinking your coffee.
- Create a color collage notebook or art work. Go through old magazines, and cut out pieces of images that are all yellow. Glue them to a page. Repeat with different colors. This is a kind of meditation on color, and color is therapeutic.
- Bake a cake and decorate it maximally, enjoy with friends.
- Collect flowers outside (or buy a bouquet), pull the petals off, create a mandala on your floor or table with the different colored petals. Create one for each season, or for celebrating other holidays.
- Trace your hand onto a piece of paper. Add patterns and lines inside and around the design. Write a word in each finger that represents an intention you are carrying at this time.
Marni Sclaroff is a life coach, writer, artist and yoga teacher who brings a lifelong passion for living a creative and purposeful life to people all over the world. With more than 30 years of experience in the holistic, visual and movement arts, and a Master’s Degree in Art Education, she is well-versed in the languages of artistry and transformation. Find her on instagram.
