all is creative: body and mind.

Body and mind are deeply intertwined. today i’m going to focus on the body, and how taking care of the body can aid in care of the mind. treating our bodies well often leads to greatly improved and inspired creativity.

society living modern life in big cities has tendencies to either spend a vast majority of their time sitting with poor posture in chairs, or overworking hardcore at manual labor (of course there are some born to it and who feel no adverse affects whatsoever from doing these things.) whether we chalk it up to class divisions or twisted ambitions, statistically its not common to find someone breaking the mold.

in my life, i’ve done both. i’ve sat around at home or an office, slouched in a chair over a keyboard, coding away or making art and then switching to email + video games until i’m weak and lethargic. i’ve also had jobs in warehouses working 12-16hr days lifting stuff until my body rebelled in injury and sickness. both experiences were interesting, and i can’t say they’re highly recommended, but i did learn a lot from them.

i learned that a proper balance of activity, whatever it may be and whatever you’re able to get into, can make a tremendous difference in one’s creativity, one’s passion for life.

there are all sorts of excuses bandied about (always wanted to use that phrase in an article,) why one can’t exercise. “there’s not enough time; i’m too busy.“, “i don’t have the energy / i’m just not fit enough“, “it costs too much money“, etc. and these are easy enough to shoot through. i’ll simply say, if you catch yourself using them, it could be the truth, or it could possibly be a sign to really look into whatever fear’s holding you back from getting more exercise in your life.

anyway, i’m going to share a bit about my exercise endeavors. this summer, i played sports every weekend, and made the decision that if teams didn’t show or people wouldn’t commit, that i would just go for a walk or toss a frisbee. i did, it was great. since then i’ve really ramped up my martial arts training with my brother, drew, and its incredible. i’ve never felt so in tune with my body, so powerful, so alive, and filled with energy everyday. in winter i choose to walk and bus to all sorts of places and rarely if ever let the snow or whether stop me. i gear up and invest in proper clothes for it and then i trudge through the snow drifts and balance on the ice and feed myself extra fuel to stay warm as my body burns calories.

this activity and exercise can really help balance hormone levels and get the metabolism purifying and detoxifying, among other things, and once your levels are balanced the energy and motivation come naturally.

perhaps you’ve heard of the idea that choosing to do a tiny bit of exercise feels amazing and energizing and that one will tend to feel like doing more. that initial choice, that sponsoring thought “i’m going to take a step and do something active”, like many things in life, leads to a cycle of more and ‘easier’ exercise. the opposite is an easy pattern to spot as well. if the initial choice is “i’m tired, or too unfit to do anything” then the lethargy only exacerbates and eventually turns into depression or some other form of negativity.

personally, i am grateful to have quite a bit of knowledge on nutrition, training, motivation, and i love a broad range of physical activity, but not everyone is at a similar level. fortunately, the world is filled with an abundance of things one can do to be active that cater to each of us, from simply going for a walk, to trampolining, to bodybuilding.

different types of people enjoy different types of things and here are some suggestions for certain tendencies:

“i prefer something carefree”
-dancing (there’s all kinds! from ballroom, to salsa, to exotic)
-playing, at a beach or park (playing of any kind really, in fact, turning any exercise into a game can work wonders for many people)
-active gibberish meditation
-shopping/browsing stores
-yoga
-’soft’ martial arts

“i prefer a goal or purpose”
-sports (soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, cricket, etc.)
-rock climbing a certain difficulty or height
-swimming a certain number of laps
-walking the dog

“i prefer socialization with my activity”
-team sports
-partner-training (sparring, fencing, racket sports)
-dancing

“i prefer to be alone”
-walks in solitude, parks and remote areas
-body weight exercises
-swimming laps
-running, cycling

“i prefer efficiency in my exercise”
-high intensity, deep breathing, high rep compound lifts (squats/deadlifts)
-’hard’ martial arts sparring drills
-sex (seriously…)

if you’re unsure of which style suits you best, you can either ask yourself if you belong to the above groups (ie: do i prefer socialization with my exercise or does it not matter too much?) or you can look at it a different way, through the lens of yin and yang.

exercises, like practically everything, can be labeled as yin and yang. the ’softer’ exercises like yoga, pilates, dance, nature walks, shopping… tend to fall into the yin category. the ‘harder’ one’s such as heavy lifts, sparring, and most team sports are ‘yang.’

copyright selly ramlie

the concept here is to engage in an exercise that heightens, lessens or balances the energy you generally wish to animate at the moment.

so for example, if you wanted more masculine drive, ambition, and confidence… you would engage in yang exercise, and if you desired to increase or deepen your feminine intuition, emotions, and ability to flow in life, you’d participate in yin activities. its just another way to look at it, most people are generally able to figure out what they enjoy most.

the long and short of it is:

often times in our lives we may find ourselves bored or listless or unmotivated or lost, completely lacking in creativity, and sometimes when this is the case, the way to change it, is through our bodies.

if you truly make the choice to do it, small steps are often required to make the desire a reality, such as making a handful of minutes in your schedule or investing in a bit of equipment, league, or class.

it would do to keep in mind that, although this body-awareness and caring for one’s body through activity can have a powerful end result of more passion, drive, and creativity — one can even be creative in one’s application of exercise.

for example, when i am opening a jar i practice channeling chi energy, martial arts style from the ground, through my limbs, and into the torque for the lid. (yes, it’s hilarious thing to describe out loud ) or when i am involved in a long subway ride or commute, i’ll practice maintaining my balance hands-free, using the soft-martial arts techniques that can be involved in feeling-out the vehicle as the train moves and shudders. when i am going for a walk, sometimes i’ll bring a frisbee and toss it ahead of me on my path, then i walk along, and when i reach it, i toss it again. its a little more involved than *just a walk* — there are just three simple ways to get a little more exercise in things i do.

so hopefully this encourages some of you to take a bit of time and energy to get some exercise, and end up far more creative and productive and with more time and energy than initially thought.

Related Posts

1. All Is Creative: Opportunity Knocks, Over and Over and Over.
2. Yin, Yang and all that Jazz

Tags: body, creativity, exercise, mind, yang, yin