An idea appears while you’re taking a walk. A melody comes into your mind while you’re making breakfast. A phrase you’ve been carrying for months finally finds its way onto the page.

Sometimes creativity arrives quietly into our lives.

Sometimes it arrives with a sense of urgency, as though something within you is saying, Pay attention. This wants to come through.

St. Hildegard of Bingen offers us a wonderful example of a creative life. Her creativity was woven into her experiences of the Divine and her life. She composed music and created visionary paintings. She wrote extensively about spirituality and healing and shared her teachings with others.

She listened, received, and then gave form to what she experienced. Her music gave sound to something that lived within her. Her writings gave words to her spiritual insights. Her study of plants and the natural world became part of her understanding of healing.

As St. Hildegard discovered in her own life, creativity is essential to our health and well-being. It nourishes and energizes us. As long as we’re creating, we grow, develop, and evolve as human beings.

Creativity often needs space to breathe and live. It begins with being present in the moment, being open and receptive, and paying attention to what comes.

 

 

Today, I want to invite you to create some space for creativity to breathe in your own life. Open your front door and head outside to receive some inspiration. Leave your phone and headphones at home and take a walk. Move slowly and notice what catches your attention.

A particular flower.

A bird’s song.

The shape of a branch.

The sound of wind through the leaves.

A color you’ve never noticed before.

Let yourself linger with whatever draws your attention.

As you linger, maybe an image comes to mind. Perhaps a memory. Maybe a creative idea. Maybe nothing at all.

The practice is just about becoming receptive.

When you return home, follow one small impulse that arose during your walk. If you noticed a particular color, maybe paint with it. If you heard a melody, hum or play it. If a memory surfaced, write the story. If you noticed a plant that fascinated you, learn more about it or draw it.

Allow this experience to become the doorway into your own creativity today, nourishing and energizing you.

 

 

If you are drawn to exploring the connection between creativity and spirituality, my Healing with Hildegard online course offers an opportunity to discover more of St. Hildegard’s wisdom and how it can speak to our lives today. Learn more and register here.