Do you remember when you were a child how much time you lived and played with your imagination?  Tapping into your creative powers to create fun games to play with friends, paint and draw pictures, make up fairy-tale stories, and all sorts of amazing things!  Then…somewhere along the way, some big person squelched the juice out of our imagination and scolded us for using our creative powers.

Whether we were told to stop talking to our imaginary friends, paint the blue-bird BLUE instead of purple, or follow the rules instead of making up new ones.  Something, or somebody stepped in and suggested that using our creativity wasn’t such a great idea.  How sad…

Well, I’m here to give you permission to play!  The best thing you can do to improve your health is to unleash the creative genius that’s sleeping inside of you.  Taking positive steps to improve your physical health has to start with a few positive changes with your mental outlook.  And what better way to give your brain a boost, but to turn on your creative juices and play!

If you’ve been sitting on the sidelines of life watching the world go by, and have been thinking, “So-and-so is so talented, I wish I could __________.”  Well YOU CAN!

We all have creative talents, and there are opportunities all day long to let your creativity run and play!

Perhaps you haven’t explored everything that you might enjoy or be good at?  And being good at something is relative!  Enjoying what you do is of the utmost importance!

I like to run, bike, and swim – but I’m slow.   When I was 20 years old and participating in local fun runs, while listening to the times of the winners, I realized that even the 60 and 70 year old age categories were running faster than my 20 year old legs.  I said to myself, “Heck – I’ll never be a winner.”  And you know what happened next?  Yep, I stopped running and participating in race events.  I let myself down, and missed 25 years worth of opportunities to share in the camaraderie and fun of running with a group for moral support.

I’m not sure what the catalyst was for me to get my tennies back on and get out there.  But last year I decided to start trying to run again.  I spent the summer running 2 days a week with a group from a local running store.  I was always the last to finish the workout – but I showed up and kept moving!  The result, I ran (and finished) two ½ marathons in 2011.  And in my first ever triathlon,  placed 3^rd in my age group!  What a confidence booster.  I still always feel like the slowest person out there, but why let  that stop me from having fun!

There are so many places in life we have the opportunity to unleash our creativity. 

• Cooking – ingredients, spices
• Writing
• Drawing / Painting
• Photography / Videos
• Dancing
• Music
• Gardening / Landscaping
• Interior Design
• The Route You Take To Work
• The Exercises For Your Workouts
• The Choices You Make For Investments
• Decisions at Work
• Raising Teenagers
• Party Planning
• Vacation Planning

These are just a few places in your everyday life that using your creativity can strengthen your power, purpose, and passion for life!

You don’t have to be a chef to play in the kitchen or DaVinci to pick up a paintbrush.  And picking out paint or tile to remodel, or even just rearranging the furniture in your living room can be an opportunity to unleash your creative genius.

Think of using creativity as a way to create multiple solutions or resolutions for the problems / challenges that you are dealing with in life.

Here are examples of ways I’ve been playing in my creativity sandbox:

When I am teaching Pilates and helping a client  progress, when we have a desired goal or target exercise that is a challenge, or slightly beyond their current abilities, I unleash my creativity and think up a list of five, ten, or sometimes even 20 different exercises that I know will help improve strength and flexibility to continue moving my client toward the desired goal.  We start playing the exercises from my creativity list – and before long, their body has figured things out and that exercise that was a struggle is executed with ease.

Recently I was diagnosed with a long list of food allergies and had to make some significant changes in my diet.  I could have looked at this as the end of the world, been angry, frustrated, and continued eating things that weren’t supporting my health.  But instead I accepted the challenge to change, put my creativity thinking cap on – and have been coming up with all sorts of interesting concoctions in the kitchen with healthy foods that are good for me.  It is amazing how much better I feel!

Professionally, I love expressing my creativity teaching, and writing about Pilates, Foot Fitness, and Health Improvement.  Personally, I enrolled in an acrylic painting and watercolor class in January.  The last time I seriously enjoyed art…8th grade.  But it’s fun, stress-relieving, creative, and is expanding my horizons for ways to look at the world around me.

• What areas of life can you improve with the power of your creative genius?
• What creative solutions can you come up with to tackle your challenges?

Take back your power, and unleash your imagination.   Enjoy the amazing health benefits using your creativity has to enhance your life!

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Do you need some suggestions to give your creative brain power a boost? 

Post a comment and perhaps we can work together, and enlist the help of other readers to give your creativity thinking cap a jump start for a healthy new perspective.