Getting Creative with Tough Situations

Sometimes things feel hard. With our families, our work, our health - whatever it is. And being with the truth of it, is that it is hard. We have our feelings. We have fear, disappointment, foreboding, shame. That is what it is, and it's important that we feel, and hopefully we learn what we can from it, too.

But what can be created from the emotion, from the learning, from the change in perspective, given what's happening? While some things may be being destroyed, the opportunity is in what can be created next.

Change can be uncomfortable, but it can also awaken us to broader realities, because we're not entrenched in a track, which can sometimes become a version of complacency.

In the Hindu pantheon, we can look to the cosmic functions of what's referred to as the trimurti, who is: Brahma (the creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Shiva (the destroyer). Each of these roles serves an important function, and they are all necessary for growth, and ultimately liberation.

Within each relationship, each project, each growth cycle, we can see these functions emerge, sometimes as a matter of necessity, and sometimes as a result of chance and dumb luck. But they emerge nonetheless.

What I like about creativity, is the hope it can bring to a situation. It's a way for us to actively participate as co-creators of our communities, our families, and our world. When we accept our responsibility for what we can indeed influence, it makes us feel less helpless and fatalistic. It helps us know that we have self-efficacy. What we do (or don't do) makes a difference. (And it always has.)

So, what can you create today, that helps give your life meaning? What insight can you take from a difficult situation, and treat it like a gift of clarity and inspiration, to reduce the suffering of others, or create a little beauty in the world?

Our topic of the month for July is creativity. And we hope that you make something from each day that makes your world (and therefore the whole world) incrementally better.

Sign up for a class from our livestream or on-demand collection, a sampling which will be available for free, to the public for the first two weeks of July!

Share with a friend who could use the structure of supported movement at home!

At Unfold, we make movement accessible - for busy people, for stiff people, for active people, for people with injuries and chronic pain, for people who have trouble finding motivation to move, and everyone in-between!