Creative Power & The Art of Losing

Over the past three months, I’ve dropped thirty pounds of excess weight. And the weight continues to drop steadily, at the rate of one or two pounds each week.

This did not happen by dieting (which I don’t believe in) or vigorous exercise (I walk every day, but at a leisurely pace, with no goal except the delight of being outdoors and moving). Instead, I asked my body — which is my soul made flesh, and which has all the powers and capacities of my soul — to take the lead on my healing and health.

It’s been an interesting process, shedding weight without effort, especially since my focus has not been on weight loss, but on delight and well-being.

For the first few weeks after I’d made this agreement with my body, I found myself drawn to very specific foods (mostly Asian cuisine, which makes sense, since I was born and raised in India.) I’ve always eaten healthily — hello, Virgo here! — but the clarity of my body’s responses to specific kinds of food is fascinating.

I also found that, when my body was sated, a single additional bite of food would result in instant nausea. The nausea would dissipate eventually, but it remained a clear if uncomfortable signal — one that my body continued to offer me until I no longer needed such a dramatic reminder that I’d had enough.

Each layer of fat, as it melts, releases layers of memory, undigested feelings, stories, beliefs and past traumas and losses. Each layer also reveals that which is in need of healing and integration, both of which are happening organically — although my lifelong daily practice of energy alchemy and soul integration definitely contributes to the ease with which the process unfolds.

My dreams are more vivid than they’ve been since I was a child. Clarity and prescience are among the gifts I was born with, and that I’ve consciously cultivated for the past sixty-some years. But the patterns and potentialities I see these days are forensic in their detail, a technicolour map of unfolding futures.

In this healing space, I’m giving myself more of what I need — more rest, more play, more tenderness, pleasure, spaciousness, ease and kindness in every aspect of my life.

Releasing layers of undigested experience has also resulted in an upsurge and renewal of creative energy. I’m writing with a light-heartedness and ease that delights and astonishes me.

Creativity is in our DNA. We deny, suppress or redirect it at our peril. To quote the Gospel of Thomas: “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”

Creativity deferred or denied morphs into guilt, shame, rage, depression, anxiety, envy and jealousy, among other things. We are made to create. When we aren’t creating, we feel powerless; and, in our powerlessness, we become destructive — to ourselves and others.

As a woman, I (along with all women) have an additional source of creative energy. Women’s bodies are built to generate, create and sustain new life. While we may not all choose to make babies, we can choose to use our creative power to make art; to transform culture and society; to innovate and craft new solutions to the problems that plague our world; to build lives that are joyful, meaningful; to serve and grow healthy families and communities.

On this sunny Spring morning, I wish you the joy of adventure, and the delight of meeting the call of your soul with the creative power of your embodied presence. Magic happens when you say yes to your creative power, yes to your art. I wish you magic!