This summer, just after moving my entire life from Idaho to Vermont, I traveled to Peru with a group of incredible women to learn from the Andean Shamans, descendents of the Inca, and from the Peruvian mountains that hold that sacred lineage. We traveled to the mountain of Salkantay, the mountain of the sacred feminine, where I experienced (not for the first time in my life) the very wild, very powerful and very real presence of the divine feminine.

I have not fully processed everything that I soaked in on the trip and on the side of that mountain, but one of the most potent messages I received came while I was in a stone ruins of an Incan building that once held Pumas. Now it is covered in lichen and air plants and open to the sky.

The message was this:

Stay close to the Earth. Receive her protection, power, love, grace and wildness. Sense her support and remain open to receiving all of the nourishment she is offering to you. Stay connected to her breath, to her pulsation. Align with her rhythm. Recognize that you are a part of her, a part of nature.

Over the past few months, I’ve continued to mill over what this message means for me, my work and my life. I’ve painted, journaled and done ceremonial work on this land I’ve moved to in Vermont, land that was once my grandfather’s dairy farm and now belongs to my husband and I. I’m learning from plants about their sacred medicine and connecting to the mountains, rivers and spirits of the land that makes up my new home.  

In creating this new collection of work, I wanted to investigate the qualities of nature that I awakened to in Peru and then began to observe more clearly once I arrived home, qualities that exist both in the world around us, as well as within.

The elements, tangible to the senses, help us to experience nature and the experience of being on this earth and in this body. In these pieces, I wanted to explore what it felt like to embody the elements of nature. How do they feel as energy moving in my body? What colors do they evoke? What marks and symbols do the represent to me?

THESE PAINTINGS ARE AN EXPLORATION INTO EMBODYING THE ELEMENTS.

I wanted to cultivate the groundedness of earth through earthy colors, to initiate the flow of water through drips and spray of paint, to dance with the passion of fire and explore yoga poses that build heat, to play with movement, marks and the rhythm of my breath as I worked on the air paintings, to find contrast and space by adding white and light to dark corners of the Akasha series of paintings.

Each piece arrived with daily inspiration from the elements around me---the summer heat, and the sweet relief of splashing in the cool flowing river, rainy days with droplets splashing down the window, wind scattering my brushes and papers everywhere, the solid green earth beneth my feet and the nourishment of my summer garden and the abundance from the plants all around me. The rising atmosphere that held space between me and the mountain that rises above my work space.

Moving to this land and experiencing daily that reminder to stay close to the earth by awakening my senses to the elements around me inspired this series of paintings.

Sitting near a river that runs through the land, listening to the sound of water moving over rocks, as the breath of the breeze gently floats my hair around my face. A curl of smoke rises from the burning palo santo smudge stick I just lit. My body feels the solid support of the earth and stones beneath me. My breath rises and falls as shafts of sunlight fill my senses with a lightness of being, the space around me is buoyed with the buzzing, thriving aliveness of spirit.

This is a momentary carved-out-of time experience with the elements.

Each moment, they invite us to engage with the world around us. They ask us what we want to transform, what we want to burn away, what we need to do to feel nourished, supported. In what ways are we being called to step into the flow and flush of life moving us? Where do we need inspiration, a fresh breath of air to push out stagnation? Where do we feel light and spacious and how do we expand into that spaciousness?

These are the questions the elements ask us. These are the ways that we can learn to work with and cultivate the qualities of the elements that we want to embody.  

I use a lot of tools when I paint. Brushes, canvases, paints and palettes. But my absolute favorite tool in my painting tool bag is my intuition.

Painting is a great place to practice playing with intuition. When I begin to paint, I am constantly asking myself questions, like “what does my composition want to look like? What colors need to be used?” The answers to those questions naturally arise from an intuitive place. The more and more that I engage with the painting process, the more easily and quickly the answers arrive.

In one of my newest pieces, I wanted to create a strong, bold piece that addressed the theme of rising up from the strength within, from that place of steadiness within your center. I’ve been thinking a lot about how to access that in my own life, so I wanted to create a piece that explored this idea.

The pose that helps me embody the feeling of rising up out of my own strength is tree pose, where you are both rooted and at the same time expanding out. As I started to draw it, I discovered that a more close up version of the pose was asking to come out of the painting.

I also felt that the piece needed to have a mudra, a hand position, with one hand at the heart to represent the idea that that the strength comes from the heart, from the center and the other hand, reaching up and out.

This was the kind of information that started coming up as I was working on this piece. My intuitive voice spoke to me as I worked, guiding me through the creation of the painting.

The interesting thing about painting is that it is a fairly low risk way of working with the intuitive messages that arise. The worse that can happen is that you create something, make a mark or use a color in the way your intuition is telling you to and it doesn’t look good.

For example, at one point while I was painting "Awake", my intuitive voice dropped to say “it needs some green.” Okay cool, I put some blobs of green in there and that felt right. I listen in to what wants to come through and trust that, put it down and see what happens. Sometimes you put something down and it isn’t right and that’s no big deal, just cover it up.

When I can allow myself to work this way, the painting becomes a collaboration between me and my intuition.

When you can trust what you are being told, what is coming through you, the painting process becomes really exciting.

What it means to be Awake

I named this painting “Awake” because as I was creating it, it became clear to me that because I had drawn the figure so up close, she really needed to have a face with features.

At first, I painted her with her eyes closed, but it didn’t feel right, which I took as a message that she needed to have her eyes open, she needed to be awake. I repainted it with her eyes open, awake.

When I was younger I used to love draw faces. In high school and college, I would fill the corners of my notebooks with eyes and faces. I was fascinated with drawing eyes because when I was drawing them, a soul appeared on the page that was not me. There is that saying that eyes are the windows to the soul and there is something really cool about bringing a figure to life and giving her a soul in that way.

What I have learned about listening to my inner voice

I’m learning more and more to trust what I hear, trust what arises, trust what I feel. I’m learning to trust the messages that appear in imagery, especially if I see that image or symbol repeated over and over again in lots of places. I’m learning to pay attention to the messages, symbols and imagery instead of writing them off as nothing.

What I’m discovering is that our intuition is really accessible, it’s right there for you. It doesn’t have to be about some major thing. This inner voice, this part of you that knows, really does know. My biggest learning curve has been that the inner voice is worth trusting, trusting that when I get a message, it’s actually something.

Painting is a way to begin to trust the inner voice.

When I hear those inner messages about what needs to go where, what colors need to be expressed, what movement needs to be expressed, what shapes need to appear, all of that is coming from that intuitive place. And it becomes really fun when I can let go of the self critique, the self judgement and instead, play. When I take the pedal off the self-negative talk and instead allow it to be this process of play between me and my intuition.

Messages from Imagery

Marion Woodman has this beautiful idea that says, “Images have energy, they have power. That they come through to help you re-remember your wholeness.”

I love that idea that the images themselves that come through in the painting process can carry messages of healing and wisdom for us. The message that came up for me as I worked with this painting, Awake, was this:

Everything we need is within and we are so much more powerful than we even know.

We’ve got this incredible source of power within us and we no longer need to look outside of ourselves for the validation of our own power.

The figure in this painting is fierce about wanting us to know this about ourselves. We have to know this about ourselves, she’s awake and ready to tell us, to wake us up when we forget.

I find that my yoga practice is one of ebb and flow. There are times when getting on my mat is easy and other times when I really have to dig in to get myself there. Every so often, I create a yoga manifesto for myself to serve as a reminder of why I get on my mat and what I love about my practice.

A yoga manifesto helps me reignite my love for my yoga practice.

What exactly is a manifesto? A manifesto is a declaration of what is important to you about your practice, what your intentions are for your practice. It reminds you why you love your yoga.

What creating a manifesto can do for you:

• It can help create a focus + intention for why you practice.
• It inspires you to get on your mat even when you don’t feel like it.
• It helps you clarify why you believe in your yoga
• It helps you live your yoga off the mat

Here’s a couple of beautiful examples of manifestos:

I love stumbling across beautifully articulated manifestos that inspire me. The good ones make me feel like the creators know how I want to feel.

Here are a couple of great ones:

• Tiny Devotions
• Lululemon
• In Spaces Between
• Emily Mcdowell

Do those examples inspire you to want to create a manifesto? Do they make you want to reinvigorate your practice with a reminder of why you started doing yoga in the first place? Here is my step by step process for creating a yoga manifesto of your own.

The Step by Step guide to creating a yoga manifesto of your very own:

Follow along below or check out this 6 minute video I created for you:

1. Set your intention

What is your intention for your manifesto? Do you want to create one to help you discover what you believe in? Do you want it to help you unfold your vision of how yoga lives in you? Perhaps you could simply have the intention to finish the sentence, “I practice yoga because….”

Whatever it maybe, take a moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath and set your intention for creating your manifesto.

2. Gather your materials and inspiration

With your intention in mind, what materials do you want to use to create your manifesto? Perhaps just pen and paper will do it. Or you could try splashing around some paint as your background. You could look through some magazines for inspiring images or print words/images you find on the internet to help inform your manifesto.

Whatever you decide to do, gather everything that you will need for the creation of your manifesto.

3. Set up your space

Clear an area where you can work and put all your materials + bits of inspiration out in front of you.

Establish a beginning ritual. This could be as simple as closing your eyes and chanting an Om or lighting a candle. I like to clear my energy and the the energy around my space by burning a smudge stick. You could turn on some music or grab yourself a cup of tea.

Do whatever you need to do to bring yourself fully into the space and into your intention to create your manifesto.

4. Brain dump your ideas

Begin with a plain sheet of paper and some markers or pencils. Start dumping all of the ideas you have for your manifesto onto the paper. This is just a brainstorm, so it doesn’t have to be pretty.

You could you use one of the following prompts to get you started. Write one of the following in the center of your page and then map out any thoughts that come up around it:

• I practice yoga because…
• What I love about yoga is…
• Yoga lives in me because…
• I am committed to my yoga practice because…
• Yoga inspires me because…

5. Paint

Choose a couple of colors to work with and start by wetting down the surface of your page. Begin to fill the paper with color. Let the paint drip and move across the page. Use your fingers to paint, add lines or splatters. The point is to fill in the background of your page.

This is a good time to turn up the tunes and let yourself play.

You can even work on a couple of pieces of paper at a time (working on one while the other dries) so that you have a couple of backgrounds to choose.

Pro tip: Start filling the page with all cool colors (greens, blues, purples) OR all warm colors (reds, oranges, yellows) first. Then let those colors dry before adding the opposite (cool or warm) colors. This will help prevent your colors from getting muddy!

6. Write your manifesto

Taking your brain dump ideas, begin to write or draw or collage on the words to your manifesto. You can use the brain dump as a jumping off point, but if something else comes up while you are working, write it out! If you aren’t comfortable using your own handwriting, you can collage words onto your page, or type it up and cut + glue the typed version down. You could also write it out in pencil first and then go over it with a marker or pen.

7. Put it someplace you can see it

Find a place to put your new manifesto where you will see it and be reminded of why you practice yoga. Maybe frame it and put it in your bedroom so you see it first thing when you wake up!

What’s your yoga manifesto?

Write it in the comments below or share your creation on instagram or twitter using the hashtag #myyogamanifesto. I'd love to see what you come up with!

Sometimes one of the hardest parts of getting started with any practice, like yoga or art making, is finding the time and space.

It can feel like there is never enough of either.

When I worked other jobs and lived in tiny apartments, I never felt like there was enough time or space to make the art I longed to make. It always felt like I needed more hours in the day, more energy to get to going and more space to spread out.

And these days, I even though I do have a little more space, it can still feel like there isn’t enough.

But, the creative energy within keeps pressing me on anyway.

So I find ways to carve out time and space, even when it feels like I have none of either and you can too

Related: 4 Helpful ways to get out of bed for yoga (and my at home yoga space)

Today, I’m busting through 5 myths that might be keeping you from creating time and space to create your art.

Myth #1 You have to have large spans of time to do creative work

There is this belief out there that you have to have hours upon hours of time to paint and create. That masterpieces have to be started and finished in one fell swoop. But who has got that kind of time?

Even before having a kiddo around and working full time as an artist, I still didn’t have large scopes of uninterrupted time. In fact, I probably only spent about 30% of my work time actually creating art. Sometimes less.

The truth is that nobody really has time to make art. You have to make time for your art.

•  Jhumpa Lahiri (author of The Namesake) wrote her first novel in 15 minute sessions between breastfeeding her newborn.
• Poet Wallace Stevens wrote poems while he walked to and from his job as an insurance lawyer (McNiff)
• I often start my paintings during my child’s afternoon naps and finish them in the evening while hanging out with my husband.

You must find small chunks of time in your day where you can make art.

Got a morning train commute? Or a half hour before you head to bed? An hour and a half at nap time? A 30 minute lunch break? 20 minutes first thing in the morning?

Action tip: Look at your day. Are there any times, even if they are as short as 10 minutes, that you could dedicate to your art practice? Find ‘em and schedule them into your planner.

Myth # 2 You have to have a studio to make art

Now, I make art in my garage turned studio, but I have made art in lots of weird and random places. I’ve made art on the pink carpeted floor of my childhood bedroom, and on my bed itself.

In college, I made a lot of art in the hallways and stairwells and common rooms of my school. I’ve made art at my kitchen table. I’ve set up in the corner of multiple living rooms and guest rooms (I have moved 7 times in the past 10 years.) I’ve made art outside and on the go, in trains, planes, and automobiles.  

There is no place, really, where art can’t be made.

It is a lot easier to make art in short spurts of time when you have a place and your supplies ready to go, but that place can be anywhere!

Action tip: Look around your current living area. Is there any corner or nook where you could set up a place to make art? And even if you don’t find one, what about creating a mobile, on the go art set-up?

Myth #3 You can’t make art in your living room or anywhere you might make a mess

I once worked in a costume shop that had a wonderful rule about mess making. This shop was incredibly organized. Every pair of scissors and tape measure had a place. But, when you were in the midst of creating something, like sewing sequences onto a ballerina bodice, for example, you were to let all the scraps, threads and extras bits fall to the floor.

There was no need, my boss told me, to take the time to pick anything up until we were done. Then at the end of the day, a huge broom would come out and we would clean it all up, but not until then.

Having the freedom to create without worrying about cleaning up after myself as I went along, made my creatively messy heart very happy.

Having a place (even if it’s temporary) to make art is helpful because when you don’t have a lot of time, knowing where to find all of the things you need to get started, without having to spend time looking around for it allows you to get going on things more quickly. 

But, it’s equally important to feel, in the midst of things, that you can throw your paint around or get charcoal everywhere and not have to worry about making a mess.

If you don’t have to worry about making a mess or ruining your floor/table/clothes, it will free you up to just play.

Here are a couple of hacks that will allow you to get as messy as you like, even if you are in the middle of your living room:

• Use a drop cloth

Grab an old sheet and throw it on your living room floor. Boom. Place to work, wild and free.

• Find a smock

Put on an old oversized tee-shirt or a backwards button up shirt over your clothes. Now you don’t have to worry about smearing paint on your work shirt.

• Grab some cardboard

This is another thing you can easily throw down on the floor, table surface, your deck or the grass in your backyard. You can tape it to the wall behind where you are working if you tend to get particularly splatter-y (I tend to get paint everywhere!)

Action Tip: Gather the things you would need to make messy art no matter how fancy the floor or your clothes. Get them ready for the next opportunity you have to make art.

Myth #4 You have to have a lot of (expensive) art supplies to make art

When I was learning to paint with my dad, he would give me three colors (red, blue and yellow) + white and say, “you can make most any color you need with just these three colors. If you start with too many colors, it’s easy to make mud.”

And even though, at first I protested, I soon came to see the brilliance in his ways. By working within a limited palette, I was less likely to get overwhelmed by the options. I could learn how to work these few colors really well rather than trying to figure out how to mix a whole bunch of them and end up muddled.

Having lots of supplies can be fun, but it is totally not a requirement to make art. There are as many ways to make art as there are artists and it is not necessary to go out and buy hundreds of dollars of supplies, especially when you are first starting out. And if you haven’t spent all kinds of money on your supplies, you can be a lot less precious about the work. It’s easier to let yourself experiment and create ugly stuff.

Some simple supplies that are easy to find + inexpensive to buy:

• Watercolor sets (like this one)
• Kids art supplies, like crayola markers and colored pencils.
• If you do want to buy paint, just buy a couple tubes in the primary colors (red, blue, yellow) and get really good at working with them (these are the paints I love using)
• And you can paint on watercolor paper (which is cheaper than canvas) or even cardboard! (My brother has a friend who created an amazing series of paintings on old pizza boxes.)
• Sharpies! (Great for line drawings)
• Number 2 pencils
• Computer paper (I draw on computer paper all of the time)

And here are some examples of amazing artists who don’t use ANY art supplies to create these pieces:

+Andy Goldsworthy Nature Sculptures

+Faith Evan-Sills Mandalas

+Yuken Teruya Toilet Paper Roll Forests

+Jane Perkins Found Material Paintings

Action tip: What supplies or materials do you already have lying around your house (they don’t even have to be traditional art supplies)? Pull them out and see what you can create with them today.

Myth #5 But I’m not a “Real” Artist

What makes an artist a “real” artist? I think if you spend time making art, you are, by definition, an artist.

You don’t need anyone’s permission to make art.

You are innately creative and if you have the urge to create and you listen and act upon that urge, even when you barely have any time or space to create, you are an artist.

Art, like meditation or yoga, is a practice, a spiritual exercise that you have to carve out time and space for. It doesn’t just happen by itself, for anybody.

“Art as a spiritual exercise suggests that any person can find a way to make time for the creative act each day.”

— Shaun McNiff

Action Tip: Commit to making art as a practice. Set aside 10 minutes a day (or as much as you can commit to) put it in your calendar and get started. And just like that, YOU are a real artist.

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Let me know in the comments what other things keep you from carving out time + space for your creative practice?

Glimpsing Shakti

In the hot summer of a broken heart, I found yoga. Or it found me. In my first few experiences with the practice, I felt something sweet and huge and deep beginning to crack open within me. It felt the way a baby chick must feel as it taps its beak through the outside of its shell for the first time. I couldn’t name it or really even explain it, but I remember feeling overwhelmingly relieved because I knew, as I lay there in my very first savasana, that I was not alone.

 Be Her

After I graduated from college, I enrolled in a semester long program at the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health to learn more about myself. During that time, I took part in a Shamanic cleansing ceremony that would forever change my life.

When it was my turn to be cleared, the Shaman looked at me and quietly said, “it’s time to be who you really are.” I stood there blinking at him dumbly. As he gazed at me wordlessly, I felt this sudden pulling from deep within and this strong, powerful, fierce feminine energy arose inside of me. I felt it rise up and instantly, even though I said nothing and hadn’t moved at all, the Shaman looked intensely at me and said in a quiet, but firm voice, “Be Her.”

I still get chills every time I think about this experience and I’ve come to realize that I was experiencing “Her” during those early yoga experiences, as I released the built up layers of misguided beliefs I held about myself. I also recognized this energy as something I’d experienced so many times in my art-making. And now that I have seen this energy more clearly, I recognized “Her” in my past too---like a shadow suddenly shedding light.

Here’s how I remember “Her:”

• I’m seven. And even though I barely talk in my second grade classroom, I audition for “The Sound of Music.” Something brave shakes me and I sing my shy little heart out loud in the role of  “Gretel.”
•  I’m 14, quiet as can be. Deemed “most quiet” in my 8th grade year book. I sign up for theater. I am loud enough to be heard in the back of the auditorium. By the time I’m a senior, the burning creative energy inside has me audition for a lead role in Alice in Wonderland. Fierce Brave something, comes from nowhere and I am Alice, belting out my part on stage (in front of hundreds, eek!) 
• I’m 19, lost in who I am. I board a plane and travel to Italy. Drawn by the fiery energy to go into the unknown, to risk looking foolish in a new tongue, new territory. “She” pulls me through my own looking glass to find, that on the other side, I am much bigger than I realize.
•  I’m 20 and I meet “Her” face to face on a bamboo floor in a tiny yoga studio, eyes closed, feeling sore in every part of my body and soul. Both stretch in ways I never knew were possible. It is there and then that I became aware of “Her” presence. She helps me to hold my pain and I realize, for the first time, that I am not alone.
• I am where I am now, realizing that not only does this energy exist, but also “She” is working with me and through me all the time.

What exactly is Shakti?

If I were to give this energy a creative name, I might call her muse, guide, inner coach, creative spirit. But my study of yoga and Tantra, has helped me to identify her as “Shakti,” the principle of creativity, the current of grace that flows through each of us (Feuerstein).

But what exactly is Shakti?

Ekabhumi Charles Ellik, author and illustrator of The Shakti Coloring Book, writes

““Shakti is power, both manifest power and the power within all experiences...the term Shakti describes divine creative power...the electric juice of life.

When we use the word Shakti as a proper name, however, we are speaking of the Great Goddess (Mahadevi) who takes birth as all beings, whose body is reality.””

She is the creative pulse that powers us along. Shakti guides us to be more fearless, and open hearted in not only our creative pursuits, but also our life.

When we make art or practice yoga with the intention of experiencing and engaging with this goddess, shakti energy, our art making and our practice becomes a path for better understanding ourselves.

And because Shakti is within everything that exists, you can access her in any infinite number of ways. Yoga and art are my favorites but some other examples of access points besides are:  

• performance arts
• writing
• spending time in nature
• traveling + experiencing new cultures
• teaching

What I’ve learned from this is that the point of access to Shakti is less important than the act of accessing.

If you approach the point of access with the intention to co-create with Shakti, the gateway swings open wider.

Shakti energy  in yoga + art

So what does shakti energy feel like? My sense is that it probably feels a little bit different for everyone, but however it feels to you, at the core of it, it makes you feel whole, it brings you closer to yourself.

In Yoga.

In yoga, shakti energy feels like spaciousness in the body, it feels light and vibrant. It feels bubbly and exciting, sometimes even a little wild, but in a passionate and fun way. You have awareness of yourself as observer, luster in your eyes and skin. You feel alive and awake. You know what move to make in the moment, even if you’re not sure where it’s leading you.

In Art.

In art making, Shakti energy feels flowy, like an outpouring of vibrating energy, it’s tingling, intuitive. You loose your sense of time and space, absorbed in your work. You knowing what move to make in the moment, even if you’re not sure where it’s leading you.

Why you might want to engage with the creative energy of Shakti

When you become more connected to the creative energy of shakti,

• You feel empowered
• You feel confident, determined because you are being moved by a higher power
• You feel supported, uplifted, cared for
• You move through the world courageously and passionately

Experience Shakti for yourself

Goddess Breathing You Meditation

This is a beautiful breathing exercise that I learned in my teacher training that will allow you to access Shakti energy right now, right here in this moment.

Take a comfortable seat. Take a deep inhalation and let it out through your mouth. Settle into this moment. Take another inhaltion and exhale, releasing anything stuck in your mind or body.

Begin to deepen your breath. Let each inhalation fill you up from the bottom of your pelvic floor, through your belly and low back, up into the ribcage and all the way to your coller bone. Exhale and release the breath back down, through the collar bone, ribcage, belly and low back, all the way back down to your pelvic floor. Continue to breath in 10 deep cycles through the whole cavity of your body.

Then release that for a moment and let yourself breath gently once more. Bring one hand to your belly and another to your chest and feel into the rise and fall of your breath. Watch carefully for the first impulse to inhale and then at the top of the breath, notice the tiny pause before your exhale begins to unfold.

In this way, you are being breathed. You don’t have to initiate the inhalation. It happens for you, and the exhalation appears naturally in response. Notice the breath as it expands into the back of your ribs, at the bottom tips of your shoulder blades. Feel how the breath supports you, holds you, floats you up, grounds you down.

The breath carries this shakti energy, and she in return, moves the breath gently in and out of you. Continue to allow the breath to breathe you.

Painting with the Breath Exercise

This exercise is a simple painting practice to help you connect to your breath. It’s a painting meditation that invites you to let the breath move you into the flow the creative energy of Shakti.

STEP ONE

Gather your materials. Pick a waterbased paint, like fluid acrylics or watercolors or inks. I use golden fluid acrylics, with these watercolor brushes. Use thick watercolor paper that will hold up to a lot of water (I use this paper). Choose 1-3 colors you are drawn to keeping it to a limited palette. If you are using fluid acrylics or tube watercolors, squeeze them out onto wax paper taped to cardboard or a paper plate.

STEP TWO

Connect with your breath. Use the guided breathing exercise from above or just spend a few minutes taking deep inhales and exhalations.

STEP THREE

Use a brush to wet your paper down with water.

STEP FOUR

While the paper is still wet, pick up some paint with a paint brush and take a deep inhalation.

STEP FIVE

As you exhale, drop paint onto your paper and watch as it moves + spreads across the surface. Inhale as you lift the brush and then exhale, to put it back down again, perhaps in a different spot.

STEP SIX

Allow your breath to lead the movement and continue to fill the page with paint, inhaling each time you lift the brush, exhaling each time you put it to the paper. Add more water as needed to keep the page wet.

STEP SEVEN

You can also put paint onto the page, inhale and bring the page close to your mouth and then blow your exhale out through your mouth, using the exhalation breath to move the paint across the page. Do this a few times, bringing your inhalation through your nose and exhaling to gently blow the paint around the page.

STEP EIGHT

Continue to focus on your breath and, just as you would in your yoga practice, see if you can allow the breath to arise before you make a movement with the brush. Allow the painting to be a meditative practice connecting the Shakti energy moving you to fill the page, one breath at a time.

To know Shakti, is to know yourself as you truly are, awake and alive and beautiful in all your forms of imperfection and truth. Step into that knowing, step into that flicker and breathe into it until it becomes a flame and nourish it until it becomes your fire. Now is the time and you are ready.

How have you experienced Shakti, creative energy, in your own life?