I’d like to talk about artistry as a path to enlightenment. I spent many years as an actress and as a professional dancer and choreographer. I’ve worked as a painter and sculptor and I am also a writer. So, my whole life has really been centered around art.

Awakening is a creative act. That’s why your experience of union or oneness with a greater reality and someone else’s is very different. It’s undefinable. And the many talented artists and poets who have created literature, poetry, and works of art about greater realities speak about this, trying to put into words their experience of this union. They also try to capture the experience of the tension between the union and the breaking of the union—the onslaught of the ego mind and its false perceptions of separation and one’s own divine will pushing back, trying to keep it from taking one over.

Even the great enlightened ones had this struggle. Think of the stories of Yeshiva, Jesus, Buddha, Rumi, they all struggled between that deep connection with God and all that is and the attention of this world, the tension between the inner thoughts the outer thoughts. And their story, the great epic story which is the story of humanity and the story of who we are, is the journey to find peace, to find union, to overcome and slay the dragons of the ego mind.

Art is the act of creating. In the painting, the sculpting, the writing, the cooking, the designing, the building—anything in your life that is creative, where you are engaged in creativity—whether you have studied an instrument and know how to play it or whether you’re following a recipe, whether you’re sewing a dress, it’s all the creative process. You’re even in a creative process when you are in relationships.

There is an artistry to having relationships that work. Try looking at all your relationships as an artist, a creator. As a creator imbued with this profound gift from the Creator, what do you want to create? Because you were made in the image of God as like a shadow from the imprint of the great intelligence that created everything we know and don’t know. Within you is this ability to expand in new ways that have never been done before. And in that moment of creating, when you are fully present in the now and in the zone, you are yoking, you are tethering to all that is. You are in a state of oneness.

The question is, how do you step from that deeply creative state back into your world and be able to keep some of the fruit? How can you carry with you the perfume of that experience? The first thing you want to do—and this has really helped me and many artists I have worked with and love worldwide—is to set an intention that your purpose as an artist, your purpose as a creator, is to fully heal yourself. You must know that in fully healing yourself you heal the world, because you are the world, you are everything. So, set that intention: I am here to merge my shadow and my light for my enlightenment, my healing, and my reconnection to the all and all.

The minute you place that intention into the quantum field of existence, all of creation comes together to say “Yes! We heard you! Now we are a part of your canvas. We are a part of the template of your creation!”

Here is a short meditation that you can do before you begin to create. You can do this before any kind of creation, starting a piece of writing, a painting, starting to cook something, meeting a friend that you need to have a healing with, before your lovemaking (this is a fabulous way to start any romantic merging of yourself and love). And it simply goes like this: begin to watch your breath. Very gently move into the observer mind, the Silent Watcher and just watch your breath, very gently inhaling and exhaling. So simple and so effortless, watching the breath.

The breath entering and exiting your body, the body of the world, is order. It is the silent core of all creation. In gentle deep inhalations and exhalations, you are connecting with the axis of your consciousness. Just as there is an axis to the Earth that she spins upon, there is an axis in the center of your being in the clarity, harmony and even pattern of your breath. From this central place you can face any darkness, trauma, loss, and pain that you have experienced in your life and you can redeem all these things with the breath, carrying them into your hands and your mind to create with.

Now, begin to see yourself in a golden envelope of light, like a flame. This envelope of light surrounding you is your field of creativity. Let there be light! Now, bring your awareness above your crown chakra and engage your imagination to see a blue orb of light. Perhaps you see pinches of pink or yellow colors swirling in this blue orb. Tell this orb to descend into your mind and as it descends, allow your breath to merge with this orb of creation.

Allow this orb of creation to descend into your throat. And now into your heart. And now into your belly, and then down your legs into your feet. See this orb of light descending through you. And in each of the chakras it passes through, the orb has left a light a brilliant star of light. Now imagine this beautiful indigo blue light with many colors in it expanding into your shoulders and arms down through your hands. See this light radiating from your hands, your third eye, your mouth and your heart. Imagine these ray’s shining outwards and set the intention: My artistry is for my deepest healing and my enlightenment. I am the creator.

Take a deep breath and open your eyes. Just take a moment to let that resonate in your being. Doesn’t your body feel wonderful, shimmering in that order of creativity?

While in this place, I suggest that you invite any loss or grief, anger, disappointment, whatever pain in you that carries a weight for you, anything that you’re working through, I invite you to take it and place it into your art, to face it and let it transform, allowing the sacred alchemy to happen. Allow your mind to take a rest and move to the back of your head and allow a creative part of yourself that is larger, deeper and filled with wisdom to simply create.

Connect into this place, this consciousness. Do not judge what you create. Do not edit what you create. Just allow it. This is the joy of creating. This is the artist’s path to enlightenment. The artistry of healing contained within all artists in the world. God bless you! You carry us throughout history. You teach us. You are the nightingales. You are the canaries in the coal mine.

Please, keep creating! Keep creating and relaying your message because our world needs you so desperately right now to bring your truth into the light. The truth of your soul and your healing for all of us to experience.