I Lost My Creativity At University. Here's How I Found It Again

Growing up, I didn't have good ways to say what I felt out loud, so I wrote, all the time. Ideas, stories, things that upset me, things I noticed, things I wished for. The notebook was where I made sense of everything.

Then came Engineering

I moved from Madagascar to London to study Aerospace Engineering, and I loved it. I still do, but my world became logic, maths and late nights in the library, and I found there wasn't much space for deeper intuition.

I stopped writing and drawing without ever really deciding to. I embraced that new version of me so fully that it took years to notice how empty I'd started to feel.

Three pages in the morning

A few years ago, I found Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and the morning pages. Essentially, it's three pages of whatever is in your head, written first thing in the morning for no audience at all.

I hated doing them first but I was inspired by hearing the stories of people who had created amazing things out doing this practice: books, businesses, screen plays... So I kept going, and I still do them to this day, even on my commute! Those pages led to realising I needed a change in my life, my sabbatical, my yoga teacher training and eventually Ladina Yoga. I haven't turned back since.

What I learnt

Creativity is unapologetic self-expression, and every one of us has our own version of it. You can come back to it whenever you're ready, and it's allowed to sit at the centre of your life.

In yoga, Svadhyaya (self-study) is one of the niyamas. People tend to picture it as studying sacred texts. For me, it includes downloading things from my brain on a messy page regularily, which often leads to breakthroughs. 

I'm not the only one who found their way through a notebook. Matthew McConaughey has kept journals since he was 15, and his memoir Greenlights came out of them. You don't need a memoir to justify the habit, though. A page of crossings-out and doodles counts.

Why I made the Rooted & Flowing journal

I made it for the version of me in that library, and for anyone who wants to reconnect with their creative side. Write in it, draw in it, scribble, make lists that go nowhere. There's no wrong way to fill it.

The cover art is by Sakina Saidi, and every order is packed by hand with a guided ritual card and my playlist, so the first time you sit down with it already feels like yours. It's the heart of our Things on My Mind launch.

Find yours at ladinayoga.com

What did you used to make before life got busy? If you're not sure where to start again, read Do you really need another notebook?.