I love to talk about ways for creatives, and especially introverts, to manage their energy, because there just aren’t enough resources out there about managing the subtler aspects of a creative life. As a creative introvert myself, managing my energy has been a challenge. The solution with the biggest benefits by far has been a regular yoga and meditation practice. But the yoga/energy connection is often misunderstood, so I thought I’d spend some time unpacking it.

Since most Westerners come to yoga through a fitness lens, when a yoga instructor talks about energy listeners might confuse it with physical endurance. As in having enough energy to finish a marathon or a zumba class. In the thousands-year-old tradition of yoga, however, energy is called prana or “life force.” According to the tradition, prana is everywhere and in everything and everyone, to varying degrees.

We inherit a certain amount of prana from our parents at birth. In life, we receive prana from things like healthy foods, sleep, yoga, meditation, and connection to nature. Other things drain prana, like lack of sleep, stress, negative thought patterns, overworking, and poor nutrition. How well our prana flows determines the quality of our human experience—our thoughts, our actions, our relationships, and our levels of awareness. And all prana ties back to the original creative energy that birthed the Universe.

For me, yoga paints a beautiful picture of the Universe for creative introverts, who so often struggle with feeling alone, different, and weary. Not only are we not alone, we are woven together and folded into a creative family of people and things. When we understand that the same creative energy flows in each of us through different human expressions, we feel less set apart and ‘other’. And when we learn what gives us more prana or life force and what drains it, we can make choices that leave us feeling less weary and more nurtured and supported.

The goal of increasing our prana is not just the ability to get more stuff done so we can make more money. That’s really thinking too small. Many people on this planet are highly productive, wealthy, famous and respected, and completely miserable. When we’re weighed down with suffering, our creative ability is limited.

Ultimately, managing our prana wisely leads to samadhi—enlightenment or total self connectedness. Creatives are already familiar with this state, something that feels a lot like Flow. When we’re in Flow, we’re connected with Universal creative energy. We’ve stepped into the great stream of consciousness. In this state, we become conduits for something far bigger than ourselves. Our potential is limitless.

“Okay,” you’re thinking. “I came here to figure out how to juggle my family and work responsibilities with my creative dreams not become Yoda.” You’re in luck, because though many men and women over the years have forsaken all worldly pursuits in search of enlightenment, yoga is a practice designed for householders, people like you and me. Yoga is not about living in a cave wearing a loincloth and eating gruel (although feel free to try it if you feel called). Yoga also isn’t about burning calories or looking cute on Instagram. Again, that’s thinking way too small.

Yoga helps us manage the prana, or energy, necessary to live life well and reach our highest potential. This encompasses our health, relationships, and our creative endeavors.

Bottom line: you need prana, but you’re likely making choices that drain you of it every single day. Figuring out what feeds you and what drains you is the first step, which means developing some stronger self awareness. To accomplish this, we can use meditation, yoga, and breathing practices, also called pranayama. In the next installment of this series, I’ll break down each of these methods briefly, so you can understand them better and learn how to use them to improve your self awareness and your creative practice.

Part II in this series continues....