Agni: how to stoke the fires of your creativity

Digestion is considered to be a “sacred fire” in Ayurveda. The ancient Ayurvedic texts refer to this fire as agni. Attending to our agni is one of the best things we can do for our health. As my teacher Katie Silcox writes in her book Healthy Happy Sexy, “The best food on the planet can’t help you if you don’t have the digestive fire to transform and assimilate what you are putting in your body.” Addressing digestive issues is traditionally the first place you would start when working with an Ayurvedic practitioner. 

But be warned; this isn’t your typical article on ways to strengthen your digestion! What made me fall in love with the concept of agni was realizing that it doesn’t just apply to food. Agni is also the force that digests and transforms our thoughts, emotions, and experiences, including anything we take in through our five senses. As an artist, this excites me because I see this digestion and assimilation as an integral part of the creative process. If there are things we can do to strengthen our agni when it comes to digesting our food, it follows that there are things we can do to strengthen the fires of our creative capacity!

There are many factors to consider when it comes to helping someone strengthen their agni. Let’s break down this process a bit and consider how some of these same tips for getting good digestion can be applied to creativity! I know what you’re thinking – what does relieving constipation have to do with being able write a poem or make a photograph? But I hope by the end of this article you’ll see that there’s insight to be gained in this idea. That’s what I love about Ayurveda — there is so much wisdom and truth in the basic principles, that once you have an understanding of Ayurveda, you can really apply these concepts to any area of your life. This is where things get fun!

Good quality input

So where does the digestive process start? With what we choose to put in our bodies, of course! If your goal is a happy tummy free of digestive complaints, you want to start by making healthy choices about what you are eating. If your goal is greater creative flow, it’s important to think about what you are taking in through all of your five senses. 

Here are some examples of what I mean: you could spend your evening binging your guilty pleasure on Netflix, or you could read that novel that’s been sitting on your bedside table for months. You could spend all day at your computer without breaks, or you could take a few moments throughout your day to put on some new music and move your body. These choices aren’t inherently better or worse, they just have different qualities. If your goal is creativity, you might do well to switch up your usual intake of experiences, and think about how you can take in more of the qualities that you want in your life. 

Julia Cameron refers to this process of collecting inspiration as filling the well: “In order to create, we draw from our inner well,” she writes. “As artists, we must realize that we have to maintain this artistic ecosystem. If we don’t give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked.” (These are all words I would use to describe a struggling digestive system as well!) It’s helpful to think about constantly replenishing this well in small ways. You don’t have to go to the opera every week (although an extravagant artistic event can definitely pour gas on your creative fire), but you can take in things every day that stoke the flame. 

I’ll be the first to admit that this is not always easy. Days, weeks or months can go by where I forget to add kindling to my creative fire. Especially during this year in quarantine where it’s not as easy to get out to an art museum, see a film, or go to a concert, I often find myself stuck in my routines of work and home life. What helps me is to find little ways to nourish my creativity; perhaps taking a few minutes to page through a book of photography, or read a poem. 

And of course, feeding your creativity doesn’t only have to mean consuming “art.” Being out in nature, or simply being present and noticing the details in any space you’re in, can be extremely nourishing. In fact, sometimes it’s less about what you’re taking in than how you’re allowing yourself to be with it. This brings me to our next principle of good digestion. 

Slowing down

Although the quality of what you eat is definitely important, I’ve often heard Ayurvedic practitioners say that how you eat can have an even bigger impact on digestion. Some general Ayurvedic tips for a healthy mealtime include eating in a calm and relaxed environment, giving your attention to your food without distractions, and taking the time to fully chew each bite. Basically, this all comes down to being present with what you are ingesting. 

This absolutely applies to creativity as well. No matter what you are doing, paying attention to the experience with all of your five senses will help you get more creative input from the situation. You could be at the Louvre standing in front of a great work of art and be so totally distracted thinking about where you’re going to go for dinner that you’re not experiencing the masterpiece at all. Conversely, you could be standing in your kitchen washing dishes, and be so present in the experience that you’re enchanted by the way the light reflects off the soap bubbles and the feeling of warm water on your fingertips. I suspect that more often than not, the great poems of the world have been inspired by the seemingly mundane aspects of life. 

I love this idea because it allows me to think about going through my day like a creative sponge. Even though my world has grown smaller in months of quarantine, it’s a reminder that in every moment there is the capacity for inspiration. As I sit writing this, I feel the late fall sunlight coming in the window behind me, warming the back of my neck. The pink anthurium that sits on my bookshelf is reflected in the window in front of me, creating a strange double-exposure image in the darkness of the tall pine tree outside. It’s a windy day and the shadows of leaves dance throughout my office, filling it with movement. I hear the subtle chirping of birds in the distance. Although I rarely take the time to sit and note all of these details, the information is always available. The world is offering up a wealth of inspiration in any given moment, if we can just slow down and tune in to our senses. 

Assimilation

You’ve made yourself a delicious warming soup, you’ve eaten it outside in a calm atmosphere, taking time to appreciate and chew every bite. Still, this is only the beginning of your digestive process. Even if you have this ideal eating experience, digestive complaints can still come up. The question then really becomes, how can you strengthen your digestive fire so that it can easily process the good food you are taking in? There are many Ayurvedic remedies to strengthen a weak digestive Agni — here are some that apply to creative agni as well.

Quantity and timing

It’s no mystery that how much and how often we eat affects our digestion. The key to calming digestive complaints is often in giving yourself enough time to digest one meal before snacking or eating anything else on top of it. Giving yourself time to digest your experiences is crucial too. If you are taking in too much sensory stimulation, too quickly, it can lead to anxiety, exhaustion or even depression. Not very cohesive to a creative flow state! 

My favorite way to avoid sensory overload is with a regular journaling practice. I write in my journal every morning, and it helps me to process things from the previous day, explore and digest emotions, and try on new ideas. If I don’t do this regularly, I really experience the sensation of being “backed up.” A potent example is the importance of journaling when I’m traveling. When I’m in a new place, experiencing so much input every day, I always try to write as much as possible! If I don’t write every day, I feel like I’ve just been taking things in and not fully processing them. Writing helps me savor and remember all those little details, the good and the bad that all happen when traveling!

Regularity

One of my Ayurveda teachers says that the digestive system is a historical system. This means your body remembers your eating patterns, and if you eat the same type of foods at the same times every day, your body will do a better job of processing what you eat. Bringing some sense of regularity to your meals is one of the best things you can do to aid digestion. 

Similarly, creativity should be a regular, daily practice. My college photography teacher often said, “The more photographs you take, the more there will be to photograph.” At first, this seems counterintuitive. I remember doing a photography project where I made one photograph a day taken on the walk from my apartment to campus. It seemed like I would run out of interesting things to photograph on this short walk. After a few weeks, wouldn’t I have covered all the ground? But my teacher was absolutely right: the more you fall in love with the process of photography, the more the world opens up to you. You start seeing in new ways and realize that this new vision only deepens the more you create. 

I suspect that the same goes for writing, or any art form. The more you do it, the more you find there is to do. I have rarely heard of a daily writing habit leading to someone running out of things to say. Rather, the act of bringing regularity to a creative practice reveals the infinite depths and possibilities of expression. 

Spice things up

This one takes a little stretch of the imagination. But spicing is such an important part of tending to digestive agni, that I didn’t want to leave it out. Physically speaking, spices can add either warmth or coolness to meals, and aid digestion in a multitude of ways. Let this be an inspiration to spice things up when it comes to your creativity as well!

One of the ways I like to think about this is making sure you have a wide array of “tastes” in your life. A meal with all six flavors will be more palatable and nourishing. A life with a wide array of experience may be more creatively fruitful. This doesn’t mean you have to travel to different countries or make drastic life changes. It could simply mean allowing yourself to feel the full spectrum of emotions. If you tend to live only in one emotional state, you are missing out on the depth of life. 

I have often been avoidant of the “darker” emotional states such as sadness, loneliness, and anger. But the truth is that limiting these emotions also puts a damper on more ecstatic and joyful states. Taking time to cry, to release anger in healthy ways, to say the thing that I don’t want to say because I know they’ll make me feel uncomfortable — while not always easy, I can acknowledge that doing these things allows me to live a richer emotional life. And of course, as artists we want to be able to tap into the full spectrum of human emotion to be able to make meaningful and empathic art. 

Transformation

It could be said that the final stage of digestion is transformation. Our bodies take the nutrients needed from the food to make good quality blood, bones, muscle, and all our other tissues. In the creative process, this would be the step where we transform all those experiences and emotions into our art. Whether you share your work widely or create more for your own joy, there is a sense of internalizing experience, and then somehow making it external again and giving something back to the world. We watch the sunset; we digest and reflect on that experience; and then we write the poem that externalizes how we perceived this event. 

When I follow the general guidelines in this article, I find that I’m well set up for the final step of transformation. In fact, it happens naturally. When I take time to fill my creative well with inspirational material,  stay present to my experience, and give myself the proper time and space to process those experiences, responding creatively is a natural next step. 

Here are my key takeaways for strengthening your creative agni:

1. Think about ways you can give yourself some extra creative nourishment throughout the day. Put on music, watch a 5-minute documentary, read a poem every morning — just do something to spark inspiration! 
2. Remind yourself to find presence through your five senses. Inspiration is everywhere, and the key to accessing it is often in slowing down. 
3. Give yourself plenty of time to reflect on experiences, whether that is through journaling, meditation, or simply sitting quietly for a few minutes every day. 
4. Make creativity a regular daily act. The more of a habit your practice becomes, the more likely that creativity will strike often. 
5. Invite in the full range of experiences and emotions — even the less pleasant ones. The more flavors in your life, the richer your art can be. This doesn’t mean chasing drama or being a martyr, but simply being open to the depth of your life experience.  

At its root, a healthy creative agni is a hunger for experience, a desire to create, and an excitement to greet the mysteries of each day. Those with a strong agni know that each moment is rich with creative inspiration. Remember, the more photographs you take, the more there will be to photograph. The more you write, the more there is to write about. Keep feeding that flame and it will grow!