Why Creativity Matters — Even If You Don’t Think You’re Creative

If you asked me whether I consider myself a creative person, my immediate answer would probably be no.

I’ve never particularly thought of myself as artistic. Sitting down for an afternoon of painting wouldn’t necessarily appeal to me. I’m probably not going to be the first person signing up for a pottery workshop either.

For a long time, I think that was what I associated with being creative.

You could draw. You could paint. You could make things. You had some obvious artistic talent.

But the older I’ve become, and particularly when I think about my years of teaching yoga and Pilates, I’ve started to question whether my definition of creativity has been far too narrow.

Because perhaps I am creative.

I just express it differently.

Creativity Doesn’t Have to Involve a Paintbrush

Creativity can be about making something that didn’t exist before.

It can be finding a different solution to a problem, experimenting with an idea, playing with language or taking something familiar and presenting it in a completely different way.

And when I look at it like that, creativity is actually a huge part of my working life.

I’ve been teaching yoga since 2009 and Pilates since 2015, and one of the things I’ve always enjoyed is creating classes.

I genuinely enjoy lesson planning.

I like deciding what we’re going to work on, finding different ways of getting there and thinking about how one exercise might flow into another.

I like taking movements my clients may have done many times before and finding a slightly different way of approaching them.

And I love using props and small equipment.

Give me a Pilates ball, resistance band, magic circle or a couple of blocks and my brain immediately starts thinking about what we could do with them!

That, I’ve realised, is creativity.

My Brain Needs Variety

I’m neurodivergent, and one of the things I’ve recognised about myself is that I need variety.

I need something to keep my brain engaged.

If I had to walk into a class every week and teach exactly the same sequence, in exactly the same order, with exactly the same cues, I would find it incredibly boring.

And if I’m bored teaching it, there’s a fairly good chance some of the people in front of me are going to pick up on that too.

I’ve attended classes in the past where I’ve realised that the teacher is essentially teaching the same class week after week.

Sometimes for months.

Before I became a teacher myself, I assumed perhaps that was just how it worked.

Then I trained.

And I suddenly realised just how much possibility there was.

There were so many exercises. So many variations. So many ways to sequence things. So many different props. So many ways to teach the same movement.

Why wouldn’t I explore them?

That became one of the parts of teaching that I loved.

I Don’t Want to Teach on Autopilot

After you’ve been teaching for many years, there’s a danger that you can start to teach almost by numbers.

You know the exercises.

You know what comes next.

You’ve probably said some of the same sentences thousands of times.

And, if you’re not careful, you can start phoning it in.

I don’t want to teach like that.

Of course, there are days when I’m tired. I’m human. There are weeks when I’ve got lots going on and lesson planning isn’t necessarily at the top of the list of things I’m excited about doing.

But overall, I want to remain interested in what I’m teaching.

Creating different classes keeps my brain active.

Sometimes it feels as though I’m juggling lots of balls at once — remembering what comes next, watching the room, adapting exercises, cueing, correcting and thinking ahead.

But I actually enjoy that.

It keeps me on my toes.

And hopefully it keeps my clients on their toes too.

They don’t necessarily know what’s coming next.

Creativity Is Also in the Way We Communicate

There’s another area of teaching where I’ve become increasingly aware of creativity: language.

Verbal cueing is something I’ve worked hard on throughout my teaching career and through my continued professional development and training.

As teachers, we’re constantly trying to communicate movement through words.

And that’s quite an interesting challenge when you think about it.

You know what you want somebody’s body to do — but how do you help them understand it?

You might explain an exercise one way and one person understands immediately.

Someone else looks completely confused.

So you try different words.

You demonstrate it.

You use imagery.

You describe what they might feel.

You change the cue.

And suddenly it clicks.

That is creativity too.

We’re finding different ways of communicating the same idea until we find the one that connects with the person in front of us.

Adapting an Exercise Is a Form of Creativity

Anyone who teaches groups knows that you’re rarely teaching a room full of identical bodies.

One person might be incredibly strong but lack mobility.

Another might be returning to exercise after years away.

Someone else may have been doing Pilates for 20 years.

One person might struggle getting down onto the floor while another wants to be challenged.

As teachers, we’re constantly making decisions.

How can I make this more accessible?

How could I progress it?

Could we change the position?

Could a prop help?

Is there another exercise that achieves a similar goal?

That ability to adapt and problem-solve is another form of creativity.

We’re not simply reproducing exercises we’ve learned on a training course.

We’re taking our knowledge and applying it to the actual human beings standing in front of us.

And I think that’s where teaching becomes really interesting.

But Different Isn’t Always Better

There is an important balance here.

I don’t believe every class needs to contain something nobody has ever seen before.

In fact, constantly throwing new exercises at people simply for the sake of being different isn’t necessarily good teaching.

Repetition matters.

People need opportunities to practise movements, become familiar with them and notice their progress.

Sometimes there’s enormous value in returning to something you’ve done many times before.

Creativity isn’t about reinventing Pilates or yoga every Tuesday morning.

It’s about finding that balance between familiarity and freshness.

There can be a reassuring structure to a class while still leaving room for curiosity, exploration and variety.

That’s the balance I enjoy trying to find.

Creativity Keeps Us Curious as Teachers

I think this becomes particularly important the longer we teach.

When you’re newly qualified, everything feels fresh.

You’re learning constantly. You’re thinking about every word you say. You’re probably spending hours planning classes.

Then, gradually, you become more experienced.

Teaching becomes easier.

And that’s wonderful.

But I also think we have to be careful that experience doesn’t turn into complacency.

When did you last learn something new?

When did you last change the way you taught a familiar exercise?

When did you last use a piece of equipment you hadn’t picked up for months?

When did you last attend another teacher’s class and come away thinking, “Oh, I really liked how they explained that”?

Continued professional development isn’t simply about collecting certificates.

For me, it’s about keeping that curiosity alive.

Perhaps I’m More Creative Than I Thought

Writing this has made me reconsider something I’ve probably told myself for most of my life:

I’m not creative.

Maybe that’s not actually true.

Perhaps I’ve just been looking for creativity in the wrong places.

Mine might not appear on a canvas.

It appears in a Pilates class.

It’s in a sequence I’ve put together.

It’s in finding ten different ways of using a small ball.

It’s in changing an exercise because the person in front of me needs something different.

It’s in searching for another way to describe a movement when my first explanation hasn’t landed.

It’s in continuing to learn, experiment and ask, “What else could I do with this?”

And perhaps that’s something worth considering for all of us.

We can be very quick to put ourselves into boxes.

I’m creative.

I’m not creative.

I’m artistic.

I’m not artistic.

But creativity doesn’t have to look a particular way.

It can be the way you cook without following a recipe. The way you arrange your garden. The way you solve a problem at work. The way you put an outfit together. The way you tell a story. The way you teach.

Perhaps creativity is less about being “good at art” and more about being willing to remain curious.

To experiment.

To play.

To occasionally do things differently.

And after all these years of telling myself I’m not particularly creative, I’m beginning to wonder…

Maybe I am after all.

Are You a Pilates or Yoga Teacher Who Needs Some Fresh Inspiration?

If your classes have started to feel a little repetitive, or you’ve lost some of the enthusiasm you had when you first started teaching, sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can make an enormous difference.

Through my coaching and mentoring for Pilates, yoga and wellbeing professionals, I help teachers develop their confidence, grow their businesses and find new ideas and direction in their teaching.

That might mean looking at lesson planning and creating more variety, finding ways to use small equipment, developing your confidence as a teacher, growing your classes or taking a bigger look at where you want your business to go next.

After many years of teaching and running my own successful yoga and Pilates business, I know how easy it can be to get stuck doing things the way you’ve always done them.

Sometimes we just need someone to help us see what’s possible.

Find out more about coaching and mentoring with me.