The right brain has long been credited with creativity. We are all born with this part working like crazy. This part knows how to play with inhibition. It imagines. It dreams. It enjoys creating for the sake of creating.

As we get into school, that often shifts. We are taught that our left brain is the one we need to be developing. We need to learn multiplication tables. We need to memorize dates of battles fought in wars and algorithms and scientific principles. All this leaves little time and value for the right brain to develop. Imagination and intuition become wooey ideas better left in the sandbox, at least according to western curriculum.

In adulthood, I often hear people say, “I’m not creative.” They equate creativity to painting a picture or sculpting a statue. They are afraid to play in the right brain playground because they have been rewarded for their left brain accomplishments. What if the right brain does not perform? They don’t trust it.

The fact is, though, we are all creative. We have been created by the ultimate Creator and the power of creation lies within each of us. The secret is identifying where your creative strengths lie. Some may find their creative power in cooking. Others in finance. Others in understanding children and helping them forge creative solutions to their problems. Creativity doesn’t always manifest in something you’d hang on a wall at an art show. Maybe it’s something you bring into daily living and share with those around you to make their lives better.

It’s important to spend some time intuiting what your creative strengths are and developing those. For example, one way I develop my creative streak is through different types of writing. But it’s also important to push yourself out of the safety zone where you know you can excel and into an area all new to you. For me, this virgin territory is painting and drawing. My horses look like elephants. (One of my second graders actually told me that when I was teaching.) That could have shut me down, but instead I looked at that as an invitation to develop that area of my brain. When I take paint classes, the people around me are amazing artists. If I compared myself to them, I could get discouraged. Instead I compliment myself for letting myself play in the areas of creativity I’m not familiar with and get my hands dirty. Literally.

I’ve always felt like we were put here to live life fully and have fun. Maya Angelou said, “You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

Play. Have fun. Be creative. And watch your life and health blossom because of it.  What better way to spend 2015?