Curating the Curious
Welcome to Curating the Curious, the podcast that celebrates staying curious in life and never settling into a box.
This show is for the creators, the seekers, the explorers, the truth tellers….and the forever students of life.
No matter what age or stage you’re currently at, this is not as good as it gets and it is never too late to begin.
Join me as we explore all of the questions that come with the idea of curiosity. A place where the possibilities are endless and you can always start again.
We expand our lives through curiosity. One of my greatest passions is finding ways to encourage and inspire others to keep pushing, sharing, living, and making things for the world to see.
Curating the Curious
Day 16- How Do We Unclog Our Creative Drain?
Welcome to DAY SIXTEEN of our new 30-day COMMUNITY PROJECT where we make something with our hands every day in order to improve our mental health. We all realize that creativity heals...it's time to put that knowledge into action.
I'm going to publish an episode for you to follow along with several days of each week (I'll take breaks on Fridays and weekends in order to give you time to catch up as needed). These episodes will exist here, marked with the days numbered, in order for you to follow along at any speed that you like. Miss a day? Doesn't matter. Just pick up right where you left off and keep making things. These episodes will give us all some accountability, but if you need more, pair up with a partner. It really does help!
Join our creative community by making something today, whether it's for five minutes or several hours—your brain will thank you. Let's do this thing together and turn all of this sh*t into something beautiful!
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Unused creativity is not benign. It metastasizes into resentment, grief, heartbreak and oppression. Brene Brown, I heard that years ago and I remember thinking, whoa, that feels really excessive. Is this an exaggeration, or could this really be true? And then it becomes like the chicken and the egg. Which one's coming first? Is the resentment, grief, heartbreak, depression causing you to not do the creative things that bring you joy, or is it the other way around? But I guess this one is actually a both and it does not have to be either or it actually just becomes kind of a snowball once you let it go too far, which I have done many times in my past. Actually, after a while it just starts becoming like a clogged drain, and then the longer that you let that clog sit there, the more stuff accumulates in there and then pretty soon, instead of being able to just pour a little Drano down there, you've got to call a plumber and have them come and bring that snake thing. I've been there, in fact I believe I'm there right now. It's here, it's happening, going on vacation this summer and being able to just walk around on foot and take photos with a little film camera and observe everything. I feel like it was a huge, like that snake, just coming into the creative drain, emptying most of it not all of it, but a great deal of it. And now, just little by little, I'm working on keeping my head above water by doing these projects with my hands. Each day, I'm trying to unclog that creative drain daily. Although I haven't been able to come here and make these episodes as I planned, I've still been working on all of this stuff and it's doing the job, and I hope that you're keeping up without me. Well, I have not had a voice. I kind of have one today, so that's why I'm here.
Speaker 1:But I will say that, being sick for nearly a month now with COVID and then bronchitis, I have learned the value of rest again. I keep learning the value of rest, actually, but this has been a very, very big one for me because it came the sickness came smack in the middle of my favorite time of the year, which is summer. I'm ruled by the sun, and the sun keeps my motor running, and so when it's out and it's summer, I can't slow myself down. I'm constantly wanting to be outdoors or go do something, or go on a walk or go to the beach, or I can't slow down. So being sick for almost the entire month of August, besides being gone for a week for a wedding, it has been a big awakening for me, something I did not want to experience, but something that I kind of feel like I needed to experience, and it's given me time to reflect on a lot of things that I normally wouldn't take the time for while I'm in my happy summer season. But I didn't want to stay away from this podcast for too long during all of this, because I really do believe in the value of giving you my experience while I'm learning, instead of turning up with hey, I've got answers. You know, I want some of this to be. I am in the learning space and this is what I'm uncovering. Becoming sidelined like this has been a huge thing.
Speaker 1:I set out to do these 30 days on this podcast. I got myself prepped. I recorded seven or eight episodes in advance so that I wouldn't leave anybody hanging. And lo and behold, I didn't choose to leave anybody hanging, but something happened to me where there was nothing else I could do but just stop doing what I had promised. I honestly don't think anybody cares, but I do. You know I care. In a month or two. These 30 episodes will be there and they'll all just be sitting here forever for anybody to click into and nobody will know the difference.
Speaker 1:The only people who know the difference are the ones following along, which, since I'm not on social media anymore, is a much smaller audience than I'm used to, and that is another thing that I've been really learning during this process. My audience right now following along with each episode is probably five, six, seven times smaller than my typical audience back when I was promoting things on social media. It is a huge difference. To be frank, it has been a tad discouraging to see that, but I just kept pushing through saying to myself this is not why I'm doing it. I'm not doing this for attention. I'm not doing this to receive anything. So, no matter how much lower the amount of listeners are with me not promoting on social media, I'm gonna keep going. Every now and then I'll pop in and do a little something. But my engagement on social media is so low at this point because I don't use it that it doesn't really do much anyway. So I would have to be working hard to try and get this thing seen and heard and honestly, I kind of like it the smaller audience. I feel like anybody who's still listening is on my wavelength and they're not listening just because they saw a post and they want to check it out. It's people who actually feel what I'm feeling and I'm connecting with on a deeper level, a different level, and it feels more intimate and it feels honestly safer safer to be myself and not try and make this more exciting, just kind of be there. This is what's going on. This is what I've got for you today, which is something I'm working on in life all around.
Speaker 1:So when it comes to unclogging the creative drain and getting things moving through that pipe, it's just got to be easy Give yourself the rest that you need. You don't have to be a production machine. It could be the smallest, smallest things, just in the way that you cook dinner or make a sandwich or cut flowers and place them on the table. We have to start noticing those things every day that feed us. Find what feeds you, what feeds you. Be more aware of what's around you. Notice things Truly, truly notice them. Art is the essence of awareness. That's a quote by John O'Donohue. It just couldn't be more true. It's the essence of awareness. Couldn't be more true. It's the essence of awareness. That's what.
Speaker 1:When I take photos, I'm just being aware of what's around me. When I went on my color walk in Portugal, it was just being aware oh, look at that color, look at how that mixes with that. Oh, I've got to photograph that. It just frees you. When I go on my walks through the same trail almost every single day, I stop. I make myself stop and notice new things. Which of the flowers are blooming, what color are they right now? Which ones are going away? Oh, look at that swallowtail. We have swallowtails running around right now. I go and I check all the milkweed out at the park to see how much is there and if there are any caterpillars. I no longer wear headphones ever on my walk by getting a podcast in, while also exercising. Now it's more of an exercise of getting my body moving, breathing fresh air, smelling it, hearing the sounds, looking for new things. This has all been a part of learning how to calm my nervous system. If you've ever heard of, your Body Keeps the Score, the book, you know what I mean. Your body remembers everything.
Speaker 1:So I really do think that Brene was right. I really do think that unused creativity is not benign. I really do think it does metastasize, and another point that I've really wanted to talk about for a long time is that not only is creating a healing thing, but the act of learning how to heal and healing yourself is a creative act in itself is a creative act in itself. Around 2018, 2019, I started receiving the screams from my body, and by 2020, I was beginning to open up to a healing expedition. I'm now realizing this is going to be a lifelong process and there's no end, but through all of this, I have come to realize how much art is healing, and healing is a form of art. It's a day-by-day process of implementing positive, healing things into everyday life, and if I can incorporate actual making of any type of art into that, that's the ultimate, ultimate goal.
Speaker 1:There are still so many things that I want to touch on that have been going on throughout these years, but I want to keep these episodes short and sweet. So remember these things Slow down, find what feeds you, find little, tiny ways each day to unclog that creative drain if it is backed up and if you can. Don't allow it to get too backed up, like I have, or else you have a lot more work ahead of you. But if you already have, don't worry, you're in good company. Little baby steps, slowly, slowly, find a way to schedule an artist date with yourself.
Speaker 1:If you don't know what I mean by artist date, this is the Julia Cameron's book the Artist Way, and she recommends that we take a day each week, hopefully for at least two hours if possible which I know some people are laughing right now but if you're able to do that, an artist's date is a solitary, planned excursion for oneself to a place or activity that sparks wonder and joy, serving as a way to recharge the creative spirit and connect with one's inner artist. So an idea of that would be like visiting a museum or an art gallery, taking a walk in nature, exploring a new part of your town, listening to some music, people watching at a cafe, visiting a favorite place from your past, taking some photos whatever feeds you. There's actually also an artist date book, maybe like a journal type thing. I just looked it up. I don't have it, but I might need one to get myself to be doing them a little bit more often and keeping track. But that's it.
Speaker 1:Today was a little more of a brain dump, since I've been restricted from being here by my voice. Unleash that creativity in whatever way you can, little by little, day by day, hour by hour. Whenever you can Go on an artist date, make something with your hands. Today, my project was writing in a journal, with a pen, of course, and not typing, because I think that that's what they recommend for the full therapeutic effect. All right, until we meet again, stay curious.
