Dear Creatives,
Imagine an island just off the English coast. Its residents can walk or drive to the mainland shore when the tide goes out, but when it comes back in, they are surrounded and held by the sea.
That metaphor reaches all the way down to my toes.
And such a place does indeed exist. The tidal island of Lindisfarne in Northumberland. It’s one of my few bucket list places to visit one day.
I’m a bit of a Celtic contemplative spirituality nut. The stories of the ancient saints and monastics capture my heart and soul.
Here she is in all her glory. This image ⬆️ is not AI fantasy. This is an actual photograph of Lindisfarne at sunrise. The beauty doesn’t even seem real.
While I’m not able to hop on a plane and “just go” in this season of my life, the idea of a life framed by the rhythm of the tides is more fascinating than ever.
Maybe it’s because my TBI amped up my already highly sensitive wiring.
Maybe it’s because of the constant flood of digital noise in the US of A.
But I think a good chunk of it lies in the realization that creativity and creating are embodied experiences.
I am FASCINATED by the neuroscience of creativity. Brains are so intriguing to study. But brains exist in bodies. And bodies exist in a fragile, ever-changing world.
Embracing the Rhythms
What if we viewed our embodied experience of creating a little more like the ebbs and flows of the tides?
There are times to be busy making and times to slow down into stillness. Both are necessary. Both are valid. Neither is a sign of being broken.
There are times when ideas flow like Niagara and other times when they are a slowly meandering stream. One is not success and the other is not failure.
There are times when we have to run errands. That doesn’t mean we are not creating or living a creative experience.
There are times we hop on social and tell our stories to the world around us. And there are times we are quiet, writing the stories we will later tell with our lives.
Just as our bodies need rhythms of rest and run, so does our creativity.
I wonder how much pressure we could take off our creative practice if we saw it as a whole-self, embodied, lived experience that extends far beyond our art-making, writing, or genre of expression.
This week, I won’t do much painting or social media because I have to finish my website. But that doesn’t mean I’m not creating. I’m just creating differently.
This week the tide has come in and surrounded me. I get to stay in my studio and embrace the deep work of translating my business into a refreshed online experience. And I am relishing every small moment of it.
If creativity is an embodied experience, then no task or part of living is outside of its reach.
Leaning Into Our Limits
One of the most well-known art practices to boost creative expression is to use a limited palette.
There is something about limits that makes us more creative.
Instead of painting with 48 colors and their infinite combinations, try 4-6 colors.
Paint using only one brush.
Paint small instead of large.
Create in a time-limited sprint.
But there are also different types of limits, like seasons when health issues limit us. Or family obligations slow us down.
What if we treat these “interruptions” as integral to our creative growth?
What if we viewed these limitations as opportunities to boost our creative practice by leaning into them?
Whether you have an ideal week with the perfect conditions and all your dream supplies or you are creating out of a TSA-approved makeup bag on the fly between crises, one doesn’t mean more and the other less.
As we hang out here, I hope you’ll find the courage to create right in the middle of where you are, and not judge it as less than because your circumstances look different from the Insta-perfect ideal.
Your capacity does not determine your creativity’s significance.
Whether it’s one stroke or a whole painting, your creative practice deserves celebration.
Whether you scribble one word or write 5000, your storied expression deserves to be cherished.
Limitation is not our enemy.
Slowing down is not a setback.
Productivity is not the measure of our meaning.
Leaning into our limits might be the thing that invites us deeper into our creativity than we can now imagine.
Thank you for reading today. I’d love to hear about your experience with limits — how have you been able to embrace them and make them work for your creativity? Tell us in the comments.
Also, I don’t have investors or work for a fancy magazine. My work here is fully supported by you. The best way to ensure encouragement keeps landing in your inbox is to subscribe today.
I’m here celebrating you and all the beauty of your becoming.
Amazing! Upon reading the first few lines of your mail today I immediately imagined Lindesfarne 😀 And then you wrote about Lindesfarne!!! Having grown up not far away from this beautiful area I could immediately relate to your words and description of ‚creative ebbs and flows‘. … Especially because current circumstances make me feel ‚cut off‘ from opportunities to paint and write, spend creative time on the things I would like too. Thank you for your timely and very personal words of encouragement 🫶
Susan, Black Forest, Germany
Spot on post today. Thank you! 🙏