my creative year in review

a look back on what I created and how I fueled my creativity

For most of my adulthood, I never considered myself a creative person. I am a rational business lady! I don’t even use colors on spreadsheets! But over the past few years I have been working on finding the creative joy I once had as a child.

2023 was the most creative year I’ve had in my adult life. I taught my first personal development course which was about a topic that really inspires me: the magic of creating and maintaining friendships in adulthood. I spent December writing the content (which I would love to make into a book!), January creating the marketing and sales, and February and March delivering the content. It was awesome! I noticed once I was working on a creative idea, it spiraled like a tumbleweed and generated more and more ideas. I felt very much “in the flow” creating something that I felt passionate about. I also led a workshop in April about defining your core values which was really rewarding.

When we moved to Italy in late May, however, I was completely burned out. I was also literally burning up, because it was very hot in Napoli with high humidity, and it stifled my creativity immensely. I had a lot to be inspired by, living in a new country and learning a new language, but I was in flight or flight mode. Not to mention, I did not have access to my normal tools for calming my nervous system. I spent the fall coming down from that and enjoying quality time with visitors.

David (bozetto) by JAGO in Napoli

This winter, with the cooler temperatures and more alone time, I have dedicated more time to balancing my nervous system. I have also been making some good leaps in Italian. Learning a new language is a creative art in and of itself. Not only that, I joined a writing workshop in December that has ignited a large number of words erupting from my fingertips and onto the screen. Looking back, it’s likely the creative resting I was doing over the summer and fall was laying the foundation for my next creative surge.

I feel proud of what I’ve put out into the world this year and excited to follow my creativity into 2024. So, after more than a year of trying out new habits to inspire creativity, I had some observations about what worked for me last year. If you are looking work on channeling your creativity for the year like I am, I am sharing some things that worked for me.

• Sobriety. I have been sober curious for a long time. I probably spent about 4 months of 2023 alcohol-free. I read “The Sober Curious Reset” by

  Ruby Warrington
  and completed the associated journaling activities. Not waking up hungover, letting my brain reset, and educating myself on the impact of alcohol on the body helped me immensely. Ultimately I decided not to completely cut out alcohol, but this helped me realize the impact alcohol has on me and the ways I want to drink mindfully in the future.

• Cutting social media. I don’t know why it took my so long to realize social media is both addicting and terrible for my creativity. I realized how much I dislike creating content. I am not a photographer, I am not a videographer, and I am not in marketing. All these things were taking away from actual time spent writing, which is what I want to focus on. Since deleting all social media from my phone, it has opened up a wealth of time to read on Substack or Kindle and also use my Duolingo. These two things fill me up :)

• Scheduling creative time and planning ahead. I am someone who always feels the need to be “productive”. So if I spend four hours in my bed writing, a voice in my head tells me “I just wasted the day”. My partner always reminds me that it’s ok to spend the whole day writing! And on days when I was feeling sad or uninspired, during my scheduled writing day, I would start and then feel so much better afterwards. This has helped me keep to my self-commitments.

• Journaling. It’s a daily practice and it must be done. I now have an Italian journal and an English journal too. It’s what started my entire creative practice and is essential to my well-being.

• Investigating my human design. Have you ever heard of human design? I am a manifestor, and when I read the description, I connected to it. The manifestor superpower is initiation. I love getting people together behind a cause or a mission, project, or idea. This is what really lights me up, is starting things. Having this knowledge was useful to create a mindset shift. I can think of my creative output as cyclical and changing. I also remind myself with anything I’m missing, I can just create it myself.

• Doubling down on the gentleness on my body. To maintain a strong mindset during the ups and downs of life, I enjoy exercise for stress and anxiety relief. These are usually pretty low-impact (walking, taking yoga, barre, or pilates classes). In my most creative time of Q1 I was doing a lot more somatic movement and less exercise. This included reiki, yin yoga, and meditation classes or yoga nidras. I was taking excellent care of myself and using supreme gentleness in my body.

• Doubling down on the gentleness of my mind. Sometimes I go hard in the paint and do distressing meditations about “my shadow” and things that trigger me. I’ve been known to be hard on myself, like when I lose my temper and accidentally blame falling down a ski mountain on my faultless partner. There are definitely times that you need to call yourself out on your BS but if you are trying to let the inner creative out it’s easier if you cut yourself a break and let your inner wisdom drive you.

• More ART. Living in Italy, I have spent a lot of time in art museums seeing “world renowned” pieces. However, that is not what inspired me most. Going to small galleries with creative minded friends in San Diego or checking out an exhibit in Copenhagen have really helped me understand why us creatives just HAVE to keep going. There is really no other option for us.

Thank you @blackliturgies for this inspo

• Embracing big group energy. BGE is what I miss THE MOST living in Italy! Big group energy is REALLY generating to me. I am also an extravert and most of my best days on earth have been when I’m with a group of friends in nature doing something awesome like skiing or hiking or biking or playing tennis or just lounging around doing art projects outside. Someone’s cooking dinner and another person is making me a cocktail and someone else is leading a guitar solo around the campfire and I just LOVE it. There are so many people to draw inspiration from! Being in this winter writing workshop has helped give me the feeling of BGE, even if it’s virtual.

I think what I learned this year is that even if I didn’t crush my “sales” on a program or workshop, even if I don’t have likes or commenters or subscribers on my articles, it feels good simply to put things out into the world. I have gained more courage to follow my curiosities and have worried less about what people think of me. Who knows where my curiosities will lead?

What about you? What worked for you creatively this year?

_____

Creativity Reading Recommendations:

• Julia Cameron’s “The Artists Way” which I would equate to the creative Bible

• “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert (thanks Lauren for this wonderful gift!)

• This post on her creative process by

  Jamie Varon
  which inspired my own post today, as well as this article about the “The over-romanticization of being a writer”.

• It seems everyone is reading “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin but I haven’t tried it yet…