Ever felt overwhelmed, juggling mom-life, yet yearning to keep your creative fires burning? In this juice episode, Jen shares her personal journey with creativity and shares 5 practical ways to nourish your creative side, even when life gets too busy. And, it gets even better! We'll also explore how embracing creativity can serve as a tool for personal reconnection, adding new, meaningful dimensions to your life. Plus, you'll learn how doing this can actually help you shift your personality and be more open and creative.
Mentioned in the episode: Ann Lawton, board certified art therapist. https://www.instagram.com/ae_lawton/
Take the QUIZ! Discover how to use your mom superpower to reach your writing goals.
Ready to take back your time and add hours to the day so you can finally manage it all? Then you have to check out the FREE Time Audit Guide. You'll get coaching, worksheets, and tips on running your first time audit so that you can finally write your book without burning out. It's absolutely free, and it's my way of supporting and empowering YOU!
Instagram @momwritesfirst
Facebook
Website www.momfirstcoaching.com
Listen to more episodes by visiting Apple Podcasts or Spotify or your favorite platform.
Copyright 2024, Mom First Coaching
Ever felt overwhelmed, juggling mom-life, yet yearning to keep your creative fires burning? In this juice episode, Jen shares her personal journey with creativity and shares 5 practical ways to nourish your creative side, even when life gets too busy. And, it gets even better! We'll also explore how embracing creativity can serve as a tool for personal reconnection, adding new, meaningful dimensions to your life. Plus, you'll learn how doing this can actually help you shift your personality and be more open and creative.
Mentioned in the episode: Ann Lawton, board certified art therapist. https://www.instagram.com/ae_lawton/
Take the QUIZ! Discover how to use your mom superpower to reach your writing goals.
Ready to take back your time and add hours to the day so you can finally manage it all? Then you have to check out the FREE Time Audit Guide. You'll get coaching, worksheets, and tips on running your first time audit so that you can finally write your book without burning out. It's absolutely free, and it's my way of supporting and empowering YOU!
Instagram @momwritesfirst
Facebook
Website www.momfirstcoaching.com
Listen to more episodes by visiting Apple Podcasts or Spotify or your favorite platform.
Copyright 2024, Mom First Coaching
Have you ever said I'm not creative? Have you ever felt like creativity was for someone else? Let's be honest it's hard to make time and space to write, especially if you don't think of yourself as a creative human. Today, I'm going to share with you five specific ways to nurture your creativity and teach you how to cultivate the specific personality trait linked to creativity. You are listening to MomWritesFirst, the podcast that helps you, the busy, overwhelmed mom, write every single day. I'm your host, jen. I'm a mom of five, a lawyer-turned-life coach, and I'm developing a habit where I write every single day. Come with me on this journey where, together, we will empower each other to create a daily writing habit so that we can finally write, publish and sell our first book. Hello writer moms, I'm so glad you're here Today. I'm sharing with you how I learned to nurture my creativity. I'm getting a bit vulnerable and sharing with you what led me to begin my own creative journey in the first place, and you will learn today five ways that you can nurture your creativity and cultivate that specific personality trait linked to creativity.
Jen:Before we get to that, though, how about a little bit of a check-in? How is everyone doing out there in Momland? I know that for me this time of year can feel a little hectic. Like all the kids are back in school, we are kind of getting a routine down but kind of still figuring it out. People might be getting sick from everyone getting back together and having all those germs exchanged. And if you live somewhere where you get to experience all four seasons, like I do, it might be time to start thinking about dragging out all that winter wear. You know, the hats, the mittens, the boots. It can be a lot. This time of year can feel a little bit like the eye of a hurricane. You've sort of figured out the back to school routine. Fall sports are wrapping up and winter sports and activities maybe haven't started yet and the chaos and joy of the holidays hasn't quite settled in yet. This time, this moment, can feel like the calm before the storm. Do you know what I mean? So when you think of the holidays, what feelings come up for you? Do you feel peace and joy, or do you feel stress and tension, thinking about all the things that have to be done, thinking of all the people you have to please, all the gifts and decorations and gatherings that you have to have be just perfect. It's a lot to control, it's a lot to plan for, and while we know that it can't be perfect, we try pretty darn hard, don't we? Knowing that what is most likely to happen is what happens every year, which is that we will end up stressed out, frustrated, impatient, tired. That's not a recipe for holiday cheer, and it doesn't have to be like that. This year could be different.
Jen:As I did last year, I am again opening up a very special offer to all my listeners. I normally reserve this particular offer as a special bonus gift for my one-on-one clients, but, knowing that the holidays are right around the corner, I want to open this up to you, the listeners of this podcast. It's called mental fitness training, and if you want to learn more about it, you can head over to my website, momfirstcoachingcom. Mental fitness is basically mental resiliency. It's all about your ability to respond in the moment to life's challenges, but to do so not in a reactive way, but in a way that is positive and constructive. This year, I'm offering it in a format that is a six-week coaching course, part online and part on an app and part in meetings. You'll learn through this course how to identify the specific, unique thought patterns that you have that are undermining your well-being and preventing you from reaching your goals. You'll learn how to interrupt those patterns and then how to respond from your most wise, most sage-like self. If you are finding yourself feeling anxious, worried, stressed ahead of the holidays, then this is just what you need as you lead into the holidays, and it is the perfect way to start off the new year. This course is truly an incredible value and it's absolutely transformative. It's also actually doable during this very full time of year. You can see results in just a few minutes every day. Plus, I offer an absolutely guaranteed money-back guarantee because I feel so strongly about this and in the two years that I have been offering this program, nobody has ever requested a refund. It's actually that good. Again, you can find out more at momfirstcoachingcom.
Jen:Now let's head into today's topic, which is all about creativity, and I have the perfect listener question to share with you today. Since I started MomWritesFirst, I have been getting a number of questions from all of you, my beautiful listeners over at Instagram at MomWritesFirst. I love, love, love getting those questions. This one seemed absolutely perfect for today's episode, so, with the permission of the listener, I thought I would share it today. Here it is. It's from Becca in Madison, wisconsin. Hi, jen, I am a mom of three and I want to write more too. I'm so glad that my neighbor mentioned your podcast to me Me too, becca. Give them a huge thank you, just for me. She continues I struggle because when I have time to write, I don't feel inspired to write.
Jen:How can I overcome this, becca? That's a great question and this is so common. It happens to everyone, but I especially think that it is really tricky for moms, because writing is just one part of our life. We have kids, homes, schools, work and all kinds of other things on our plate. I mean, I know for me tonight I was at a PTO event so we can't always just drop whatever we're doing with inspiration strikes, and if we wait around for inspiration to strike, we might never actually have time to write.
Jen:So what's a mom to do? Well, what I have learned over the last couple months is that sometimes you have to take things into your own hands and kind of coax inspiration along. The number one thing that I have learned is that to know that if you are kind of in that space where you're having to try to figure out how to feel inspired. Nothing has gone wrong. This is totally normal. It's something that everybody deals with from time to time, and you shouldn't let it stop you. The second thing and this is a game changer, in my opinion is to really work on cultivating a daily writing habit, because if you can get into a system that you can follow every day, then you can really train yourself to write on command.
Jen:Let me offer a little bit more explanation, because I know that can seem a little daunting to think about writing every single day, but my experience as a mom is that I'm trying to build and accomplish a lot every day. My to-do list is a mile long. There are a ton of things that I want to do at work, a ton of things I want to do at the house, lots of fun things and projects and things I want to do with the kids, plus all the things that I want to do to take care of myself. I know that I am not alone in feeling like there just are not enough hours in the day or days in the week. Now, what we know from the science around goal setting is that when we're trying to get to some one big goal, it's usually best to just make that our focus and then kind of systemize everything. But if you're a mom, especially if you have added commitments at work and you're trying to reach goals there, there's not always enough bandwidth to try to hit another big goal, and so that's why I think that between home work, taking care of the kids, showing up as a mom, I want to be in all the spaces that I am being a friend and a sister and a wife, and taking care of myself.
Jen:What that means for me is that writing is not my be all and end all every day, and I used to think that that was a big problem. I used to think that I couldn't work on my writing until my kids were older or until I retired, but now I know that that's not the case. You don't have to make writing a full time, 40 hour a week job to consider yourself a writer. Instead, what you can do is learn to devote a little bit of time every day to your craft, and then you really are a writer. What you want to do is cultivate that habit. So, personally, for me, I am building a habit where I write every single day, because that kind of a habit really, really works well for me, becca, what you want to do is also try to figure out something that's going to work really well for you.
Jen:What kind of a small regular writing habit is going to work well for you? By doing this, you're going to build the skills over time to write even when you don't feel inspired, and that's especially the case if you can really make your habit into a routine. Maybe you sit in the same place, maybe you do it at the same time every single day. You drink the same beverage in the same cup, using the same pens or notebook or computer or laptop. The idea is to train your brain to go into that writing mode in a much faster way, and what I have found is creating a routine and having a daily habit works really, really well for that. It doesn't mean you have to devote an hour. Okay, I'm talking 10 minutes, just 10 minutes.
Jen:Third and finally, I have a little bit of a hack that I'm going to share with you that I use when I am really feeling stuck. There are times when, like you, I just don't feel like I can write. I have no motivation, no inspiration, and over the last few weeks, as I have been trying to develop this routine or habit around writing to overcome my lack of inspiration and get myself back to writing. What I do is on those mornings when I wake up and I just cannot bring myself to write, I do this same little routine every time I go outside. There's something about nature that just resets things for me, so I take advantage of that. I clear my mind and I pause and think about what I'm grateful for. This helps me to reset my mood, because usually I'm a little salty on those mornings when I just can't write.
Jen:Then I do this thing that probably seems a little bit weirder out there to some of you I say aloud to myself what I want to write that day or what I want to accomplish with my writing. For example, I might say I want to have fun or I want to feel inspired. I want to write a whole page today. I want to outline the next chapter of my book today, and then I ask myself how I can do that. Now I know this may seem just a little out there, like I said, but I swear that this is a process that really works for me.
Jen:Asking myself a question seems to give my brain the opportunity to start working on how to answer it. So after I ask that question, I then go out, I drop what I'm doing, I get outside, I go and get physical, like running for like 20 minutes or riding bikes, something where my body is really engaged. During that time I'm not on my phone, I'm not listening to my podcasts, I'm not talking to anybody else. I'm just trying to really focus and move my body. I'm focusing on how it feels, really dropping back into my body and feeling and noticing things with all my senses. I listen to the world around me. I hear the birds singing, I notice the flow of the river, I feel the sun and breeze on my face and as I'm doing this, about a third of the time the answer to my question comes to me. I feel inspired about what I'm going to do next.
Jen:I know what the next part of the story is going to be, and even in those cases where it doesn't work out perfectly and I don't get the exact answer that I'm looking for, I do have some kind of a shift, an epiphany, an awareness shift. My mood lifts and whatever I was stumped on isn't preventing me from riding anymore, and that, to me, is a lot of progress. Why does it work? I have no idea. I don't know. Maybe it's because we get for the same reason that we get our best ideas in the shower. Maybe it's because when we are kind of not focused on it but do know that it's a question that we want to solve, we make time and space in our brain for the answer to come to us. So, becca, that's my current method for creating inspiration out of nowhere and cultivating that daily habit of riding. I would love to hear what you think of it. So please drop me a line over at momwritesfirst on Instagram and thank you again. So much for your question. So, as I said, listeners, that really was the perfect question for today's episode, which is all about being more creative. If you have a question that could be asked on the podcast, or just something that you're wondering about, send it to me on Instagram at momwritesfirst. If you find this Q&A helpful, or if you get any value whatsoever out of this podcast, it would mean the world to me if you would share it with others. If you do it on social media and you take me, I'll be sure to send some love your way too. All right, now let's really dive into today's topic how to be more creative. This is a topic that brings up a bit of vulnerability for me.
Jen:For the longest time, I didn't think of myself as someone who could be creative. Creativity was for other people. It wasn't for me. It wasn't for people like me. It wasn't for people who went to law school, it wasn't for attorneys, and I certainly didn't have the time for any kind of creative hobby. It wasn't for busy working moms like me. What kind of a mom would I be if I worked and I had a hobby? How would I spend time with my kids? The mom guilt. It was just too much. Not only did I not think of myself as creative, I didn't think that I had time for it. Creativity seemed like something frivolous, something I could do when I retired, something that I could make time for when my kids were older, when there were fewer activities to run them to, fewer doctor's appointments, less laundry to fold and no homework to help with. Creativity was something that I could do when work slowed down, when the big case settled, when I finally met my billable hours.
Jen:Creativity was not for this season of my life. But then I got to the season of my life where I had everything I wanted. I had checked every box. Life had given me the home, the partner, the family, the job, even the vacation home, but a part of me still felt empty and unfulfilled. I had given birth to five amazing, beautiful, healthy kids. We were raising them together, my husband and I. I went to work every day, I checked my emails a zillion times, I made phone calls and then I got to go to bed in a safe home and I got up and did it again every single day. I felt empty and, even though I appreciated everything that I had been given in this beautiful, wondrous life of mine, in the same moment I felt like there had to be more. It was a funk that I just could not pull myself out of, no matter what I did I exercised, I got sleep, I went outside, I took a bubble bath, I got a massage, I did all those self-care things that you're supposed to do when you're feeling like that and I looked around and I still thought there has to be more to life than this hamster wheel that I am on. Don't get me wrong.
Jen:I had loads of fun in my life. My husband, my kids and I. We spent our weekends adventuring in the outdoors. We did silly projects. We got to go on odings and trips. We had a membership to every single museum around us. We baked and spent time together and it was lovely. Even on weeknights. We would spend those at the parks or hanging out or going for bike rides. We had tons of fun and we loved it. We absolutely did. It was beautiful, it was idyllic, it was almost perfect.
Jen:But even though I did all of those fun things with them and for them, I didn't think that I was worthy of those things for myself. I didn't think I was worthy of spending time, money or energy on something that I love to do just for me. I didn't think that I could be seen, and ultimately, that's what creativity requires. It requires you to be seen. If you have ever struggled to view yourself as a creative being, then I want you to know that I see you, I'm here for you, You're not alone, and I also want to offer to you that you are inherently, as a human, a creative being. I believe that we are here to create on this planet. We are here to bring something new into existence. If you're a mom, you do this all the time. You might have created an actual human in your body, regardless of how you became a mother. If you're a mom, you are creating adult humans by virtue of raising them. That in and of itself is a massive creative undertaking. When I was questioning whether I was worthy of being a creative being, I was blessed to have a friend and a colleague connect with me and offer me support, and I'll share more about that incredible human at the end of today's episode. Until then, just know that I'm so grateful for the role she played in helping me to view myself as a creative being, and now I want to help you do the same. So here is what I can offer to you today.
Jen:In my experience, the first step in becoming more creative is to realize that, just by virtue of being alive, you are creative. You are a creative, resourceful, whole human being who is eminently capable. Viewing yourself as creative is often a huge identity shift. We label ourselves by our roles, not by the qualities that we want to embody. So, for example, I call myself a mom, a friend, a sister, a daughter, a lawyer, a coach, a podcaster. These kinds of labels can be confining and limiting rather than label ourselves by our identities. If we are going to label ourselves at all. I think we should do so by the qualities that we want to embody. For instance, I am creative. If you label yourself as creative, you open up the possibility to the fact that you just might be creative. You allow yourself the opportunity to learn what it feels like to think of yourself as creative.
Jen:If you're creative, if you are really a creative being, then what does that mean for you? How does a creative person like you prioritize their time? How do they structure their day? How do they decide what they're going to spend money on? How does a creative person make time for creative pursuits? You can make anything you want in this world and so, my dear friend, if you want to write, then write. The ideas that you have in your heart are meant to come to life on paper. Let them.
Jen:The second step for me in becoming more creative was to embrace play and fun. I've always worked in professional jobs where people took their work and themselves very seriously, but opening the door to creativity taught me that being successful at work and in life did not mean that you closed the door on Play and fun. In fact, what I learned was that the most successful people around me, the people who I actually wanted to emulate, and the person that I wanted to become more of, were people who brought joy and fun to the world around them, even if there was important and serious work to do. There are so many ways that you can embrace play each day. One way is to think about the things that remind you of your childhood, like singing or dancing or coloring. You can add games and jokes and silly trivia contests to your daily repertoire too Whatever brings a smile to yourself and feels a little bit light and fun and silly.
Jen:The third step is to surround yourself with creativity. Immerse yourself in it. Be around creative things, around creative humans. Surround yourself with humans, objects, activities and an environment that makes you feel creative, something that opens you up to the possibility that you just might be a creative being. Creativity blooms in the company of other creatives, so decide what you want to create and Then surround yourself with people who are already doing that. If you want to write, join a writing group. Put yourself around other writers. Get around illustrators. Be around people who read books, a lot of books. Specifically, look for folks who are going to lift you up and encourage you. You become like the people who you surround yourself with, so cultivate a community of writers and other creatives around you. Make your space more creative, fill your home in your office with things that make you feel like you might be creative. Seek out inspiration and books and podcasts, and art and nature. And if you're a writer, then don't forget to read, read about writing and read great writing. Oftentimes, this all requires that we expand our horizons and get curious about what's around us. Try approaching new things and new humans from a place of curiosity, so that you can find those people, ideas and activities and things that really trigger within you that creative spark.
Jen:Fourth and this is a hard one you have to be vulnerable. You have to show up. You have to be seen. You have to allow your work to be seen by others. This is hard because it requires you to risk failure and confront perfectionism and Insidious barrier to creativity. For so many of us, being willing to fail, even leaning into failure so-called failure is an absolutely Essential part of being more creative. It's so critical that we rethink failure and learn to view all the ups and downs as just part of the process. Perfectionism is kryptonite for creativity, and so you need to get out there and create and then you need to take the step of showing your work to others.
Jen:I Know how hard and scary this can be. I know that I personally have been afraid to put an idea out into the world where it could get squashed Before it was even ready to be seen by anybody else. And as hard as all this is, I also know that by putting ourselves out there we truly grow. So find a way to show up and show your work to others in a Way that feels safe and authentic to you. For me, it's podcasting. Every time I write, edit and produce a podcast and put it out into the world, I know very well that I risk looking like a failure. I risk people judging how I look and sound. I'm probably making a spectacle of myself. I know that and I do it anyway because I know how important it is for my creative process, for my growth. You can do this in any way that feels right to you. You could do it on social media. You could do it with a pseudonym. You could find a writing buddy and share your writing with each other. You could show it to family, friends, strangers Whatever makes the most sense for you. If you're feeling resistance to this idea, just know that that's normal, but also know that you are ready, it's okay to be seen, you are capable and it's time to let someone else See just how incredible your writing is.
Jen:Fifth and finally, you need to devote time to your craft, practice being creative, practice, writing. If you want to write, then you have to practice. And here's what I believe If you are a mom, and especially if you are a mom who also has a job outside the house, then you need to cultivate a daily practice of writing. Now I hear you. I know what you're thinking that there's not enough time. But that's just the problem, isn't it? You haven't learned how to make time or space for creativity in your life.
Jen:If you want to be a writer, you can wait until the kids are back in school. You can wait until they're done with school. You can wait until you retire. You can wait and wait and wait, and you can risk that the day that you'll finally get to write Will never come. Or you can be a writer today, simply by writing. Take ten minutes today and Write, and then take ten minutes tomorrow and write. Do that for a week, then a month, then three months, and Before you know it, a year will have gone by and suddenly you are a woman who writes every single day. You are a writer. You are a mom who prioritizes her writing. You are a mom who writes first. There you have it. Those are my five tips for becoming more creative.
Jen:Now, what I want you to know is that these are actually much more than just some simple tips and tricks. What is fabulous about all of these tips is that by doing this, you not only build creative habits and make time and space to do what you love, like write. You also cultivate a creative community around you. You nurture connection, but on top of that, you do something very special and impactful from a psychological perspective you cultivate openness. From a psychological perspective, openness is the personality trait that is most associated with creativity, and it includes a willingness to experience new things, embrace different perspectives and explore the unknown. When you do things that cultivate the personality trait of openness, you increase your creativity. Over time. This has an impact in how you view yourself and in how you show up in the world as a creative being.
Jen:Using these tips today that I've given you is about so much more than the simple act of writing. The goal here is to cultivate openness, that personality trait linked to creativity. Again, here are those five easy ways to do that. Number one start thinking of yourself as a creative person. Number two embrace, play. Number three practice some immersion therapy. Four share your work in progress. Share your work. Five practice, practice, practice, practice being creative every day. I especially advocate for creating a daily writing habit. These are five ways that you can teach yourself to become more creative.
Jen:And now it's time for my favorite segment in the show, which is where I share with you my favorite podcasters and writers and bloggers and artists and other creators who are out in the world doing amazing, beautiful, creative work. Before we get just to that, I want to thank you for being here and listening to this episode. If this podcast has been helpful to you, please share it with others. When you share this podcast with others, you help me and you help them, so please help me get the word out about this podcast. If you share it on social media, you can take me and I'll be sure to drop some love your way too.
Jen:And now it's time for our Gem of the Week. Today's Gem of the Week is for my friend and colleague, the incredible human who has inspired and encouraged me to allow myself to explore my own creativity, anne Lund. I am so grateful for Anne because without her I don't think I ever would have embarked on this path. Anne is a board-certified art therapist and she's one of those humans who sprinkles creativity wherever she goes. I am so grateful for her and for her to be a part of my own creative journey means so much to me. Thank you, anne, for all you do to empower all the humans on their journeys.
Jen:You can find out more about Anne, including the intuitive drawing classes that she sometimes teaches over on Instagram at ae-lotton. And while on Instagram, be sure to swing over to At Mom Writes. First, I would absolutely love to hear from you. It's one of my favorite things when I hear from listeners of this podcast. Thank you so much for listening today and, in case nobody has reminded you, you are a resourceful, creative whole human being. You are capable and you are loved, and your ideas, your words and your stories matter. Keep on writing. I will see you next week.