Creative Wellness Letters - where do your ideas come from? 🤔🧠🪄

Hi Reader, 

Where do your creative ideas come from?

You might have some consistent sources of inspiration, and some total surprises. Maybe there’s a setting that often yields a flow of ideas, like the shower, or going on a walk.

But where do the ideas come from?

Does it feel like they fully come from you, like they’re received from somewhere (someone?) else, or perhaps somewhere in between?

Do you experience creativity as a spiritual or intuitive practice?

Maybe you don’t use those words, but there is something mysterious and unexplainable about how we make art. There can be a logic to it, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little, but it’s never solely a scientific process, and usually a non-linear one.

Because of this, creativity is mysterious and hard to explain, so there are countless ways that people have described it over the course of history.

For example, the idea of the Greek muses, goddesses who came to earth to share creative ideas with humans, each of whom had a different realm they governed. Or, Tori Amos describes her Muses as gifting her with bits and pieces of a song, usually only eight bars at a time, and then they help her develop a “Song Being” a musical form with its own soul and essence, that she forms a personal relationship with. (Read more about her process here.) 

The idea of a “muse” could be anyone who provides inspiration for art, perhaps a specific living person, but perhaps not.

I’m constantly recommending Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic, and her podcast Magic Lessons, about this topic, too - check it out if you haven’t yet!

The act of creating is so deeply personal, so we each have our own relationship with it, which also evolves over time. If that relationship needs some strengthening, I talk about how to do that in Being A Whole Person S3 E5: How to Nurture Your Relationship With Creativity. 

For me, thinking of creativity as coming solely from myself feels too ego-driven and doesn’t seem to adequately explain the mystery in this often-magical process.

But, thinking of myself as an empty vessel that only receives without my own volition doesn’t feel true either.

I tend to land somewhere in the middle - I think of the creative process as a co-creation with the universe, and I’m open to many different ways of describing these creative forces or energies that seem to be outside of myself. 

My friend Hannah coined the term “pragmagical”, which describes my leanings - I’m all about teaching pragmatic and tangible ways to encourage our creativity, but also need to leave space for some magic.

Last year I participated in the Coven of Creativity’s Season of Creation, and part of the beginning of the season included doing a meditation where we got to meet the “soul of our project”, to get to know them a little bit, and ask for guidance.

In the past, I might have found these sorts of visualizations kind of “out there”, but really, I'm open to anything that could help connect creativity, and this meditation was really interesting and powerful!

My project for this season of creation was to reconnect with myself as a composer in a deeper way, and I didn’t know what to expect. 

I saw a lady made of some kind of gold, glowing, shimmery, gooey material, but in a human form. She was wearing a beautifully multicolored twirly dress, perhaps inspired by traditional Mexican clothing, especially featuring magenta and turquoise colors. She seemed to be a woman of few words, a little bit mischievous like the Triplets of Belleville, but very much a powerful and comforting presence who provided guidance, and her name is Wilda. 

Sometimes when I don’t know how to start a composition, or how to go on from a point where I’m stuck, I ask Wilda for guidance, and I get a certain kind of energy, or a little idea that helps me get to the next step.

Whether you view this as creating a vision from your own imagination, or connecting with some energy that is already there, this might be a supportive practice next time you get stuck - create a character (or a panel of them!) who can be your muse for the project.

You can see what guidance they have to offer, play with different characters, play with creating prompts for different moods - anything that feels fun and interesting! 

When you’re feeling like you have to control the creative process or be fully responsible for it, loosening your grip by looking to the universe / the creative powers that be / [insert your preferred term here] might be just the thing you need to move forward. 

You can call on these spirits / personas / energies for support whenever you need them!

Who or what are your muses or sources of ideas and creative energy? I'd love to hear about it!

Stay well, my friends - I'm always rooting for you. My inbox is always open, so please feel free to reach out if I can help in any way. 

I always love hearing from you!

Have a lovely week! ⁠

Rebecca

• The Great Return: a practice of coming back to yourself after wandering away - Nicole Antoinette, whose writing I always love, asks herself what would make returning feel good.

• Consistency over intensity - Consistency can be as flexible as we need it to be - it’s about sustaining over time!
• Advice to composers from Jovino Santos Neto (if you don’t know him, he was the pianist with Hermeto Pascoal’s Grupo for many years and is a phenomenal Brazilian pianist) - my favorite is the last point.

• Ep. 72: Coda: Reflections, Endings, and Beginnings

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