CwL Ep 150 – Creativity in action

Hey, welcome back. Okay, so this is the third part in this whole transitions and creativity series. So I wanted to give you some examples of how living from a more creative headspace and allowing this sort of sense of creativity has actually resulted in different things happening in my life and how light and easy and fun it all kind of feels. And it’s really been interesting, the response that I have received to the last few episodes, especially from people who’ve been, I think probably similar to me on this path with personal growth and figuring out loads of different things, exposing ourselves to different ideas, different people, different concepts and frameworks and all that sort of stuff over the last few years to get to a place where we’re like, cool, that’s all awesome, and now actually what do we need? And getting to a place where it’s like, yeah, kind of a bit like, okay, done with all of that sort of stuff, and thank you for letting me know that this is resonating. I never assume to think that I’m anywhere that other people aren’t. I just think we’re all kind of on a very similar journey through this, and if you’ve been a listener to the podcast for a while, then it’s probably no surprises that we are here.

I think it’s a really, really interesting time. Anyway, let me just say I had a coffee with a friend who I haven’t seen for ages this morning, and she’s gone through some big changes in her life, and particularly with work, and she’s sort of on the other side of something massive and there’s a lot of feelings that need to be felt around that. And I was saying to her, yeah, this time last year, I was just really feeling just twitchy and not in a good place and needing to, wanting to be more in life and really finding it hard, especially after those covid years to kind of do it because I was just so in the zone of where I was at and I needed to shake out of it anyway, now I just do heaps of things. I think what the trip last year really reminded me of was how much there is to explore and how many cool things are happening and how expansive it is to expose yourself to things completely outside your usual frame of reference.

And I do think that I was very heavily involved in the online business world and all of that kind of stuff, and recently I was in a room of people like that and I just was like, yeah, I feel like that was a time, and I feel the need for different ideas for different rooms, and that’s the whole part of this creative exploration that I’m just loving so, so much. And I think it’s okay to get to stages of our life where we’re like, yeah, we moving into something new. And so I said to this friend this morning, I’m just doing heaps of stuff. I was out last night at the art centre. I’m going to a concert next week, and hey, you should come along to Pub Choir because I finally booked tickets to that. So she’s booked tickets for her and her sister.

She’s like, this is really great. I think I need to do more of this. And I said, I think we forget that we just get into our zone and I get it. I found it challenging to be back in the zone of extracurricular activities for the kids and the rhythm of the school week and all that sort of stuff to keep that what I talked about in the last episode, to keep that creative space to invite in different experiences that kind of for me are definitely a spark to better things and to a happier Lisa. And so I just booked myself tickets, and that’s one of the things of the changes that has happened for me. When I got back from the trip last year, I just started to just book stuff in. Sometimes I’ll just get a ticket for myself. Sometimes I’ll buy two tickets and just think, I’ll see if anyone wants to come, but I just don’t really care if they do or they don’t.

When I was thinking about being in life a bit more, it was literally just go out and do things. And there’s so many fabulous things happening in Melbourne all the time, and I just feel like no experience is ever wasted and they don’t even have to cost money. It’s just get out amongst it. I mean, this is what I was saying to myself on the trip. You literally, you never regret doing something fun. You never regret going in for a swim, never, even if it’s freezing and your toes, you come out and your toes are white, it was so cold. You don’t ever regret that because bloody hell, it feels amazing to actually feel alive. And I was definitely seeking that last year and I continue to seek it, but I remember the feeling of being back at home and all the familiarity of all the home stuff. And I was sitting in my back garden one day, which is just a little courtyard, and I just thought, okay, what is the most creative thing I could do with this space? Because I actually want to enjoy being in my home more. If I’m going to be here, how can we get creative with it?

So one thing I did was a massive cull of my home, massive. The biggest I’ve ever had. Creative solution doesn’t sound like, but it absolutely was because it then invited in new space, new energy, and then with my back garden area, I was like, imagine I just put down some fake grass wonder and then got rid of this rickety old table and chairs that’s been there and weathered all the storms. And I replaced it with something that we actually would use imagine. And so I started to look around on Facebook marketplace for things, see what people were trying to get rid of, and all this stuff went to Bunnings. I mean, I’m not a Bunnings person. I have become a Bunnings person because I just asked myself, what could I do if I was to bring the most creative solution here and dream into that a little bit?

What would I do? And we now have the most, it feels like a resort, basically. My back garden, we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner out there as often as we can. There has been a few bee stings because they seem to that grass and just hang around on it. And I really thoroughly enjoyed the process. And then I was looking around and I contacted the real estate agent and I said, these sleepers, they’re all rotten that were holding up this garden bed and there’s nails sticking out of them. And I just think that it might be time for them to be replaced, had them replaced within about a week, brand new sort of garden bed looks lovely and delightful, and I just couldn’t be happier. It’s like when you look at something and you’re not just thinking, well, this sort of just sucks. Well, if I could bring creative thinking to this situation, what would I do?

What would happen? What could I change? And it’s just amazing what’s possible. And it’s the same. I mean, I’ve really done it also with food, with our food. Just thinking a little bit outside the box, I think I was just very much in the, let’s just keep this as easy as possible, which I am still now. But I got back into, I think it was definitely something that I was missing from being with my former partner who was super creative with food. There were seven people around our table very often. We were always trying different things because at least some people will eat it, some might not.

And I loved that about our relationship. Sometimes we’d just keep it really simple, but he kept things mixed up and we’d bring new flavours in. He’d cook something over at his house and bring it over, and it was bloody unreal. And then when I sort of didn’t have that, I was just back in the same old kind of pattern of food and I just thought, well, we can create stuff. And a friend and I do family dinners on a Sunday and she brings her kids over, or I go to their house and I make something different every week and experiment again. And I’m doing it with the kids and we’re sitting down together and figuring out what to get from the market. And it’s just like it doesn’t have to be done the same way all the time. And if it’s not, what’s it going to look like?

What’s it going to look like? What do we want from this next stage? How could it feel more fun, easier, adventurous? And I think just coming from that place, just asking that question, the answers is, it’s just way more interesting than going, right, go online and we need to find blah, blah, blah. It’s like, no, shut down all that noise. And ask yourself, what would be the most creative thing that we could do here? If I could think about how the most awesome way for this all to work together, how this could feel, what would I choose? What could we do?

It’s great. And so is food. It’s the way we do our week. It is absolutely transforming the ideas that I have had and the conversations that I have had and the things that are in the works for my work because you can sit in kind of, oh, just not really sure about this anymore for a while. And then you can just start to think creatively. And if you listen to moments, which were the stories, the 10 short stories that I wrote about the trip, you’ll know that in there I talked about purpose and I just feel so drawn to bring the part of Lisa that started this thing in the first place back to life, the one who just was curious, the one who would try things. And then somewhere along the way, I just kind of drank the Kool-Aid of you’ve just got to choose something and stick to it.

And really, for someone like me, that advice, it’s just not super helpful because it’s never going to be one thing for me. I’ve really had to lean into giving myself permission to do that and to have a few things on the go and to experiment and try and feel what works and really follow that. Whatever I’m feeling at the time, whatever I’m exploring usually has been the pattern. There’s other people doing the same thing. And I’ve loved sharing as I go. Never, ever proclaim to be an expert on anything really, but love sharing, love teaching in a way that means other people can get to where they want to be. If there’s anything helpful, I know I’ll try and find a way to share it, but also I think really what this whole creative exploration has unlocked in me is I guess just a recognition of creativity being the source of all the good things. I hadn’t realised that before, and I think it’s there for so many of us. I think we lose it. I bringing it back and being playful.

I mean,

I think growing up is a little bit underrated in terms of I don’t want to act my age. I don’t want to act my age. I mean, I’m having some experiences, let me tell you, as a single woman in her mid-forties where I feel like a teenager, but a teenager who has lived life and has had experiences, it is the most life affirming joy-inducing ride.

And I think it can be if you just allow it to be. And I think I’m definitely bringing a sense of creativity into even just ideas of what, and I think this was already happening in my previous relationship, but just not conforming to ideas about what relationships have to look like if right now there was something that I wanted from another person. It’s certainly not going to be what I thought I might’ve wanted in a marriage. So liberating. It’s so exciting and it’s possible because I’m thinking creatively about my life, about the amount of travel that I want to do, about what home feels like, what it all feels like work, how to make money even. I think that there is just so much opportunity, so much possibility, and I’m finding that a really cool ride when I bring a sense of creativity to my parenting life feels easier getting the kids involved in all of that. Bloody unreal. I think that there are just undeniably, as a solo parent, as a parent in general, as a woman, in a capitalist structure, there are limitations. There are structures and systems that mean that there are some choices that are not available, but if we kind of keep focused on that, then that doesn’t allow much scope.

I think it’s far more exciting to be thinking creatively about where choices might lie and what is possible amongst all of that. I just don’t think we should ever gaslight ourselves into, you can chew whatever you want whenever you want. I mean, I certainly don’t exist in a world like that. This morning I was up and Adam and had to get my son to the podiatrist, and my daughter was not pleased about having to walk to school because suddenly had a sore shin. And I’m just thinking, what, God, I’m just doing the best I can team and I can’t be in all places at all times, and everyone’s existing within their own kind of constraints of daily life, but how can we just drop a bomb, drop a burst of creativity in amongst all that, so it all just feels a little bit better, more interesting, expansive, and we don’t need anything to tell us how to do that. Just kind of give ourselves permission.

Excuse me. How cool is that? I’m just happy to be here, to be honest, happy to explore. Happy to keep sharing about how this is evolving in my life, but I thought just some concrete examples might be a good idea. Tell you what you has been just so amazing is going out on my own and how much I enjoy that. I think we all should just have a crack at that every now and again. Maybe you already do, but I always, in my mind, I’m always like, well, it’s not worth doing unless there’s someone to do it with. I now completely disagree with that state, and this is the cool thing when you allow yourself to just explore new opportunities, take the time to think creatively about your life and where those things might just be waiting for you to see them, and then stepping into them and seeing the ripple effect of that inside you and around you. It’s so cool. We need to get amongst it. I’ll see you in the next episode.