Experiment #45) We Sail at Sunset!
What three past my bedtime experiences did for my creativity
HELLLLOOOOO!!!! Happy July!
I hope your summer is purring along blissfully and you’re as busy (or not) as you want to be.
It’s been a wild ride over here with April, May, and June pulling me in all directions. Usually, the scales ⚖️ offer me a little balance: Busy professional life = slower personal life and vice versa. Not this Spring! This Spring, it was all systems GO, fast and furious in every single direction.
Needless to say, this is the rubber band version of Emily writing this to you today.
Thankfully, July-August are going to less chaotic. By intention.
What all that busyness taught me was that Creativity can get a little lost in the shuffle when our lives are too much of flurry. My Creativity (yours might be different) doesn’t like pockets of time. She doesn’t like being squeezed into an hour and forced to perform. She likes SPACE. TIME. PRESENCE. CALM.
She also likes… novelty and new experiences! Which is exactly what these experiments are all about!
How Creativity found her way back to me through three unexpected adventures.
The Experiment: Reconnect to my missing Creativity
Hypothesis: I just need a walk in the woods, a coloring sesh, a dance party, a shimmy and a shake and she’ll be back!
Outcome: She surprised me on the ocean, at a play, and at a restaurant!
As a Small Business Copywriter, I’ve experienced my fair share of creative blocks…
But usually, I can dig deep and find the means to trudge my way out of it. I also have a whole toolbox full of tools to help me get outta’ just about any creative funk or ditch.
Last month, though, I slammed face-first into a wall of creativity bricks. Not for my clients. But for myself.
Who am I?
What do I even say anymore?
What do I sayyyyyyyyyyyy!?
What am I even interested in!?
During the unraveling, I reached into my box of tricks and tried all the ones that usually work:
I tried digging into a new topic (“I’ll just learn about pigs!”)
I went for more walks
I got out of my house and changed up my routine
I hung out with interesting people and had great conversations
Went to a bookstore, took way too many showers, read books, watched shows for fun, listened to music, danced by myself, and with my niece…
🦗 Crickets.
The show must go on. Life must go on. And so it did… over the course of the creative desert of a month, I found myself staying up way past my bedtime for THREE special occasions:
#1) A Sunset Schooner Ride
My cousin, Danny, was turning 30!! For his birthday, he and his beautiful wife booked us all a sunset cruise on a Schooner up in Harpswell, Maine (my home and heartland 💗)
I stuffed my bag full of anti-nausea remedies for potential sea sickness and said, “Sign me up!”
Then, we all hopped aboard the Schooner Alert out of Garrison Cove on Bailey Island.
This two-hour, chilly at times, sunset boat ride was an opportunity for: beautiful sites, connection, laughter, silliness, stillness, and ahhhh… not thinking about the news, work, or the million obligations awaiting on land.
I sank into bed around 10:15-10:30pm gloriously tired and content.
#2) To the Theatre, Jeffrey!
Ok, so I didn’t have a driver (if I did, his name WOULD be Jeffrey), I drove myself. But I DID attend Boeing Boeing at the Peterborough Players Theater on a Friday evening.
Holy hades, it was a whole lot of fun!
I laughed and laughed and laughed some more. It wasn’t even my usual style of humor, but I think the absurdity and discomfort of it all was what I found cracked me open with hilarity. I got out of my head. My entire being felt like it was coming to life. There is just something about seeing actors and actresses live that lures me in and sparks my creativity in a way art on a screen does not.
It was way past my bedtime. It was magical.
#3) Dinner Out with Husband and SIL
The very last day of June sped its way in, and with it, a surprise visit from my husband’s sister, who lives out of town! Dinner with her who I miss terribly + a mini-adventure for my husband and me!
We don’t get out much together because our work keeps us both busy busy. By the end of the day, we’re usually too cooked! And come weekends, there are a million chores to do, or someone else has decided our weekend belongs to them. 😂
It was a toasty evening, my car has no AC, we were running on fumes, but I still loved each and every second of the sweaty(ish) drive a few towns away, with my husband by my side.
We had a great time, and the conversation danced this way and that.
We got home past my bedtime, I went to bed way past my bedtime, and it was good.
When I woke up the next morning, not only did I feel well-rested, calmer, and more balanced, I also felt a wild SURGE of creativity.
Sometimes, I guess it really is just as simple as getting out of the house and doing something new?
Mine is still a work in progress. I can feel parts of it coming back online and being easier (ie. writing you this Substack right now), where other parts are still a little sticky (more on that another time!)
And that’s because sometimes, a creative block isn’t JUST a creative block. Sometimes it’s trying to tell us a little something MORE is going on. Under the surface. Something MORE needs to blossom, bloom, and grow.
In my opinion, those blocks don’t end up being blocks at all. They end up being the very winds that sail us forward towards something greater.
What do you do when you hit a creative speed bump?
As always, I love hearing from you and invite your thoughts.
Leave a comment
P.S. Here’s a link to the podcast episode I did this week on Creative Blocks that require a little more than a schooner ride and a good laugh to overcome. I’d invite you to give it a listen and see if any of it floats your boat!
I love this topic. It's like Artist Dates without the pressure. The best inspiration still comes from nature and people - and you did a good mix of both!