Episode 202 - Gentle Structure for Creative People
Creative work thrives safety, rhythm, and support. I
n this episode of Come to Your Senses, we explore how gentle structure can help creative people stay focused, reduce overwhelm, and finish meaningful work.
If you struggle with distraction, overthinking, or inconsistent creative energy, this episode offers a calmer, more sustainable approach to productivity.
Topics include:
How to use gentle structure to support your creative focus
How to work with your energy and turn mental static into embodied clarity
How to leave yourself wanting with creative projects, and increase desire to return
Tools of embodiment to support a steady, sustainable pace.
This episode is perfect for reeling yourself in when you feel pulled in too many directions, and enjoying a focused flow of delicious creativity.
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Gentle Structure for Creative People
Hello beautiful and welcome to the Come to Your Senses podcast. I'm your host, award winning certified feminine embodiment coach, licensed esthetician, and enthusiastic foster dog mama to animals across the land. Mary Lofgren. Here we explore how to bring more richness, radiance, peace, and pleasure to our lives, homes and hearts through the joy of beauty, the wisdom of the body, the warmth of connection, and the splendor of the senses. I'm so glad you're here. Pull up a pouf and let's dive in. Hello, beautiful beings, and welcome to today's episode on Gentle structure for creative Folks. So I am a very. Very creative person. And I've talked about on the podcast how sometimes my creativity can be such a force that it feels like a fire hose that's just kind of whipping me around in the air and without a bit of structure. It's like the difference between a wildfire and a pre-planned crop burning. You know, burning of the crops or burning of the forests can be a methodical way to work with nature, to regenerate the soil and to bring more sunlight to areas where it's needed, and without any planning or structure that could be disastrous to the forest and to the crops. But with some containment and structure, it has that effect of actually leading to more growth and greater impact. And so today I want to share with you some very gentle like pick up stick level. I don't know why that is the image that came to my brain. Some of you probably don't even know what those are. But in the 80s, I mean, what did we even use those for? They were just these thin, sharp sticks of plastic. Were they a game? I don't even remember. But we had some in our house and they were very, very thin. And I'm using that metaphor because if you are a creative person and if you're alive with a beating heart, you are a creative person. Being alive itself is an act of creativity. And whether your medium is sonnets or spreadsheets, you are creating in your day to day life. And this creative energy without a place to go can feel like static. But with a place to go and some clear containment, it can feel like an ever replenishing river that can really take you places. And so back to the pickup sticks. Random metaphor. The reason I use that as the metaphor is because. For creatives, especially rigid structure only causes us to kick against the door like a foal. Trying to get out of the stall. And gentle structure creates just that right amount of direction, without feeling like our creative force is being suffocated by rules. And so with that, my friends, let us now dive into our gems on gentle structure for supporting your beautiful, wild and woolly creativity. And so where will begin is with that word create. Create comes from the Latin canary, which means to form out of nothing. And when I think about creating. You know, I think about a baby. Whether that's a human baby or a little squirrel baby or a baby chick that hatches from an egg, or a baby turtle making its way into the waves. In order for that being to be created. There is a reliance on the forces of nature. Really, creativity is everything to do with nature and with the spiritual, that which cannot be explained. But that just is and just comes to us. And our creative brain is accessible when we feel safe. So when our bodies are in survival mode, fight or flight, freeze and fawn. These are states that actually shut down the parts of the brain that can be creative. The amygdala, which is the center of threat detection, becomes more active when we're in a survival state. The prefrontal cortex, which supports our creativity and our imagination, becomes less active, and the brain naturally shifts towards moving fast and scanning your environment, as opposed to exploration and consideration of new, fresh ideas. And so knowing that when you think about sitting down at your computer, for example, which for a lot of us, you know, myself, I work almost entirely on zoom with clients, I write copy, I record podcasts, so I do a lot of sitting down at my computer in order to become creative and yet competing for my attention. Our emails and addictive cycles of social media can't tell you how many times I've logged on to social media. I actually don't have it on my phone, but I put it on my phone whenever I post and. I'll put something up. And then 45 minutes has gone by and I don't even know what happened. Like, I go into such a destructive trance and in a distracted trance is when I find my creativity, even if it's firing, is often going in a million directions. And so one of the most powerful ways you can support your creative flow. And I use that word very intentionally, because when we talk about structure, what we're really talking about is the riverbanks that support the flow of energy. You know, even in the towering walls of a canyon, the river is supported by the river bed. In fact, that's how canyons are created through the steady flow of water over time. And so something that I do and have been doing lately that has really. Changed my day, changed my energy and is just absolutely changing. My life is beginning my creative time with micro regulation. And so what that might look like is placing your feet on the floor. And I love to. When my feet are in socks, rub my feet back and forth on the floor to just stimulate those nerve endings in your tootsies, because that will naturally draw your energy and your awareness from this orientation of up and out going in a million directions to more grounded as in connected to the ground. So when we think about, you know, another nature metaphor is a tree which secures its roots into the ground before it can even consider reaching up and growing and expanding broadly. And so, rubbing my feet on the floor, placing my hands on the body to offer a gentle weight, giving myself several breaths and just inviting the staticky mind to start to. Still opens up a canyon of wisdom and creativity that was not available in the 30s before I did that. And this is really the basis of embodiment coaching is that when we are regulated, which embodiment coaching is a practice of shifting from that orientation towards the strategic analytical mind, so that your deeper centers of intelligence can have a chance to speak. And the beauty of embodiment coaching is that, you know, often when we turn towards the voice of the body, it can be hard to know who and what to trust, because fear and intuition and impulse and anger and excitement and creativity, like they all might be shouting at once. And so it makes sense that you might bypass this step and embodiment. Coaching is a way to enter the realm of your body, with an interpreter and a lantern holder by your side. You know, that's how I think about my work with clients, is bringing them back into relationship with their body in a way where they're being guided through a process with a skillful guide, rather than trying to figure it all out on their own. And. On that note, if you're interested in embodiment coaching and you feel like you could use some support in interpreting the messages of your body, hearing the messages of your body, you can go to https://marylofgren.com/coaching. To learn more. But back to this gem. You know, often regulation. The reason we don't pause to regulate ourselves is because it seems like it will take too much time and too much energy. And that makes a lot of sense. If adrenaline is how we are accustomed to being productive and creative. And I invite you to sample this truffle by 30s. You know, it's usually fairly easy for the brain to comprehend. 15 to 30s taken out of your brave heart battle cry. Charge down the mountain of needing to get things done and just 30s. You can set a timer of rubbing those little fetuses on the floor. Putting some gentle pressure on your heart, giving yourself a few deep breaths. And this brings us into our next gem, which is a question you can drop in. That helps to access a quality of clarity of where it's going to be the most impactful place to put your attention, and that is simply body where which you have me place my attention right now. And that's a word that often works for me. Sometimes I'll start that question with spirit or love or nature or great creative intelligence. You know, whatever is that force and source that we pull from when we are creating, asking for moment to moment guidance helps take the pressure off of you on which of those. Singing Alice in Wonderland flowers is calling for your attention. You know when I. Have my kind of creative agenda for the week. I do a lot of creating. I create for the Sanctuary, which is our online membership here. Come to Your senses. I create for the podcast, I create for coaching clients, among other things I create for long term projects. And my strategizing mind is what's tracking deadlines and production quality and all these other elements that can really confuse that stream of creativity that just wants to create through me. And so this gentle structure of a practice of being in relationship with that voice within yourself can really help you clear some of the static and feel focused and collected and contained in your ventures. And the final gem is yet another shift in orientation that leads to a shift in behavior, and that is the orientation of nurturing your creations rather than producing them. So this season in the sanctuary we are exploring the art of tending. And tending is very different than. Working on or getting out the door. You know these approaches that are often rooted in a dominant style. Tending is a way of being in relationship with that which you are creating. And just like you might tend a garden box on a daily basis, supporting it with nutrition, with fresh soil, compost, sunlight, pruning, all these practices, you are supporting growth through the nurturance of time and attention. Rather than forcing growth through control. And a great example of this is that I have these three creative projects that I'm working on, and each day I do a daily tend. And what that looks like is 20 to 30 minutes on the project. And that's all I get now. My Creative Thruster really wants to work on it for like 2 or 3 hours and refine and tinker with. And what I find is that after the 30 to 40 minute mark, I am just spinning my wheels and I am messing with what is not broken. And having that small container is like a daily devotion where I'm working one page, one section, one idea at a time. And this has been so fundamental in being able to follow through on projects, because often when I'm in avoidance of a project, it's because my brain can't chew and swallow the idea of the magnitude of the project. But having these small incremental visitations with the project and with my creativity, it is such a sweet and sustainable way to give the medium part of my creative energy. Because, you know, those first 20 to 30 minutes, those are the thoroughbred of creative muscle. And then to have a boundary where that muscle gets to rest. And then I come back to it the next day. I mean, we are in Secretariat territory with these projects, and I feel so proud of the way that they're nurtured over time rather than a big creative splat, which I also love, but I find just has less staying power, and I'm more often going back to correct it or revise it or tweak with it. Because after that first 30 minutes, it's like my coherence and cognition have lowered, and I'm creating based on the adrenaline of how good it feels to create rather than creating from presence. And so these are gems from my basket that I'm sharing today, and I hope that they enrich and help to create just a little more flow and fluidity and joy in your creative practices. And like all things we do here, come to your senses, help to awaken you from the trance of limitations and overwhelm and Invented pressures and scarcity and bring you back into a state of awareness and aliveness and a weakness through the wisdom of your body and the wonder of your senses. Thank you so much for listening today. I would be delighted to hear how this episode landed with you in a review on iTunes, or a comment, or a five star rating on Spotify or anywhere you get your podcasts. And may your creativity be plush and flush, and may your structure be supple. I'll see you in our next episode. For more gems on how to celebrate life through the richness of your senses, head to https://marylofgren.com/.
There, you'll find an abundant library of free gems and resources. You can check out my award winning coaching programs or flirt with stepping through the garden gates of the sanctuary community. Come and learn how to make beauty, presence, and everyday luxury a lifestyle at https://marylofgren.com/
