The constant pressure to create can sometimes take a toll on your soul.

Being a creative is both about creating something beautiful for the world and finding ways to soothe your soul during those in-between moments.

My goal for this is for you to find at least 1 new ritual you can implement into your creative lifestyle to soothe your soul and feel more free creating.

The One Thing That Causes Creative Stress & Blocks

Let’s cut to the chase: the one thing that’s likely causing you the most stress and creative block is… drumroll, please… tension. 😪

But I’m not just talking about physical tension (though that is a huge part of it), but tension in 3 specific areas of your life. But don’t worry, we’re about to learn how to soothe your soul and kick that tension to the curb. 🤸

The 3 Different Types of Tensions (& How to Soothe Your Soul)

Home/Environmental Tension

Our environment plays a huge role in our creative process, and a less-than-inspiring space can seriously cramp our style.

I first learned this when I learned Marie Kondo’s two books – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy – and actually implemented it into my life.

Clutter is like kryptonite for creatives, but clearing it out can be an amazing act of creative healing.

Clutter and noise can come in all sorts of ways in your home, like through:

✷ Keeping items that don’t spark joy anymore and are fostering stagnant energy

✷ Having lots of labels and colors “yelling” at you (think cereal boxes, magazines, school notices pinned onto the refrigeratory, etc.)

✷ Not having a cohesive color palette in a room

✷ Not following at least some principles of Feng Shui!

The solution? Turning your home into a home studio. The principle is simple: treat your home as the curated space you could dream about from Pinterest, because it 1) is a creative project you can execute to give you more inspiration and creative energy, and 2) will de-tense your body.

When you’re in a space you love, your body will naturally start relaxing.

Bodily Tension

We sit for hours in uncomfortable positions, barely moving as we chase our muses.

Our bodies and minds are interconnected. When our bodies are tense and un-nurtured our creativity suffers. After all, our bodies are our temples, especially because we’re artists.

People might be able to replace other people when it comes to manual work and data-entry, but not when it comes to art. Self-care for artists is so important to maintain your temple.

I’ll talk a little more about some of my favorite bodily tension releases, but here are just a few (to create a sort of artistic therapy for your body!):

• Eating a plant-based, gluten-free diet (this has helped my digestive system a lot! Obviously it’s not for everyone, just sharing what works for me.)
• Using an acupressure mat, which helps trigger meridian points in your body and promotes circulation on the skin
• Working in a meditation chair to make your body more comfortable and flexible

I have a growing list of some of my favorite tools below 👇

Productivity & Manifestation Tension

It’s that constant pressure to produce, produce, produce. You need to prioritize your emotional wellness in your art journey.

In our fast-paced, content-hungry world, it can feel like we need to be churning out masterpieces at lightning speed.

We see our friends creating art, writing songs, getting cast in shows. This alone can make us feel a creative burnout, even without doing anything.

We hear hustle bros talk about waking up at 5am and working 12-hour days, and we look at ourselves justifiably resting on a Saturday afternoon and thinking we need to do more work (even if it’s unintentional).

For the girlies who know there’s an artistic community out there for them – subscribe to my YouTube channel for videos all about sustaining a beautiful creative life. 🫶 Let’s embrace imperfection in our artist journeys together!

The pressure to constantly work work work without any intention can actually be super detrimental to our creative process.

So, to combat this, it’s all about being more intentional about our work, practicing mindfulness for artists.

This is where the magical pairing comes in:

✨ SYSTEMS

With the right artist systems, you’re not wasting your time on busy work and can focus on being the best version of yourself. Here’s an example:

I’ve worked with clients on writing SEO blog articles, and realized it took me so long to create each blog article draft, write up each keyword in every Google Doc, etc. So I created a system that included batching and automating.

I started batch writing content – so instead of writing one at a time, I’d write two.

Then, I created templates and set up Zapier automations to place those templates directly into Google Documents. No more copying and pasting. And in fact, I had Zapier actually create the Google Documents so I could just focus on writing articles.

And guess what? I went from working 10+ hours a day to working around 4 or less in a 4-day workweek.

*Note: I am grateful that I have the ability to have a remote digital marketing job that allows me to automate work! If this is something you’re interested in, I’d definitely start by prioritizing finding a remote job, too! 😊

✨ MANIFESTATIONS

Systems are amazing for physically cutting down time and speeding up processes, but manifestations are just important.

What affirmations are you telling yourself every day? What goals do you have in place and are you constantly speaking them out loud?

My favorite manifestations are manifestation lock screens, which has me put my goals or affirmations on my phone lock screen (because we know we’re all looking at our phones 100+ times a day) and vision and dream boards, simply because they’re so much fun to create and look at!

Pair systems and manifestations together and you’ve got yourself a stellar, ✨ intentional, abundant worklife ✨ in which you can manifest your dreams.

Being a creative doesn’t have to be lonely. Grab my hand and find yourself again through your art, my friend. Subscribe to my YouTube and we can grow into our best creative selves together!

My *Fairy* Favorite Ways to Soothe Your Soul as a Creative (Not What You Think)

This is a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite ways to soothe my soul as a creative. 

Plant-Based, Gluten-Free Eating: For Body Tension

This is an eating style that has worked so well for me! I started eating 100% vegetarian, then 100% plant-based/dairy-free, then gluten-free (not 100%, but as often as possible).

I don’t have to sit here and tell you that eliminating processed foods is better for you. But I do want to remind you that if you’re an artist, you need your body to be ready for anything.

Your body is your instrument and your tool, and if you don’t treat it as such, it’s not going to yield the results you want it to.

Some tools and resources I’ve used for making plant-based eating cute:

Thrifting: For Home/Environmental Tension

Thrifting is both about decorating your home (studio) and creating your very own artistic project!

Thrifting was an amazing way to exercise my creative muscles during 2020 when I had to stop acting school and didn’t know where else to turn. Plus, every time I found a new treasure, I’d curate my home to be my creative space just a little bit more.

Asana & Zapier: For Productivity & Manifestation Tension

These are two tools I’ve sworn by through my content creation!

Asana is my favorite project management tool because it’s stunning, has so many options for automating, and can be used at any stage of your creative business.

You can use the My Tasks section if you’re just getting started, or create all the fancy rules like I’ve done. Either way, it works super well. I’ve used probably every single project management tool out there and this is by far my favorite.

Zapier helps me automate tasks between different platforms so I can write blog articles like this and plan my YouTube channel so much easier. It also helps me with client work!

Subscribe on YouTube for More Creative Lifestyle Tips!

This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to nurturing your creative soul. If you’ve enjoyed these tips and want to dive deeper into the world of creative well-being, come join the YouTube community. 🥰 I can’t wait to see you there!