Stepping Off Now: Support for Neurodivergent Creatives

I've struggled with depression since childhood, and in this episode I tell you all about it. You'll hear about the two different kinds of depression I have, what they feel like when they hit, and how I'm dealing with a current bout of what I call the "depression flu." I discuss why I think depression is an inevitable and even important part of my experience as a human on this planet, and what it has to do with my creative, highly sensitive personality. Finally, I share my thoughts on how depression is conceptualized within the medical establishment, and why that conceptualization doesn't resonate with how I experience depression. Basically, I don't think anything is wrong with me that needs to be "fixed," and I think that many creative/sensitive people have a specific emotional and psychological experience of the world that is misunderstood and pathologized in a way that furthers our trauma. This is my personal story of depression, and all my opinions are based on my personal experience as someone who struggles with mental health issues. As I always note when I talk about mental health and associated therapies, I do not have a medical degree and my PhD is not in psychology.

The World Needs People Who Feel Empathy for Lettuce

E21. Why Burnout May Be an Inevitable – and Positive! – Developmental Stage for HSPs

Eric Maisel's website.

During my decades as creative writer, my greatest struggle has been consistency of habit. I always had to force myself to sit down and write on a daily basis. I started and abandoned writing projects constantly (four novels, at least that many blogs). When I started up my creative business in 2020, I knew that needed to change. I had to find a way to maintain consistency because my plan was to grow my business through weekly blog posts and later through weekly podcast episodes. If I have to miss a week sometimes, fine - life happens. But I wanted to hit that weekly target as much as I possibly could (and in fact I haven't missed a week yet). And the nature of the way I work means I don't batch (do a bunch of posts or episodes over the course of a few days). I have to be able to be creative week after week.

So how do I do it? In this episode I tell you everything I've learned so far about how to maintain that inspiration to create for the long periods of time needed to do large projects like a novel or a business venture. The key is understanding the difference between different kinds of resistance and between resistance and forcing it. And to never, ever force it. How do you keep resistance from turning into forcing it? Listen and find out!

This episode's accompanying blog post can be found here.

In this episode I talk to Dr. Ann Wainscott, a politics professor I met in grad school. Ann is one of the most naturally creative and intuitive people I know, and it's evident in how she lives her life on a daily basis. In this interview she talks about studying to be an end-of-life doula, the rituals she uses to get into creative flow, and how teaching is an alchemy that leads to transformation. This is a DEEP conversation that challenged my ideas about creative identity, what creativity is, and what purpose it serves. In other words, it's just the kind of conversation I love! It's also a good example of how conversation, not debate or argumentation, is what really enlivens minds and gets us to see things in new ways. As always, I summarize my thoughts and offer some analysis at the end, so stick around for that part!

Announcement! My extra content Patreon will be debuting this coming week! I'll be making the official announcement in next Friday's episode. This has been a long time in the works, and I'm really excited bout the bonus content I'll be creating for supporters!

Ann Wainscott's website.

Would you believe I didn't understand flow until recently? I could tell when it happened - it's that feeling when you lose track of time and your surroundings, and your creativity just flows - but I didn't know how to make it happen. It seemed like I had no control over when it did. I just had to hope I'd get lucky when I sat down to write. I was determined to figure out how to facilitate active flow so I could have more control over my creative process (if you're wondering why I call it "active" flow, it's because there's such a thing as passive flow - see Episode 26 about demystifying flow to learn about that!).

I started to research flow, and I discovered that there's a formula to it. I'm still learning and practicing (it's always a practice rather than a destination), but I now can reliably enter flow almost every time I sit down to write. It may only be for a few minutes - often even less than that! But flow shows up for me, and I'm relying on it to finish my novel this summer (10k words to go!).

In this episode you'll learn the formula for facilitating flow, what it looks and feels like, and its place in the creative process (it's not all about flow!). I talk about it from the lens of my own experience with it, so you'll hear about the specifics of my own creative practice in detail, even down to a scene I'm currently struggling with in my novel. Ultimately it's about making friends with flow, and I tell you how to start.

You can find the essay I mention about flow and discovery writing here.

The essay I mention about different types of resistance to creative practice is here.

Being a grownup isn't supposed to be fun. Sure, there can be fun moments here and there, but mostly it's about responsibilities. Somewhere along the way we lose our ability to get lost in creative play. Do you remember when the magic of childhood started to fade for you? I do. In this episode I tell that story and many more about my own painful journey to adulthood - and how the goal of my life now is to reclaim my childhood sense of fun and joy in being creative.

A big piece of the puzzle is grappling with shame. I think that our capacity to experience shame is tangled up in the loss of our ability to immerse ourselves in our own magical worlds that we so easily enter as children. In this episode I talk about my own struggles with shame through the lens of an experience I had as a mid-twenties young woman that caused me to feel shame for many years, but that I eventually learned to feel proud of.  This is a complex episode that really stretched my brain, and I had to dive deep. I'm very proud of it, and I hope you find value in it!

This episode's accompanying blog post can be found here.

The blog post where I talk about doing a creative pivot is here.

My work on this podcast and on my blog is all about examining our implicit assumptions about ourselves and the cultures we live in, and in this episode I tackle a big topic: why I think despite all the introvert advocacy online in the last decade, being an introvert still carries a stigma. I think understanding and acceptance of the character trait of introversion is still nominal at best. I want to change that.

In this episode I talk about a big paradigm shift that occurred recently for me in how I see myself as an introvert. Instead of thinking about introversion as signifying I lack something (i.e. the ability to go out in the wider world and be around people without having my energy drained), I am learning how to see it as an advantage. As an introvert, I have an amazing ability to generate my own energy, and most people can't do that - they have to get their energy by interacting with others. I think it's time we start shifting how we talk about introverts, and in this episode I tell you how I'm already doing that.

I also discuss a special subset of introverts, the intuitive types (INFPs and INFJs), who have their own particular skills. Plus, stories from my childhood as a shy, introverted kid abound! So let me ask you: are you ready to feel proud that you're an introvert? If so, this episode is for you!

I have long wanted to have Lauren Sapala on my podcast, because she is one of the major reasons I even have a creative business! She is not only my writing coach, but also my business mentor. Lauren is the person who taught me about intuitive writing, which I've mentioned here and there in my podcast and explored more thoroughly on my blog. In this episode, we discuss what intuitive writing is and how Lauren discovered the difference between rational and intuitive styles. Then we talk about how introverted, intuitive, highly sensitive, creative types such as ourselves can guard our energetic resources that tend to get used up so fast in interactions with other people. Lauren really blew my mind with some of her ideas in this part, and gave me some good counsel about how my recent desire to be alone all the time is totally fine even if other people don't get it and think it's excessive. Finally, we address something we have both struggled with in the past: alcohol misuse and abuse. We discuss why creative, sensitive types turn to substances like alcohol, and what living in rational cultures has to do with it. Plus, we come up with a whole new archetype system based on Star Trek characters! This is a not-to-be-missed episode! 

Are you secretly waiting for your own golden ticket or letter from Hogwarts that will show you, once and for all, the path of your destiny? Many of us spend our lives hoping that we'll be chosen somehow, and that it will change everything. That was me, until I realized that no one is going to choose me. I was going to have to do it myself. Learning how to choose yourself can change everything, but many of us struggle to advocate for ourselves like that because we either don't believe we have the right or authority to do so, or we fear being a tall poppy that gets cut. In this episode I talk about why it's essential we learn how to choose ourselves, and how all of us have a potential for greatness that we ourselves must recognize first. You'll hear about how being a "seeker" amplifies this quest for a singular destiny, and why seekers are particularly prone to that kind of existential disappointment in life that many of you may be familiar with. This is a tough topic but it needs to be explored, and I'm excited about this episode!

You can find this episode's corresponding blog post here.

You've probably heard of flow - aka being in the zone; being in your element - but did you know that flow can be active OR passive? Active flow is that state you enter when you're totally immersed in the moment and the activity you're doing just...flows. It can happen during creative practice, athletics, just about any activity. But what about the rest of the time? Is flow all or nothing? I don't think so. I believe there's such a thing as passive flow that we can cultivate in our lives to make life more enjoyable and active flow more accessible. If active flow can be characterized as swimming with the current, you can see passive flow as floating with the current. All of us have access passive flow - it's already there in our lives. Except most of us have let its streambed get clogged with junk. In this episode I talk about how to remove some of that junk and let the stream flow again. Plus, I announce a small change I'm making to the podcast format for its six-month anniversary next Friday!

This episode's corresponding blog post can be found here.

The previous week's blog post on discovery writing and flow can be found here.

Find out more about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's classic book about flow here.

Find out more about the Star Trek podcast I was recently on here. The podcast is called Yelling About Star Trek, and I'm in episode 14.

Ah the dreaded creative impasse: that feeling you get when you've seemingly hit a dead end with your project and just can't see a way forward. What should you do? Trash the project and start over? Force your way forward? Hate on yourself for yet again being a creative failure? None of the above! In this episode, I talk about a recent impasse I experienced with my novel and how I've decided to deal with it.  You'll hear about why experimental types are prone to creative impasse, and I give you some tips on how to work through these inevitable periods of disorientation in the life of creative projects, particularly big ones with a lot of moving parts. I discuss the challenges experimental types have when doing conceptual work (like plotting a novel, for example), and how we can move forward conceptually without being overwhelmed with the conceptual aspects of a project. And lest you think that it's all challenge and hardship for us experimental types, I cover some of the things we are especially good at and how to take advantage of that. Plus, I set a very public goal with regards to my novel. Making clear goals for ourselves can be hard for experimental types, and not always advisable, but I think I'm ready for this one! And saying mine out loud to all my listeners means I'm committed to at least trying to achieve it - and updating you on my progress or lack thereof.  

Note: Sunday evening tarot podcast no longer available.