Stepping Off Now: Support for Neurodivergent Creatives

This week I'm releasing one of my Patreon bonus episodes as part of my December special content! I discuss the "kishotenketsu" style of storytelling and how it differs from the Western three-act structure. I also include a brief update on how things are going with my novel revisions. Enjoy!

Sources used in this episode:

The Healing Power of Japanese Literature
The significance of plot without conflict
Kishotenketsu for Beginners
Diversity Plus: Diverse Story Forms and Themes, Not Just Diverse Faces
Shakespeare in the Bush 

Lindsay is a thirty-eight year old creative, artist, medium and mother of two young boys, living in Burlington, VT. After ten years working for her family's real estate development company, she left her executive level job in 2020 to both recover from the burnout of having two young kids while working full-time, as well as to pursue her curiosities in creativity and spirituality. While recovering from burnout, she turned to her lifelong passion of acrylic painting, as well as meditation and writing, as a way of understanding her experience. She discovered that she could tune into someone's energy and see colors that represent their essence. In 2021 she founded Spirit Love, her business that is dedicated to helping others along their path. Spirit Love offers personal energy paintings, as well as one on one and group healing sessions where she taps into guidance from spirit guides and loved ones on the other side. She does her energy work, mediumship, painting and writing out of her newly opened studio space in Burlington, VT. 

Info on Jill's upcoming cycling trip in Colombia

Jill's Instagram

Lindsay Getz's website (Spirit Love)

Lindsay's Instagram (see my energy painting here)

The Kelly Brush Foundation

The episode on Knight of Faith vs. Knight of Resignation is #66.

We usually think of courage as associated with taking big actions and big risks for that big payoff. That's certainly a type of courage, but thinking that way can hold us back from ever taking action for change in our own lives. Taking big risks is scary! There's another way to view courage, as composed of small, everyday actions that can lead to transformation over time. In this episode I outline 4 facets of creative courage that don't require you to take big steps. Small steps can lead to wondrous things, too.

Last year I inaugurated a tradition of taking Thanksgiving week off from podcasting, but I forgot to announce that last week, so I recorded a mini-episode with some info on my holiday plans through the end of the year for this podcast plus some thoughts on my recent decision to leave social media.

We all know that engaging with art, either as a creator or a consumer, can be healing, but what does that mean and how does it work? In this episode I discuss some research on how the passive or active consumption of art and/or the creative process can impact not only mental but physical health. Then I talk about making art that creates healing for its consumer, what making such art looks like from the artist's point of view, and how consumers engage with such art.

Literature review on art and healing

Article on Banana Yoshimoto

As I continue on my creative journey of revising my novel, I'm intentionally editing with the perspective of making it more entertaining to read (at least I hope I'm accomplishing that!). This has caused me to reevaluate my relationship with my creative process and with the concept of art. Is there really a difference between "art" as a pure form of self-expression, and "entertainment" products that are created to be consumed and enjoyed by others? As you can expect if you are a long-time listener, I don't come down on one side or another. Rather, I examine the question from the perspective of what I am coming to understand about my own role as writer/author, and what my responsibility is to my audience.

If you are an HSP, INFJ, INFP, or other type of gentle/sensitive soul, you have probably had people respond to your expression of emotions by telling you to just get over it. Our sensitivity to the world around us and the intensity with which we experience life can seem excessive to less sensitive types. We are told we need to learn coping skills, how to be more resilient and less sensitive. But I don't believe anymore that this is the only or best way to survive and thrive as a gentle soul in this world. In this episode I talk about why getting over stuff and even moving past stuff aren't my chosen ways of coping with life these days, and what I'm doing instead.

When I came across director/producer/actor/writer Elia Kazan's Actor's Vow a few months ago, I couldn't believe what I was reading. Here was a blueprint not just for how to act on stage or in front of the camera (Kazan was a proponent of method acting), but how to approach doing art of any kind. Not only that, it could be considered a statement on how to live, how to Be. In this episode I talk about living authentically, sharing our truth, and excavating the self for art in a compassionate way.

The Actor's Vow

There's no question midlife brings with it both surprises and challenges...but does the change we go through in this period of life have to be a "crisis"? In this episode I discuss why I'm convinced the middle stage of life can be one of our best times, if we are careful and deliberate about how we approach it. If you are approaching the middle of life, in it now, or struggling with its legacy, hopefully this episode will provide some tools to help you reconceptualize what it means and how you can make the most of its opportunities.

One of the most challenging things for creatives and artists to learn is how to maintain a strong creative practice, which is based on routine, with our need for the inspiration that changing things gives us. In this episode I talk about how to shift your focus from activity-based change to energy-based change, so that you can create change that not only supports your creative practice but makes life more fun (and thus inspirational).