The Modern Creative Woman

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Does art imitate life, or does life imitate art?

Amy explores this very old question through psychology, philosophy, anthropology, music, genetics, and the creative process. From Plato and Aristotle to Oscar Wilde, Susan Sontag, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison, she looks at the many ways humans have tried to understand the relationship between what we experience and what we create.

Along the way, Amy considers a fascinating psychological question: how much of who we become comes from our temperament, and how much comes from our environment? She also explores why two people can experience similar circumstances and respond in completely different ways.

The conversation then moves into the ancient human history of creativity, from early musical instruments and cave art to the ways women are increasingly being recognized in archaeological interpretations of early human creativity.

Amy also shares an experience from a recent lecture combining music, neuroscience, genetics, and memory. The parallels between genetic variation and musical improvisation become a fascinating way to think about creativity. In jazz, musicians work within a structure while responding to one another in real time, creating variation without losing the underlying pattern. Our differences can work in much the same way.

This episode is ultimately an exploration of variation, mutation, improvisation, and possibility—and why the things that make us different can sometimes become the very things that allow us to create.

In this episode, Amy explores:

• Whether art imitates life or life imitates art
• What Plato, Aristotle, Oscar Wilde, Susan Sontag, Virginia Woolf, and Toni Morrison have to say about art and experience
• Temperament, environment, and personality
• The ancient history of human creativity
• What early musical instruments and visual art tell us about our creative nature
• The relationship between genetic variation and musical variation
• Why jazz improvisation requires extraordinary communication
• How context can change whether a difference becomes a difficulty or an advantage
• Synesthesia and the connections between sensory experiences
• Why science and art may be different expressions of the same human creative impulse
• What happens when we begin creating with our own natural rhythms and patterns

A question to take with you:

What will you create with the variations that make you uniquely you?

If you enjoyed this episode, share it with a creative woman in your life and subscribe to The Modern Creative Woman Podcast.

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Synchronicity: What Is Your Mind Trying to Notice?

Have you ever thought about someone and then heard from them? Learned a new word and suddenly started noticing it everywhere? Seen an animal, image, number, or symbol repeatedly and wondered whether it meant something?

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos explores synchronicity—the experience of meaningful coincidences that seem connected even though one event did not cause the other.

Amy begins with her own recent example: a film and a book that unexpectedly brought her to the same place, Bakersfield, California. From there, she explores why these kinds of experiences can feel so significant and how we might understand them through several different lenses, including Carl Jung's concept of synchronicity, cognitive psychology, Eastern philosophy, physics, spirituality, and art.

The conversation also moves into the creative process. What happens when we become more receptive to unexpected ideas, images, conversations, dreams, and experiences? Amy explores the ways artists describe the artwork itself seeming to "speak back" to them, the role of the "divine accident," subconscious dialogue, pattern recognition, active perception, and subjective resonance.

She also offers an important caution: sometimes we can assign too much meaning to an event. A cancelled flight does not necessarily mean the universe is telling you not to travel. The stove being hot is information, not necessarily a cosmic message. Creativity asks us to stay curious long enough to consider multiple possibilities before settling on our first interpretation.

You can use this same idea in your own creative life. Choose something you're working on—a painting, a career decision, a relationship, a problem you're trying to solve—and spend a week deliberately remaining open to unexpected sources of information and inspiration. Then see what you notice.

In this episode, Amy explores:

• What synchronicity means and how it differs from ordinary coincidence
• Carl Jung's theory of synchronicity and the idea of events connected through meaning
• The relationship between synchronicity and cognitive psychology
• Why we suddenly notice things once they become important to us
• Value priming, pattern recognition, and active perception
• Liminal spaces and why they can feel psychologically powerful
• How spirituality can influence the way we understand meaningful coincidences
• Synchronicity and the creative process
• The artist's experience of the artwork "speaking back"
• The role of chance, accidents, and unexpected experiences in creativity
• How we can remain open to inspiration without assigning meaning to everything
• Using divergent thinking to approach creative problems, relationships, career decisions, and the next phase of life

A creative practice to try this week:

Choose one question, challenge, or creative problem that is currently on your mind. Rather than trying to solve it immediately, spend the week remaining open to ideas and inspiration that might come from unexpected places. Pay attention to what you see, read, hear, remember, and encounter. At the end of the week, look back at what caught your attention and consider whether any of it gives you a new way of seeing the problem.

And if synchronicity has ever played a role in your life, I'd love to hear your story.

Paris 2027

The doors to the July 2027 Paris retreat are now open. Amy, Aurora Tivoli, and their collaborators are hosting a series of Parisian soirées where you can learn more about French living, hear about the retreat, and decide whether it might be right for you.

If you're even a little curious, request your invitation to one of the online soirées here.

Keywords: synchronicity, psychology of synchronicity, Carl Jung, creativity, creative thinking, divergent thinking, art therapy, psychology and art, neuroaesthetics, pattern recognition, spirituality and psychology, creative process, women's creativity, Modern Creative Woman

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You Are Allowed to Evolve: Rethinking Purpose, Values, and What Matters Now

What mattered to you when you were 15?

Maybe it was friends, school, family, dating, fitting in—or simply getting through the day. Now think about what matters to you today. Chances are, some things have changed dramatically, while others have stayed surprisingly consistent.

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, I’m talking about what happens when we give ourselves permission to evolve.

My mother gave me some advice when I was about 15 that has stayed with me for decades: the person you love at 16 might not be the person you love at 18, 21, 25, or 30—and that’s okay. You are allowed to change your mind. You are allowed to grow.

The same is true of our values, priorities, relationships, creativity, careers, and sense of purpose.

We often develop strategies early in life for getting approval, feeling safe, belonging, or getting our needs met. Those strategies can work beautifully for a while. But sometimes we keep using them long after they have stopped working.

In this episode, I explore purpose through the lens of values and committed action, and why your purpose doesn't have to be some grand, world-changing mission. It can simply be what feels meaningful and important to you now—and how you choose to live those values in your everyday life.

I also share some of my own evolution: from the mood boards I made as a teenager, to art, fashion, sewing, knitting, museums, my doctorate, motherhood, and the ways creativity has remained important even as its place in my life has changed.

You'll also hear why I think looking backward can be so valuable. When you compare who you are today with the woman you were at 15—or even two years ago—you may see growth and wisdom that are difficult to recognize when you're only looking forward.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why you're allowed to change your mind about what matters
• How our childhood strategies can follow us into adulthood
• The difference between values and committed action
• Why purpose doesn't have to be dramatic or world-changing
• How your priorities can shift without abandoning your values
• What creativity can teach us about evolution and identity
• Why taking care of your health can support everything else you value
• How looking backward can help you recognize your own growth
• What was important to you at 15—and what has changed since then

A question for you:

What mattered to you when you were 15?

What did you love? What lit you up? What's still important to you now, and what's completely different?

Take a little time to look backward without judging yourself for what you did or didn't do. Notice how much you've learned. Notice how you've changed. And then ask yourself:

What's on the front burner of my life right now?

If you're ready for a bigger creative shift, I'm also inviting women to join me and Aurora Devoli for our Paris retreat in July 2027. We'll be having personal conversations to help you decide whether this experience is the right fit for you.

Come find me on Instagram and tell me what's important to you right now—and how you've evolved.

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As we get older, some of the things that once nourished us can quietly disappear from our lives. We socialize less because staying home feels easier. We move less. We stop taking classes, going to events, getting dressed for the day, seeing friends, or making time for the things that once brought us joy.

Life changes, of course. Our families change, our work changes, our friendships change, and our priorities change. But there is a difference between intentionally changing our lives and allowing our world to gradually become smaller because we are tired, busy, unengaged, or simply accustomed to doing less.

In this episode, I talk about the importance of adding things back into our lives as we move through different seasons of adulthood. I share a recent experience of traveling without my computer or even my paper planner and what it reminded me about being fully present. I also talk about what developmental psychology can teach us about the different needs we have across the lifespan, including how my own priorities shifted as I moved through my 40s and into my 50s.

Creativity and art can play an important role here. An art class can give us creativity, social connection, movement, novelty, learning, and a reason to engage with the world. The point is not to keep everything exactly as it was. It is to notice what matters now and make room for it.

In This Episode

• Why healthy habits and meaningful activities can gradually slip away as we get older
• The difference between changing intentionally and being a passive recipient of change
• Why our lives need to evolve as we move through different developmental stages
• What developmental psychology and Carl Jung suggest about the changing needs of adulthood
• How my own priorities shifted in my 40s and 50s
• Why staying socially and creatively engaged matters
• How art making and creativity can fill multiple needs at once
• What happened when I traveled without my computer or planner
• Why we need to add things back into our lives after periods of intense responsibility
• The connection between values, daily action, meaning, and purpose
• A simple challenge for identifying one thing that deserves more space in your life

Questions This Episode Explores

Are you staying engaged with the things that matter most to you?

Has your world gotten smaller in any areas of your life?

What have you gradually stopped doing that once brought you energy, connection, creativity, or joy?

What does this particular season of your life require from you?

What might you need to add back in?

And perhaps most importantly: What is one thing that is deeply important to you that you are not currently making enough time for?

Your Creative Challenge

Choose one thing that feels deeply important to you.

Not three things. Not a complete life overhaul. Just one.

It might be friendship, family, art, gardening, cooking, museums, movement, learning, travel, service, or something else that gives your life meaning.

Then ask yourself:

Am I engaging with this regularly enough for it to actually be part of my life?

If drawing matters to you, perhaps you make a one-minute drawing each morning. If health matters to you, perhaps you take an evening walk. If friendship matters, perhaps you make a regular plan instead of waiting until you happen to have time.

The action can be small. What matters is that you consistently show up for something you value.

Why This Matters

Our lives are going to change. We are going to age. Our relationships, families, work, bodies, communities, interests, and responsibilities will change with us.

The question is what we do with those changes.

There are seasons when we need to close things down and focus on what requires our attention. There are also seasons when it is time to begin adding things back in.

Meaning and purpose continue to matter throughout our lives. When something is important to us but our actions do not reflect that importance, we can feel the disconnect.

Creativity offers one way to stay engaged. It gives us opportunities for learning, connection, novelty, expression, and presence. Sometimes making room for something new is exactly what helps us continue creating a life that feels like our own.

A Few Things to Think About This Week

What have you let go of that you might want to bring back?

What is one thing you want to experience more regularly?

Where could you replace “I don't have time” with one very small action?

And what will you create?

Keywords

aging and creativity, women over 40, women over 50, meaningful living, meaning and purpose, creativity and aging, art and aging, developmental psychology, psychological flexibility, values and committed action, creative living, social connection, staying engaged, creativity as a human need, Modern Creative Woman, art therapy, creative aging, intentional living

Summary Description

As we get older, it can be easy to let friendships, creativity, movement, social activities, and other things that nourish us slowly disappear. In this episode, Dr. Amy Backos explores the changing needs of adulthood, developmental psychology, creativity, values, meaning, and the importance of intentionally adding things back into our lives.

creativity, creativity and aging, women over 40, women over 50, aging well, meaningful living, purpose, values, developmental psychology, art therapy, creative living, social connection, creativity and health, psychological flexibility, intentional living, Modern Creative Woman

Support the show

Explore the Modern Creative Woman Community
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Ask me a question or let me know what you think!

Maybe you're waiting until the kids are older. Until you retire. Until the big project is finished. Until you have more time. So much of adult life can become a series of things we need to finish before we allow ourselves to enjoy what is happening right now.

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos explores how art, creativity, aesthetics, ritual, and the small choices we make throughout the day can change the way we experience our lives.

Amy begins with the idea that art is a universal human behavior. Across cultures and throughout history, people have used art, storytelling, clothing, decoration, music, beauty, and ritual to make life meaningful and special. These experiences aren't simply extras we add once everything else is taken care of. They are part of how we connect with ourselves, our communities, our environments, and the experience of being human.

She also looks at the stories we tell through our everyday choices. What are you wearing? How are you eating? What does your home look like? What do you do when you have ten minutes to yourself? Are you taking an actual break, or are you simply moving from one screen to another?

Amy shares simple ways to make ordinary moments feel more intentional, from lighting a candle at a meal to looking at a piece of art, stepping outside during a break, sending a photograph to a friend, making something with your hands, rearranging a room, visiting a small museum, or simply paying closer attention to the aesthetics of the world around you.

The goal isn't to add another long list of things to your already busy schedule. Many of these experiences require almost no additional time. They require intention and presence.

In This Episode

• Why art appears across every known culture
• How art and storytelling help make life meaningful
• The idea of “making special” and why humans need it
• Why we shouldn't save our favorite clothes, dishes, experiences, or adventures for “one day”
• How waiting for the next stage of life can keep us from experiencing the life we have now
• The relationship between aesthetics and the stories we tell about ourselves
• How clothing can influence our experience of ourselves and the task at hand
• Why your environment matters to your mood and attention
• How to turn a ten-minute break into a real break
• Why scrolling on your phone isn't necessarily restorative
• Simple ways to bring more art and creativity into an ordinary day
• How novelty and aesthetic experiences can engage the brain
• Why making art can help us connect with other people
• How observation can quiet mental chatter and bring you into the present moment
• The Modern Creative Woman principles of presence, mindset, and purpose

Questions to Consider

• What are you waiting for before you allow yourself to really enjoy your life?
• Are you saving your favorite things for a future that hasn't arrived?
• What story are you telling about yourself through what you wear?
• What story does your environment tell?
• What does your daily routine communicate about what you value?
• What do you do when you have ten minutes of free time?
• Are your breaks actually giving your brain a break?
• What could you make more special today?
• Where could you bring more creativity into your ordinary routines?
• What do you notice when you slow down and really observe your environment?

Try This Today

Take something you normally reserve for a special occasion and use it today.

Light the candle. Use the beautiful cup. Wear the clothes you love. Put flowers on the table. Play the music. Sit down for your meal instead of eating it over the sink.

You can also give yourself a small aesthetic experience. Look at a piece of art for three minutes. Step outside and notice the architecture or trees around you. Take a photograph of something beautiful and send it to a friend. Rearrange something in your home. Make a small piece of art.

The point is to notice what happens when you stop treating pleasure, beauty, creativity, and connection as things you have to earn.

A Creative Challenge

Look at your day through the lens of presence, mindset, and purpose.

Choose one ordinary part of your day and intentionally elevate it.

Then ask yourself:

What story am I telling about my life through this small choice?

Why This Matters

We can become so focused on productivity, responsibility, and what needs to happen next that we forget to experience the life that is already happening.

Art and aesthetics give us another way to move through the day. They invite us to notice, choose, create, connect, and make something special.

And sometimes it takes very little to change the experience of an ordinary day.

Keywords

creativity, art and creativity, art therapy, neuroaesthetics, aesthetics, creative living, creative women, women and creativity, intentional living, meaningful life, daily rituals, creative rituals, self-expression, creativity and wellbeing, art and mental health, aesthetic experience, presence, psychological flexibility, creative self-care, women over 40, women over 50, Modern Creative Woman

Are you waiting for life to slow down before you enjoy it? Discover how art, creativity, aesthetics, and simple daily rituals can help you create more meaning, pleasure, and presence right now.

Creativity | Art Therapy | Neuroaesthetics | Creative Living | Women and Creativity | Aesthetic Experience | Art and Wellbeing | Intentional Living | Self-Expression | Creative Rituals | Psychology | Mindfulness | Women Over 40 | Women Over 50 | Modern Creative Woman

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Ask me a question or let me know what you think!

Episode Summary

What happens when we spend so much time online that we lose touch with our own preferences, pleasures, and experiences?

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos explores neuroaesthetics and the powerful role that beauty, art, architecture, color, texture, and our physical environments can play in our lives. Neuroaesthetics is a branch of cognitive neuroscience that examines the brain’s response to aesthetic experiences, particularly those that bring us pleasure, joy, curiosity, and connection.

Dr. Amy looks at what happens when we begin paying attention to our own aesthetic experiences instead of relying on social media, trends, algorithms, or other people’s ideas about what should be beautiful or desirable. She shares a vivid memory from her first trip to Paris and explains how particular aesthetic experiences can stay with us for years, becoming signs and guideposts for what brings us pleasure.

The conversation also explores the relationship between aesthetics, art, health, present-moment awareness, emotional regulation, and the environments we create around ourselves. Amy talks about the importance of rituals and gives examples of simple ways to bring more aesthetic experiences into everyday life, from museum visits and music to walking, making art, and really noticing the spaces around you.

You’ll also hear about a creative scavenger hunt inspired by Amy’s work in Paris. Instead of taking dozens of photographs or scrolling past your surroundings, you are invited to slow down, choose a few feelings you want more of in your life, and look for those experiences in the world around you.

In This Episode

• What neuroaesthetics is and how it differs from the idea of a “brand aesthetic”
• Why our experiences of beauty are deeply personal
• How architecture and the built environment can affect how we feel
• Why certain aesthetic experiences become powerful memories
• The relationship between art, aesthetics, health, and wellbeing
• How aesthetic experiences can bring us into the present moment
• Why rituals can add meaning and pleasure to everyday life
• How making art can help us explore choices and possibilities
• The connection between creativity, divergent thinking, and decision-making
• Ways to create more opportunities for beauty and pleasure in daily life
• How to begin noticing what genuinely speaks to you

Questions This Episode Explores

• What does your brain find beautiful?
• What aesthetic experiences have stayed with you over the years?
• What colors, textures, spaces, sounds, or works of art bring you pleasure?
• How much of what you consider beautiful comes from your own experience, and how much comes from the world around you?
• What happens when you slow down enough to really see your environment?
• Can the spaces around us influence how we feel and behave?
• How can art and aesthetic experiences support health and emotional regulation?
• What kinds of rituals could bring more pleasure and meaning into your everyday life?
• What might your aesthetic preferences reveal about the life you want to create?

A Creative Experiment for You

Amy invites you to create your own aesthetic scavenger hunt.

Choose five or six feelings or experiences you would like to have more of in your life. Then go out into the world and look for them.

You might look for something that feels peaceful, invigorating, cozy, joyful, expansive, beautiful, or whatever qualities matter to you.

Rather than taking dozens of photographs, take one photograph that captures each experience. The point is to slow down and truly see what is around you.

Then spend some time reflecting on what you found. What caught your attention? What did you notice about color, light, texture, architecture, nature, or space? What did the experience feel like in your body?

Use what you discover to begin creating an aesthetic ritual that brings more of those experiences into your everyday life.

Why This Matters

Your aesthetic experiences can give you information about what you enjoy, what interests you, what makes you feel alive, and what kinds of environments support you.

Amy encourages you to pay attention to those moments. They can become guideposts for creating more pleasure, meaning, creativity, and presence in your daily life.

Episode Takeaway

Pay attention to what makes you stop and look. Your own aesthetic experiences can tell you a great deal about what you value, what brings you pleasure, and the kinds of experiences you want more of in your life.

Neuroaesthetics | Creativity | Art Therapy | Neuroscience | Women and Creativity | Art and Health | Aesthetic Experience | Creative Living | Wellbeing | Psychological Flexibility | Creativity and the Brain | Modern Creative Woman

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How often are you actually present for your own life?

Research suggests that nearly half of our waking hours are spent thinking about something other than what we are doing. Our minds wander into the past, the future, imagined conversations, worries, plans, comparisons, and everything else competing for our attention.

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos explores the surprising connection between mind wandering, happiness, creativity, and our ability to connect with ourselves and the people we love.

Amy looks at the landmark research by Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, who used an iPhone app to track people's happiness and mind wandering throughout their everyday lives. Their findings offer a powerful reminder: our happiness is influenced less by what we are doing than by how present we are while doing it.

The good news is that present moment awareness is something we can practice.

Amy shares simple, creative ways to return to the here and now, including scribble drawing, doodling, textile arts, knitting, crochet, walking, dancing, and a simple hugging meditation. These aren't about becoming a perfect meditator or a perfect artist. They are practices that help us learn how to notice where our attention has gone and gently bring it back.

You'll also hear why practicing presence can be especially important when we're experiencing difficult emotions or reminders of past experiences, and how learning to stay with the present moment can build our capacity to navigate discomfort rather than automatically getting pulled away from it.

Most importantly, this episode invites you to stop thinking about presence as another thing you have to do perfectly. Instead, think of it as a creative practice: noticing when you've wandered, celebrating the moment you return, and discovering what becomes possible when you are fully here for your own life.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why our minds naturally wander away from the present moment
• What the Killingsworth and Gilbert happiness research revealed about mind wandering
• Why being present may matter more for happiness than the activity you're doing
• How present moment awareness can support creativity and connection
• Why practice matters more than perfection
• How scribble drawing can become a 30-second mindfulness practice
• How knitting, crochet, weaving, and other textile arts can help anchor attention
• Why movement, walking, dancing, and physical connection can bring us back into the moment
• How to notice difficult thoughts without automatically getting pulled into them
• Simple ways to practice being present throughout your everyday life

A creative practice to try

The next time you notice that your mind has wandered, don't criticize yourself for losing focus.

Simply notice.

Then return.

You might take a pen and make a quick scribble on a piece of paper. Notice the movement of your hand, the pressure of the pen, the sound of the line moving across the page. Give yourself 30 seconds to experience what is happening right now.

The goal isn't to clear your mind. It's to practice coming back.

And once you're here, the question becomes: What will you create?

Support the show

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This episode of The Modern Creative Woman reframes glamour as a "womanly art" — an intentional, creative practice of shaping your environment, style, and self-presentation — rather than vanity or performing for the male gaze. Dr. Amy opens with Natalie Portman's account of being sexualized young in Hollywood, then traces how women like Kristen Stewart, Lynda Carter, Keke Palmer, Angela Bassett, and Cynthia Erivo have pushed back against being boxed into "smart vs. beautiful" or "strong vs. sexualized" binaries, often relying on informal "whisper networks" for safety and support.

She then turns personal, describing how she over-indexed on her intellectual identity (academic career, writing, teaching) while neglecting aesthetics and self-care at home — and how small, deliberate choices (an Eames chair, drinking from a nice glass, a proper bedtime routine) rebuilt a sense of balance. She connects this to research on entrepreneurship (only ~9% of businesses survive 10 years, and self-investment correlates with success) and on environmental art (murals reducing urban crime), using Yayoi Kusama's installation work as an example of glamour as world-building. She closes with a call to action: treat small luxuries and self-investment as essential, not frivolous, and to share your own "everyday glamour" with her.

Support the show

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What if the way you see the world is being shaped long before you consciously decide what you think?

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos explores value priming, the fascinating psychological process through which our previous experiences, environment, relationships, media, and repeated thoughts influence how we interpret what happens around us. What we repeatedly expose ourselves to can become a kind of filter, making certain interpretations feel more familiar, believable, or rewarding than others.

Amy looks at the neurobiology behind value priming, including the dopaminergic pathway, the striatum, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and explains how the brain learns to anticipate the reward associated with seeing things in familiar ways. If you tend to expect people to be kind, you may be more likely to notice evidence that supports that belief. If you've learned to expect criticism, rejection, or danger, your brain may become especially quick to notice those things instead.

The good news is that you can begin creating new associations.

Amy shares practical ways to work with value priming in your everyday life, including using self-talk, creating new associations, rehearsing more compassionate interpretations, and changing the language you use to describe what you're doing. Instead of automatically labeling yourself “lazy,” for example, you might recognize that you're resting, luxuriating, dancing, reading, or giving your brain a much-needed break.

She also explores how value priming shows up in creativity and art. The more we encounter particular forms of art, the more familiar they become, and familiarity can change our responses to what we see. This is one reason that continuing to look, experiment, and expose yourself to new creative experiences can expand what you enjoy and appreciate.

One of the simplest practices in this episode is also one of the most powerful: name what is happening. Instead of immediately reacting to the judgment or story attached to an experience, identify what you're actually doing or feeling. Parenting. Resting. Considering. Painting. Frustration. Confusion. Pleasure. Naming the experience can create enough space to respond to what is actually happening rather than automatically responding to an old story.

This episode is an invitation to become more aware of the information you're feeding your brain, the stories you're rehearsing, and the assumptions you're making. Once you begin to notice your value primes, you have more choice about what you reinforce.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What value priming is and how it influences perception and behavior
• How your environment, media, relationships, and repeated experiences can shape your worldview
• The role of dopamine, the striatum, and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in value priming
• Why your brain tends to notice information that fits what it already expects
• How to use self-talk to create new associations
• Why you don't have to “unlearn” an old story to begin changing your response to it
• How value priming can influence the way you think about rest, productivity, your body, and creativity
• How art can create new associations and help loosen old ones
• Why naming what you're doing or feeling can interrupt an automatic reaction
• How to return your attention to the present moment when an old value-primed story takes over

The question to take with you this week is simple:

What are you repeatedly teaching your brain to notice?

And perhaps even more importantly, what would you like to teach it to notice instead?

This episode is based on the August 24, 2026 episode transcript, which introduces value priming as the central concept and connects it to perception, self-talk, art, creativity, and everyday decision-making.

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What if the images you're naturally drawn to are telling you something about yourself?

Symbols have been part of human expression for thousands of years, from prehistoric cave paintings to religious imagery to contemporary abstract art. But symbols aren't only something we find in museums, books, or ancient cultures. They are part of our own inner lives, too.

In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos explores how we can use symbols strategically as a creative tool for self-understanding. Drawing from Carl Jung's ideas about symbolism, she looks at three powerful forms of imagery: animals, circles and mandalas, and modern abstract art.

You'll explore why you might feel especially drawn to a particular animal, how a favorite animal can become a personal symbol, and how making art of that animal can help you explore qualities you may want to cultivate in your own life.

Amy also explores the circle as a universal symbol of wholeness and invites you to begin noticing circles in your everyday environment. From mandalas to architecture, religion, science, and ordinary objects, the circle appears everywhere. Paying attention to it can become a simple mindfulness practice and a way of considering your own sense of wholeness.

Finally, you'll enter the world of abstract expressionism and the use of color as emotional language. Without having to draw something recognizable, you can use color, shape, movement, and texture to make an internal experience visible. Sometimes the image tells you something before you have the words to explain it.

This is a different way of thinking about creativity. The goal isn't to make beautiful art. The goal is to use art to know yourself.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why humans have used symbols throughout history
• How an animal can become a personal symbol and guide
• What your attraction to a particular animal might reveal
• Why the circle appears across cultures, religions, science, and art
• How mandalas can be used as a practice of exploring wholeness
• How abstract art can give form to emotions that are difficult to articulate
• Why making “ugly” or imperfect art can actually be liberating
• How to use color strategically to explore your emotional state
• Why your personal and cultural associations with symbols matter
• How creativity can become a tool for accessing your own inner knowing

🎨 Try this after listening

Choose an animal that immediately catches your attention. Don't overthink it. Look through photographs, magazines, Pinterest, or images of animals and notice your immediate yes or no response.

When you find one that feels compelling, make something with it.

Draw it. Paint it. Collage it. Write about it.

Don't worry about whether it's good.

Instead, ask yourself:

What qualities does this animal have that I am drawn to?

What might this animal represent for me right now?

And then see what you discover.

Another creative invitation

Try making an abstract painting using only color.

Choose several colors intuitively and create three or four sections on your paper. Let the colors blend, overlap, collide, or remain separate. Don't try to make a picture.

Then step back and look at what you've created.

What does the image tell you about how you're feeling?

Sometimes the art comes before the explanation. As Amy discusses in the episode, putting an internal experience onto paper can make something that felt vague or unreachable suddenly available for exploration. 

Books & Ideas Mentioned

• I Saw a Purple Cow by Anne Cole, Carolyn Bushnell, and Betty Weinberger
• Carl Jung's Man and His Symbols
• Women's books on symbols, mythology, and sacred objects
• Abstract Expressionism and the paintings of Mark Rothko
• Animal symbolism
• Mandalas and the circle as a symbol of wholeness

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