In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Reflecting in the Attic, we’re building on last week’s exploration of an inner, mental space, specifically designed for reflection.

Today, we’ll step into that space and try an activity together called The Emotion Jars. You’ll consider the emotional fuel you currently have for your creative work through a hands-on experience. I encourage that you listen to this one with pen, paper, and some colored pencils in hand.

Why consider our emotions in relation to our creative work? In Brené Brown’s book, Atlas of the Heart, she describes a survey that she gave as part of her research on shame. Over 7000 participants were invited to list all the emotions they could recognize and name as they were experiencing them. The (shocking) average number of emotions named across the surveys was three: happiness, sadness, and anger. What about shame, disappointment, wonder, awe, disgust, embarrassment, despair, contentment, boredom, anxiety, stress, love, overwhelm, surprise, and the many other emotions and experiences that define what it means to be human?

Through our creative work, we craft experiences that evoke emotion. We open doorways that make it possible for hearts to expand with wonder, and to contract with disappointment. Through experiencing art, people strengthen their emotional range and each artistic touchpoint clarifies their compass. By returning to your song, your story, your poem, your painting, they intuitively feel the slight difference between surprise and shock, or between embarrassment and belonging.  The emotional fuel we use for our work shines through in it, whether it is remembered emotion, current emotion, or sometimes even unacknowledged emotion. Taking the time to ground ourselves in our emotional landscape helps us to see ourselves, our work, and others more clearly, and deepens the impact and meaning of our creative work.

Let’s take a look, then, at where your heart is, today, through this activity in the Illuminary’s Attic. 

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Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, Creating Space: Designing with your Voice in Mind, we’re continuing our series that explores the Illuminary. The Illuminary is a visualization tool that invites you to picture your creative thinking process happening in various rooms. Our goal is to make the abstract and sometimes confusing creative process more tangible, giving ourselves tools to see the way we move through the creative process with clarity and flow.

Today’s room is the Attic. In this mental space, you’re invited to think reflectively—collecting ideas, asking questions, and discovering personal connections. Come into my Attic for a while to explore the various possibilities, so that you can then design your own to fit your approach and style. What elements would make an ideal reflection space for you?

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EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

Today’s episode of Creative Lift, “Creating Space: Playing in the Studio,” is a hands-on experience of playing in one of the Illuminary’s rooms, the Studio. You can think of the Illuminary as an inner creative hideout that is made up of various rooms designed to support your creative thinking process. The Studio is a space for divergent thinking, brainstorming, improvising, and experimenting.

Last week’s episode offered a tour of the Studio, and today’s episode invites you to experience it. Since this is a hands-on experience, I encourage you to listen to this episode when you have a few quiet minutes to focus and a pen and paper in hand.

LISTEN IN:

EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

In today’s episode of Creative Lift, “Creating Space: Designing with Play in Mind,” dive with me into the first of the Illuminary’s rooms, the Studio. You can think of the Illuminary as an inner creative hideout that is made up of various rooms designed to support your creative thinking process. The Studio is a space for divergent thinking, brainstorming, improvising, and experimenting. In our episode, we’ll explore why play matters, no matter what age you are, and how play facilitates your creative flow and momentum.

What kind of environment would work best for you in your internal Studio? What colors, tools, and supplies invite you into a playful state of mind? Your Studio is a place to experiment, even when you have no idea whether a possibility will lead anywhere productive. In this space, making a mess is not only expected, it’s celebrated.

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Don’t miss out on next week’s follow-up episode! In this season, we’re alternating between an episode like this one, that provides a tour of one of the Illuminary’s rooms, followed by an episode like next week’s, in which we’ll play through a hands-on activity together to get a feel for what actually being in that room might feel like. I encourage you to set some time aside next week to join me in the Studio and stretch your playful thinking skills. 

EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a huge thank you to Alex Doherty for his fantastic editing of the show.

In Season Eight of Creative Lift, our theme is Creating Space. Today’s episode is titled, “A Room of Your Own: Why Creative Space Matters.”

When you think of creative space, what comes to mind? Do you think of your physical creative space? Or does your mind turn to something less easy to define, such as your mental or emotional space?

Maybe right now, you’re in a season where you feel you have the just-right amount of creative space. Or maybe you are longing for more physical or metaphorical creative space in your life. No matter where you are, this season invites you to take a deep breath, and to look at creative space in a new way. You’ll gain tools that help you apply your creative thinking skills directly to your creative process. We all have those stuck places that come up over and over again. What if your creativity was exactly what you needed to reimagine those challenges and overcome them?

If you’re familiar with Writerly Play, you’ve likely heard me speak about the Illuminary. This imagined villa houses many rooms, and each room offers a particular thinking environment. The Studio, for instance, provides you an expansive, playful space where you can ideate and dream. Across the hall, the Workshop holds practical tools to help you craft those ideas and dreams into a shape you can share with others.

The Illuminary makes what the invisible—our creative thinking process—visible. By illuminating the shifts we make from one mode of thinking to another, we avoid common creative blocks. By equipping each room with tools that are personalized for our own approach, we learn not only to rely on our strengths, but also create ease in the spaces that are less comfortable for us.

Throughout this season, we’ll explore the Illuminary’s rooms, discuss the essential mindset required for each, and try out activities that help you experience the feel of each mindset. In today’s episode, we’ll walk through the Illuminary so that you have a map for where we’re headed in this season, and I’ll share a few stories about how and why I developed this tool for myself and others.

I’m very excited to share the Illuminary’s tools and creative mindsets with you. They’ve been transformative for me in my creative process, and I have seen them blast through obstinate creative blocks for others, too. My hope through this season is that through these tools, you will find a renewed sense of momentum and joy as you unlock new horizons in your creative process.

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 EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for his fantastic editing of the show.

Have you ever thought about the importance of play in your life? In episode 58 of Creative Lift, Living the Artful Life: Permission to Play, we’ll chat about how you might give yourself permission to play.

Anyone who’s been reading this blog for any length of time knows that I firmly believe that play is not just for children – in this episode, we’ll discover one way in which play has great impact. We all know that the amount of energy we have when we approach a task is essential. If we experience our task as a slog, it likely will take more time and what we produce will often be of less quality. When that same task is framed as play, it can become buoyant, which speeds up the work, makes the work fun, and also often creates stronger, more inspired results. From cooking to designing our days, play can unlock our creative energy and give us the momentum we need to move forward.

What possibilities might giving yourself permission to play unlock for you this week?

LISTEN IN:

 EPISODE LINKS:

Find me on Instagram: @naomikinsman

Find Alex on Instagram: @ag.doherty

You can also help others find the show by rating and reviewing it on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to the show. Your words make such a difference for them—and for me, as I continue to create this show. Many, many thanks in advance. And of course, a big thank you to Alex for his fantastic editing of the show.