Late night thoughts on creativity

As I mentioned in my I’m back again post, I want to do things differently moving forward. I’m itching to update the site actually, it’s been a while since I redesigned it in the fall of 2020 (does anyone just feel anxious to hear that year still?). I feel like a completely different person than I was when the pandemic began, or even who I was six months ago. There are big shifts happening in my life and I can feel the change in the air like never before. It’s an odd feeling, but it’s something I’ve been wanting for a long time.

I haven’t done a “life lately” post in some time (this one wins for the imagery I used lol) and I don’t know if I really even want to do one now—I just know that I’m missing the blog posts lately that marked time for me. When it comes down to it, I’m an obsessive recorder. Whether it’s through my journal, Instagram, or this blog, I feel an innate desire to record my life. I don’t know if others feel this way, if it’s part of my creative being, or if I’m just obsessive, but it’s something I’ve been doing my whole life and probably will never stop doing. 

With this blog, however, I’ve really been working on releasing expectations. I don’t make money from it—not that money is a reason to not care lol—but honestly sometimes I just don’t have the time or energy to share my resources with the world in the ways that I used to. Especially when it comes to my knowledge of Italy and traveling. I’m trying to find the balance between inspiring others to live beautifully (the whole why behind this blog) and protecting my energy. 

Plus, as a creative, I’m not always “on.” That’s an impossible expectation that society (and let’s be real, the Instagram algorithm) has set on us. But we’re meant to rest. In my case, meant to go through periods where I’m living my life to the fullest and times when I retreat from the world and observe all that has happened. It’s the rhythm I’ve fallen into lately, especially in this new life of going back and forth between the states and Italy more frequently. Anyways, all creatives and artists need to go through both periods in order to produce anything meaningful. When the creativity is flowing, we all know how it feels (and I’m sure, like me, you like to harness it when it comes as I’m doing now). 

So, while I originally set out to write some sort of life lately post, I realized I don’t really want to do that. Sure, there’s a lot to catch up on. What I’ve been up to, my new job, my time in Italy, travels and other future plans—but I’ll write on all that when the time comes and it feels good. For now just know that I’m around, always working on something creative, and always writing. And can I just say that writing for myself, from a genuine place, is one of the best feelings in the world?

If you’re feeling stuck creatively or in life, I highly suggest trying The Artist’s Way. I wrote a blog post on why every creative should do The Artist’s Way, and truly can say it helped me formulate some strong thoughts and ideas about how I wanted to live my life and helped me kickstart some amazing fiction pieces that literally flowed out of me like magic. 

So, the point of this post (which I randomly wrote one night before bed) is just to share some thoughts around creativity, and give every artist a pass when it comes to always pushing to create and share with the world. It’s okay to just follow your own impulses, because you know best when you’re feeling creative and can make beautiful things. We have to live our lives to the fullest to find that good, juicy inspiration anyways…