Latest / The Everyday Awesome Project / 130: Permission to Play! Creative Breaks That Refuel Your Life

Transcript

130: Permission to Play! Creative Breaks That Refuel Your Life · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:27
  Polly Mertens: Hey superstars, welcome back.
• 0:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Polly here and Sam Pruitt.
• 0:32
  Samantha Pruitt: What's up?
• 0:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Look at us.
• 0:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Look at us taping a podcast this week.
• 0:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, how many weeks have been we've been taping this podcast?
• 0:39
  Samantha Pruitt: At some point, we probably need to count that.
• 0:41
  Samantha Pruitt: What episode are we on?
• 0:42
  Polly Mertens: Well, I know.
• 0:43
  Polly Mertens: I was just well, we're in the one something.
• 0:45
  Polly Mertens: I was just thinking, I was like, have we been doing this for two years?
• 0:48
  Polly Mertens: No, three years.
• 0:49
  Polly Mertens: So like we're coming up on three years in October, dude.
• 0:51
  Polly Mertens: Isn't that fun?
• 0:53
  Samantha Pruitt: We are legit.
• 0:54
  Samantha Pruitt: Look at us.
• 0:55
  Polly Mertens: Fun.
• 0:55
  Polly Mertens: So fun.
• 0:56
  Polly Mertens: Yes.
• 0:57
  Samantha Pruitt: And we're talking about creativity today.
• 0:59
  Samantha Pruitt: And I'll let you read the title again in a hot second, but just pointing out the reality of look at us in this creative project and the longevity of our creative collaboration.
• 1:11
  Samantha Pruitt: That's freaking amazing.
• 1:13
  Polly Mertens: And I love that word collaboration in that.
• 1:15
  Polly Mertens: You know, because a lot of what I was thinking about and preparing, preparing for this is like, you know, just like up in my brain.
• 1:21
  Polly Mertens: Am I creative?
• 1:22
  Polly Mertens: How am I creative?
• 1:23
  Polly Mertens: But and then I love like a creative collaboration.
• 1:25
  Samantha Pruitt: That's so Oh, that's the best.
• 1:28
  Samantha Pruitt: So glad you I believe that everything is a creative collaboration, but we'll get into that in a second.
• 1:33
  Samantha Pruitt: Why don't you tell us what the title is?
• 1:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, another teaser.
• 1:35
  Samantha Pruitt: Sam's got teasers jump in left and right.
• 1:38
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 1:38
  Polly Mertens: We're calling this permission to play, exploring the art of creative breaks.
• 1:43
  Polly Mertens: And just so you know, okay, so what's funny about this?
• 1:46
  Polly Mertens: I just want to talk, you know, we'll let a little bit of the backstory.
• 1:48
  Polly Mertens: So we were like two weeks ago, we're like, oh well, we've been doing a series on hormones.
• 1:53
  Polly Mertens: And so we did hormones, hormones, and we just were like blah, blah, blah, blah, rambling, you know, we were enjoying the heck out of that.
• 1:58
  Polly Mertens: And we had so much to say.
• 1:58
  Polly Mertens: And then there was this other group of hormones that we wanted to get into.
• 2:01
  Polly Mertens: We're like, oh, we need to like deep dive and like whatever.
• 2:04
  Polly Mertens: And like both times we were going to record and we both were like, we're not there yet.
• 2:08
  Polly Mertens: We're totally not prepared.
• 2:10
  Polly Mertens: And so yesterday we're like, okay, game on, switch gears, you know, pulled out the creativity hat, right?
• 2:16
  Samantha Pruitt: We're like, exactly.
• 2:18
  Samantha Pruitt: Permission to be creative.
• 2:21
  Polly Mertens: Exactly.
• 2:22
  Polly Mertens: I was like, hey, this is our podcast.
• 2:23
  Polly Mertens: Let's role models.
• 2:25
  Samantha Pruitt: We'll talk about whatever damn hell we want.
• 2:28
  Polly Mertens: That's exactly right.
• 2:29
  Samantha Pruitt: And we're creating a piece of art that is a reflection of who we are in the world and our contribution to the world.
• 2:36
  Samantha Pruitt: And that should be a creative act.
• 2:38
  Polly Mertens: Exactly.
• 2:38
  Polly Mertens: And it is.
• 2:39
  Polly Mertens: And it is.
• 2:40
  Polly Mertens: So we're giving ourselves permission.
• 2:42
  Polly Mertens: And you out there listening, all that like, I just want, like, as this is going into your ears for it to feel like sparkly magical prixy dust and giving you like reminders, like, I am an artist, like I'm childlike inside and curiosity, and then reawakening that side of you that is always there that maybe you do or don't tap into enough.
• 3:01
  Polly Mertens: I know I have been slight on this, and we'll go into that, you know, but how to reawaken and with creative breaks or whatever that looks like.
• 3:08
  Polly Mertens: So where are we starting off, Miss?
• 3:10
  Samantha Pruitt: And we've got the word play in the title.
• 3:12
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, when we're talking about this, people tend to think of like creative outlets or creative projects, you know, the stereotypical kind of art, music, obviously, writing, movement, dance, film, you know, all the things that people think of.
• 3:28
  Samantha Pruitt: Somebody created art or, you know, it came out of them and it was created into a thing.
• 3:36
  Samantha Pruitt: But that's how people kind of associate creativity in general, I think.
• 3:40
  Samantha Pruitt: I would like to plant a different seed, and I know we're gonna ask each other questions, so this is gonna be really fun for us today, too, because this is something we don't normally do.
• 3:48
  Samantha Pruitt: First of all, we are all creative because we were all created, okay, people.
• 3:57
  Samantha Pruitt: You were created, whatever your belief system, but last time I checked, you're in the universe on this planet at this time, okay.
• 4:06
  Samantha Pruitt: So you were created, therefore you are creative by birthright.
• 4:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Because you don't have to be a quote-unquote artist to be creative or be a creator.
• 4:18
  Samantha Pruitt: So I just want to drop that right out of the gate.
• 4:22
  Samantha Pruitt: And for me, it's like a state of being, it is an act of the human being human, and in their birthright, you're always making and creating something, whether it's inside you and it's trapped and it hasn't been expressed yet, which I think is the most common experience most of us have.
• 4:43
  Samantha Pruitt: I know I got no shortage of things that have not come out into the world.
• 4:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, I don't even know where to start with that, right?
• 4:51
  Samantha Pruitt: But that's pretty common.
• 4:53
  Samantha Pruitt: And then we think of ourselves as separate all the time from other humans and from the universe and the earth, which is also not reality.
• 5:01
  Samantha Pruitt: But anyway, so therefore, we are like, well, that person's an artist, they have creative talent.
• 5:07
  Samantha Pruitt: I don't.
• 5:08
  Samantha Pruitt: I could maybe be taught to be creative, but innately I'm not.
• 5:13
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, it's bullshit.
• 5:14
  Samantha Pruitt: So let's just let's just go there out of the gate, shall we?
• 5:17
  Polly Mertens: Well, just raise your hand because I'm raising my hand.
• 5:19
  Polly Mertens: Like until a couple years ago, I would have never said, I'm creative, I'm an artist, anything like that.
• 5:25
  Polly Mertens: Like, like literally, the my brain was like on lockdown.
• 5:29
  Polly Mertens: You're not an artist, you're not creative.
• 5:31
  Polly Mertens: Like, I knew I I wouldn't say I knew it, I told myself something and I believed it, right?
• 5:37
  Polly Mertens: And I looked at, you know, I have some fucking talented people in my life that you, I mean, you with your creativity and then like things that we would classically say artistically creative, like could draw something, and you'd be like, damn, or like could create some magical, like my one friend, she used to own a salon, and she'd create these window dressings that were like that would pale things in New York City.
• 6:00
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, winning award.
• 6:02
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, what the hell?
• 6:03
  Polly Mertens: So like I was like, bow down, holy, you know, she's the creator, she's creative, she's artistic.
• 6:09
  Polly Mertens: And my brain was just on lockdown.
• 6:11
  Polly Mertens: And though that friend and others in that circle helped me understand, oh hell no, we're all creative.
• 6:18
  Polly Mertens: And so I gave myself permission to kind of like lift that up and reframe that belief and just open up to like, oh, you know what?
• 6:26
  Polly Mertens: That's true, that's true.
• 6:28
  Polly Mertens: So so I'm I'm in the I've you know, the recovering non-creative, I'm in the recovering non-creative crowd, you know.
• 6:37
  Samantha Pruitt: And I'll just point out something that I know about you and about myself, of course, too, is that we have created business, we have created communities, we have created lots of things.
• 6:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Here's the deal: they didn't exist before us.
• 6:53
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, they didn't exist, and then we had thoughts, ideas, a vision, and then feelings and emotions, and then drive and initiative, and then ultimately discipline to create the thing.
• 7:10
  Polly Mertens: Took action.
• 7:11
  Polly Mertens: So it wasn't so what reminds me of one of my favorite teachers is you know, Abraham Hicks, it's like turning thoughts to things, right?
• 7:17
  Polly Mertens: So it it we move it from, you know, ethereal form or energy into the physical form of the world, right?
• 7:24
  Polly Mertens: And I want I think this is a good time, if I may, throw in the word and like the root, you know, mean words and stuff like that.
• 7:29
  Polly Mertens: Can I throw?
• 7:30
  Polly Mertens: Okay, so create creativity, those words like that.
• 7:33
  Polly Mertens: So the word traces back to Latin.
• 7:35
  Polly Mertens: I may butcher this, but it's creer, C-R-E-A-R-E, to make, bring forth.
• 7:42
  Polly Mertens: I love that part, bring forth, produce, or cause.
• 7:46
  Polly Mertens: And even further, it goes into Sam.
• 7:48
  Polly Mertens: Uh, it could go into original meaning is to make grow, right?
• 7:52
  Polly Mertens: And Sanskrit, Sanskrit is car, which is to produce, generate, make.
• 7:58
  Polly Mertens: And this is an interesting little fact.
• 8:00
  Polly Mertens: You know, you don't you hear all kinds of these little things on our podcast because I love researching this stuff.
• 8:04
  Polly Mertens: So it's like the word creative as an adjective didn't even exist but 200 years ago.
• 8:10
  Samantha Pruitt: That's insane.
• 8:12
  Polly Mertens: Creative, like we just take it for granted, like, oh yeah, like creative, right?
• 8:16
  Polly Mertens: Like it didn't exist, meaning imaginative until 1816 in Wordsworth.
• 8:21
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 8:22
  Polly Mertens: And then art, the word art comes from Latin artum, which is meaning work of art, which is a practical skill, a business or a craft, which is interesting.
• 8:33
  Polly Mertens: I didn't, I wouldn't have thought of it that way.
• 8:35
  Polly Mertens: And then the root of R, meaning to fit together.
• 8:40
  Polly Mertens: And then the Greek, it says, uh, let's see, the word creativity didn't exist.
• 8:44
  Polly Mertens: Artworks were considered imitation, not creative work.
• 8:48
  Polly Mertens: Like, what?
• 8:49
  Polly Mertens: And in the 18th century, during the Enlightenment era, the concept of creativity emerged as something humans actually possess.
• 8:56
  Polly Mertens: Like it was like medieval Christianity was like, nope, God creates y'all humans, you're just little dust, and God's little more now.
• 9:05
  Polly Mertens: Humans could make things, but not create them.
• 9:08
  Polly Mertens: I was like, wow, wow.
• 9:11
  Polly Mertens: Wow.
• 9:11
  Polly Mertens: Pretty cool.
• 9:12
  Samantha Pruitt: I loved in that initial definition you were giving, how it included growing things.
• 9:18
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, to make growing.
• 9:19
  Samantha Pruitt: Of course, plants and flowers and gardening and generating again, again, things that did not exist.
• 9:27
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 9:27
  Samantha Pruitt: And then there was a seed, and then I put the seed in the ground, and then I did all the things, creative act of in collaboration with Mother Nature.
• 9:35
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 9:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, dude.
• 9:37
  Polly Mertens: Mother Nature is like doing her thing, but like we are a part of that collaboration.
• 9:41
  Samantha Pruitt: Cause like nobody can deny, yeah, including you, Polly, that you are a creator and a creative.
• 9:48
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm reformed, I'm absolutely sold.
• 9:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Your gardening alone is like, what the hell is going on over there?
• 9:57
  Samantha Pruitt: And by the way, have you seen the bus that you drive around?
• 9:59
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, you're so funny.
• 10:01
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, I'm not well.
• 10:02
  Polly Mertens: I didn't paint it, so I fear.
• 10:04
  Polly Mertens: Oh, but you know, one of the things your vision.
• 10:06
  Polly Mertens: I am.
• 10:07
  Polly Mertens: So that's the thing.
• 10:08
  Polly Mertens: I was thinking about, so I've recently rearranged my office and art and stuff like that.
• 10:13
  Polly Mertens: Just kept working on some things.
• 10:15
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, oh yeah, you're damn right.
• 10:19
  Polly Mertens: You know, and I remember when we flipped houses for years, man, the before and after transformation, like that was all in this girl's head.
• 10:27
  Polly Mertens: Go out and find all the damn things, like all kinds of like they setting up the Airbnbs we would set up because I'd theme them and then I'd find and curate and work with a designer sometimes and all this stuff.
• 10:38
  Polly Mertens: And it was like, poof, like you're right, like that whole experience of somebody walking in and having a felt experience that I, you know, like I didn't want it to just be vanilla.
• 10:47
  Polly Mertens: It wasn't like, oh, let's make it gray and clean and maybe that's one experience, right?
• 10:51
  Polly Mertens: That's but mine was like, this shit's gonna be like, oh, these people have some sass.
• 10:57
  Polly Mertens: You know.
• 10:58
  Polly Mertens: So no.
• 10:59
  Samantha Pruitt: And it goes to show you how much we are impacted by creativity and creative ideas, concepts, and executions, whether they're maternal spaces, material spaces, or experiences.
• 11:12
  Samantha Pruitt: Like I created experiences for freaking thousands and thousands and thousands of people for 20 something years, right?
• 11:20
  Samantha Pruitt: Like that's an incredible creative act.
• 11:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 11:23
  Samantha Pruitt: And you might look at the job description or the business model and that that's just not a creative thing.
• 11:29
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, hell yeah.
• 11:31
  Polly Mertens: Oh, yeah.
• 11:32
  Samantha Pruitt: I someone's gonna come into this experience and leave a different human being.
• 11:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Hello, I don't so it's around us all the time, and we're all doing it, and we're all capable of doing it, which is really our message today.
• 11:44
  Samantha Pruitt: And I do want to get into our little Q ⁇ A, or else we'll never get it.
• 11:48
  Polly Mertens: And I just want to say it's like the thing, it's like the fingerprint because I can remember going to another festival, uh not race that you weren't the founder of and organizing.
• 11:57
  Polly Mertens: You and I had flown, and we were, you know, we were helping set up another race.
• 12:01
  Polly Mertens: And that experience, like the the festival experience, the after experience was so different than your events, like your fingerprint when you put your fingerprint on something that's like y'all are gonna have a good time, like you know, like how you curate the space and the vendors and the music or whatever, right?
• 12:19
  Polly Mertens: Like it's like throwing a party.
• 12:20
  Polly Mertens: It's like y'all are coming to this amazing party.
• 12:22
  Polly Mertens: And by the way, there's a race going on, you know, and so and and I just came for act from Lightning in a Bottle, which is my annual, you know, just shoot, like talk this.
• 12:32
  Polly Mertens: I'll say one minute on it, and then we'll shift and we'll probably come up later.
• 12:36
  Polly Mertens: But this event is held once a year at a boring ass campground in Bakersfield, California.
• 12:43
  Polly Mertens: Okay, like before and after.
• 12:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Pile of dirt, y'all.
• 12:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 12:48
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean in the middle of BFE.
• 12:50
  Polly Mertens: Farmland, as far as you know, there's like nothing out there.
• 12:53
  Polly Mertens: Yep.
• 12:54
  Polly Mertens: It's just like, you know, Roman nothing.
• 12:58
  Polly Mertens: They come in and they throw down so much to transform the space with lights in the trees and artist painting and stages and and yoga studio, you know, yogas and installations.
• 13:12
  Polly Mertens: Like I don't even get me started on the art craft.
• 13:14
  Polly Mertens: Like, there's this one thing called a mixtape, and it's like you're all of a sudden transported.
• 13:18
  Polly Mertens: You walk in the door and you feel like you're in a 1980s house party.
• 13:22
  Polly Mertens: I mean, like how they like brought in all the things and the music, and there's like you know, VHS to players, and it's crazy, you know.
• 13:29
  Polly Mertens: And you're like, damn, we're at like a house party here.
• 13:31
  Polly Mertens: You're in the festival, and then you're in this little room, and then you're like, wow, we're in a house party, and it legit feels like it.
• 13:38
  Samantha Pruitt: So anyway, and you go to that because yeah, well, because those are your people, yeah, yes, many.
• 13:45
  Polly Mertens: I could probably have I probably have 10 whys, but my number one why is I just call them my family.
• 13:51
  Polly Mertens: Like, I'm just like, this is my family, these are my people, I just have to be around.
• 13:55
  Polly Mertens: It's like a reunion.
• 13:56
  Polly Mertens: It's like I gotta go be with you.
• 13:57
  Polly Mertens: Like, there's like 25,000 people.
• 13:59
  Polly Mertens: I don't meet them all, I don't know a tenth of them, one percent of them.
• 14:04
  Polly Mertens: But I still am like, if you're here, you're damn well my family.
• 14:07
  Polly Mertens: Because if you come to this and enjoy it, then we are of we are kin.
• 14:13
  Polly Mertens: We are kin.
• 14:14
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, sharing the same vibration.
• 14:16
  Samantha Pruitt: So we're gonna get into some questions.
• 14:19
  Samantha Pruitt: I get to start.
• 14:21
  Polly Mertens: Wait, no, I have one for you because oh how do you define creativity?
• 14:24
  Polly Mertens: So, how do you define creativity?
• 14:26
  Samantha Pruitt: Because I gave you a- I think I kind of already said it, like it's an expression of myself.
• 14:32
  Samantha Pruitt: So my creativity is an expression of myself.
• 14:35
  Samantha Pruitt: My thoughts, my ideas, my emotions.
• 14:37
  Samantha Pruitt: It can come out in a myriad of ways, my visions, whatever.
• 14:40
  Samantha Pruitt: It's something internal inside of me that is generated from within and turned into whatever.
• 14:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Again, from nothing to something.
• 14:51
  Samantha Pruitt: That to me is how I define creativity.
• 14:55
  Samantha Pruitt: And again, that everybody was created, and therefore everybody is a creator and creative.
• 14:59
  Samantha Pruitt: That's how I feel about it.
• 15:00
  Samantha Pruitt: What about you?
• 15:02
  Polly Mertens: Well, what I love about that is like you know what, every day, every moment of your life, then you're a creator.
• 15:09
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, there isn't a moment you're not.
• 15:10
  Polly Mertens: Like, it's not, oh, I'm gonna go over here and create.
• 15:12
  Polly Mertens: Oh, I'm gonna do that on Saturday because I'm going to a painting class.
• 15:15
  Polly Mertens: You're saying, like, you're just a walking creation.
• 15:18
  Polly Mertens: I love it.
• 15:18
  Polly Mertens: I love it.
• 15:19
  Polly Mertens: You're right.
• 15:19
  Polly Mertens: You're right.
• 15:20
  Samantha Pruitt: By the way, when you wake up in the morning, you get to decide what you're about to create.
• 15:25
  Samantha Pruitt: So there's an incredible sense of ownership and responsibility with that way of being.
• 15:32
  Polly Mertens: Well, and don't get me started because language, you know, last year I studied a year of communication courses, and one thing that was definitely drilled into my head in a good way is we have the power to create through language.
• 15:44
  Polly Mertens: And we're doing it, whether we're conscious of it or unconscious of what we're creating, but we create through language in the listening of others and our own listening.
• 15:52
  Polly Mertens: It's amazing like nothing gets created unless it's spoken, you know, the spoken word, if you will.
• 15:57
  Polly Mertens: Because you've got to A, you've got to engage people.
• 16:00
  Polly Mertens: I mean, you can go off and do your thing, but like you're likely doing it with words.
• 16:05
  Polly Mertens: So, okay, and for me, God, what is the definition of creativity?
• 16:10
  Polly Mertens: Man, I want to, I just like my brain sees pictures, you know.
• 16:14
  Polly Mertens: I'm just seeing like colorful stuff.
• 16:16
  Polly Mertens: Like you talk about my bus, it's all colorful, and I I move my art, so I'm looking over the camera right now, and in my room, I've rearranged my art.
• 16:22
  Polly Mertens: So, like some of my favorite paint, like I just got like art all over my room.
• 16:26
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, damn, I I I have a huge appreciation of art, even though if I can't afford expensive and lots of it, I got as much of it as I can fit on my walls, you know.
• 16:35
  Polly Mertens: So yeah.
• 16:36
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I I like what you said though.
• 16:38
  Polly Mertens: Like creativity is I think it's like being present to wanting to create to create something, a transformation, generate something to grow something, and applying yourself.
• 16:51
  Polly Mertens: Like I'm doing that.
• 16:53
  Polly Mertens: So all right, yeah.
• 16:54
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, so then let me secondarily ask what are your favorite forms?
• 16:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Two or three of your favorite forms of creativity.
• 17:02
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, I was thinking, I was thinking about this.
• 17:04
  Polly Mertens: I think my favorite form of creativity is I have a very visual sense, like that's my strongest sense.
• 17:17
  Polly Mertens: And I think my creations are through exploration, you know, cure being curious, and travel is a big one for me.
• 17:27
  Polly Mertens: Even I was telling you the story before we started recording that like I love getting on my scooter and I just go in all sorts of like just yesterday or two days ago.
• 17:36
  Polly Mertens: This will be a funny story.
• 17:37
  Polly Mertens: Two days ago, I got on my scooter and I was like, doo-doo doo, gonna go like into a different neighborhood, and oh, what about over here?
• 17:43
  Polly Mertens: And then I just went, I was like, Oh, I haven't been up this street before.
• 17:45
  Polly Mertens: Girlfriend, how how long have I been in San Luis Bow coming on 25 years?
• 17:49
  Polly Mertens: I found a trail access to this mountain that I have probably been on thousands of times that I'd never seen before.
• 17:58
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, You have so my it's just this young cre curiosity and exploring.
• 18:03
  Polly Mertens: That's one of my favorite creations.
• 18:06
  Polly Mertens: It doesn't, it's not like something exists after I do that, other than my heart.
• 18:10
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, your experience.
• 18:12
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yes, like the surprise and the delight.
• 18:15
  Polly Mertens: Mm-hmm.
• 18:19
  Polly Mertens: And they're just like little city tour.
• 18:20
  Polly Mertens: I call them my little city scooter tours.
• 18:22
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, I'm just cholin around.
• 18:23
  Polly Mertens: I'm like the summer, I'm like, I am gonna get to know every little after I did that.
• 18:27
  Polly Mertens: I was like, where else don't I know that I need to know?
• 18:31
  Polly Mertens: What the hell?
• 18:32
  Polly Mertens: This was like magical.
• 18:34
  Samantha Pruitt: So and what else is out there?
• 18:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, okay, so then how does that feed you?
• 18:39
  Samantha Pruitt: What about that experience feeds you?
• 18:43
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 18:43
  Polly Mertens: So I have a high need for variety.
• 18:45
  Polly Mertens: I just know that.
• 18:46
  Polly Mertens: Like we're either some people have a high need for certainty, and I do have that at times.
• 18:49
  Polly Mertens: I tend to go on the I have a high need for variety.
• 18:52
  Polly Mertens: So my need for variety, and we all have that on a spectrum, is quenched with new like this.
• 18:59
  Polly Mertens: Is why I love to put post passport stamps, right?
• 19:02
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh my god, I've tasted new food.
• 19:04
  Polly Mertens: Oh my god, I've seen new horizons, oh my god, I've seen a new culture, oh my god, I've met some people that I never knew before.
• 19:08
  Polly Mertens: Like the novelty, the variety of humans, sights, smells, tastes, all of that.
• 19:15
  Polly Mertens: It just lights me up.
• 19:17
  Polly Mertens: It just pushes that variety button really well.
• 19:20
  Polly Mertens: So how about you?
• 19:22
  Polly Mertens: What what what what are your favorite forms of creativity creating?
• 19:26
  Samantha Pruitt: I love to write and I love music.
• 19:29
  Samantha Pruitt: I don't write music and I don't write anything that's like published or whatever, all not that I won't eventually, but I'd like to do those things.
• 19:39
  Samantha Pruitt: I like to listen to music.
• 19:40
  Samantha Pruitt: I find it incredibly like it just unlocks a lot of emotions, thoughts, processing, trapped energy, all of that kind of stuff.
• 19:51
  Samantha Pruitt: So I'm totally obsessed with music right now and all different types of music.
• 19:55
  Samantha Pruitt: So not one thing, it's just however I feel and what I'm listening to.
• 19:59
  Samantha Pruitt: And I do like writing, and then I like moving my body.
• 20:03
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, to me, moving my body is my biggest form of creativity as I evolve my body and my life and again my curate my own experience through space, through time, through nature, through whatever.
• 20:17
  Samantha Pruitt: To me, that feels very creative and very nurturing and liberating.
• 20:22
  Samantha Pruitt: Above all, liberating.
• 20:25
  Samantha Pruitt: Like I feel so free when I'm doing those things.
• 20:28
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 20:28
  Polly Mertens: Wow.
• 20:28
  Polly Mertens: I just got this idea of like cre, you know, like when you create an experience, like let's say you're like, oh, let's come over for a house party or a birthday party or something like that on Friday, and okay, and you put a lot of thought into decorate, like I can tell you some crazy wacky parties I've thrown.
• 20:45
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I had one that was pirate, yeah, pirate party that was your wackier.
• 20:49
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, that's true.
• 20:50
  Samantha Pruitt: That's next level.
• 20:51
  Samantha Pruitt: It was like themes.
• 20:52
  Polly Mertens: People were on a boat, and then they had a scavenger hunt, and it was wow, right?
• 20:56
  Polly Mertens: But it's like, wow, as you described that, I was like, we're literally creating each day, like, oh, how's this day gonna go?
• 21:03
  Polly Mertens: And where am I gonna be?
• 21:04
  Polly Mertens: And what am I gonna wear?
• 21:05
  Polly Mertens: And who am I gonna see?
• 21:06
  Polly Mertens: And you know, like you're giving yourself where you put your body, where you put your attention, how you experience that.
• 21:13
  Polly Mertens: Do you light yourself up?
• 21:15
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I remember a long time ago.
• 21:16
  Polly Mertens: Well, A, I've studied Feng Shui, and then B, I remember Oprah saying, your home, especially your bedroom, when you come home to it, that damn well better feel like a sanctuary.
• 21:25
  Polly Mertens: She's like, I want to come in and just be like, ha.
• 21:28
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, you know what?
• 21:30
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 21:31
  Polly Mertens: And so if we don't treat the spaces we can create, not to say that you know we can touch all the world, but like if we can curate our own spaces, we get to experience that.
• 21:41
  Polly Mertens: You know, like I'm looking, like you said, I've got all this beautiful, colorful art on my walls, and I'm just like, I'm lit up at the moment.
• 21:48
  Samantha Pruitt: So I think we kind of can create our own experience in that way, even in places where we don't think we are.
• 21:55
  Samantha Pruitt: So, for example, how you would like schedule your day.
• 21:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Where would you be going, right?
• 22:01
  Samantha Pruitt: Would you go to this grocery store or this one?
• 22:03
  Samantha Pruitt: Would you go to this coffee shop or this one?
• 22:05
  Samantha Pruitt: Would you have your office cubicle or your desk or your office look this way or that way?
• 22:09
  Samantha Pruitt: Those are all things that you are creating.
• 22:12
  Samantha Pruitt: And in that, there is an expression that's happening there.
• 22:15
  Samantha Pruitt: It's a reflection of who you are, what you're into, the colors you're into.
• 22:19
  Samantha Pruitt: The sound, the music, the whatever, all of that kind of stuff, right?
• 22:23
  Samantha Pruitt: If you think about the more traditional creative outlets, so we'll just talk sort of art for a second, right?
• 22:30
  Samantha Pruitt: So the writing, the music, the film, things like that.
• 22:34
  Samantha Pruitt: There's a lot of schools of thought out there.
• 22:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Rick Rubin is a legendary music producer, right?
• 22:40
  Samantha Pruitt: And I read his book on creativity.
• 22:42
  Samantha Pruitt: It was fascinating.
• 22:42
  Samantha Pruitt: He's a total character if people don't know who he is.
• 22:45
  Samantha Pruitt: He should definitely YouTube that.
• 22:46
  Samantha Pruitt: He's great.
• 22:47
  Samantha Pruitt: His video interviews are awesome.
• 22:49
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 22:49
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, yeah.
• 22:50
  Samantha Pruitt: And him and even Elizabeth Gilbert, who I'm a super fan of her work, also author.
• 22:54
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, they do say that the creative ideas come to you from the universe, from the cosmos, energetically, whatever.
• 23:03
  Samantha Pruitt: They're going to come to you.
• 23:04
  Samantha Pruitt: And then it's your up to you to receive them and accept those invitations, if you will, to let them move through you into some sort of thing that you create, or not?
• 23:17
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 23:17
  Samantha Pruitt: Because the universe has all of this available.
• 23:20
  Samantha Pruitt: It's constantly there for any and all of us.
• 23:22
  Samantha Pruitt: It's just, do we choose to accept the invitation?
• 23:26
  Samantha Pruitt: Or do we reject it, push it off, ignore it, intuitiveness, whatever it is?
• 23:31
  Samantha Pruitt: Do we just say it's not my time, it's not my thing to do?
• 23:36
  Samantha Pruitt: And unfortunately, the majority of us do say no.
• 23:40
  Polly Mertens: Right?
• 23:40
  Samantha Pruitt: Because look how many people are actually creating in the world.
• 23:43
  Polly Mertens: Well, we're all creating, but but like consider themselves artists or you know creating an artist expression in the traditional sense.
• 23:50
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 23:50
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 23:51
  Polly Mertens: Wow.
• 23:51
  Polly Mertens: Wow, wow, wow.
• 23:52
  Polly Mertens: I dig it.
• 23:53
  Polly Mertens: I dig it.
• 23:53
  Polly Mertens: All right.
• 23:53
  Polly Mertens: So how about on the tail end of that, unless you have another question?
• 23:58
  Polly Mertens: My next question is what does not being creative cause in your life, right?
• 24:04
  Polly Mertens: Like what is it when you're yeah, and you know, part of the title we were talking about is like creative breaks, right?
• 24:10
  Polly Mertens: So, like, you know, I would I mean, yes, we're being liberal with these creativity, like, oh yeah, in our life every day is a creative act and stuff like that.
• 24:17
  Polly Mertens: And I would say a lot of us, our life, you know, five days a week, maybe seven days a week, can look like, you know, a rinse and repeat, a little bit cookie cutter, you got the responsibilities in the morning, you got the responsibilities in the middle of the day, the end of the day, repeat next day, responsibilities in the morning, you know, whatever.
• 24:32
  Polly Mertens: So we were thinking, you know, creative breaks is that, you know, evenings, weekends, middle of the day, whatever, or quarterly, you know, type of thing.
• 24:40
  Polly Mertens: So what is when you're not allowing your creative expression or you're not tuning in to the things that light you up?
• 24:47
  Samantha Pruitt: What is I think it's very costly.
• 24:49
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 24:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Uh like tragic, tragic, right?
• 24:55
  Samantha Pruitt: Because really you're saying that those gifts that are innate to you and those ideas, those thoughts, those concepts, those visions, those feelings associated with all of that that would ultimately turn into an experience or a thing or whatever, are not worthy of my time and attention.
• 25:14
  Samantha Pruitt: And then what are you really saying if you say that?
• 25:18
  Samantha Pruitt: That part of me will never get expressed to the world because it's not worthy.
• 25:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh, damn.
• 25:26
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 25:26
  Polly Mertens: I started to think as you were crafting that answer, like, you know, if we think about because part of one of the metaphors I was like, you know, when I went to LIB this weekend, I felt like I wrung out my sponge and I could take in more.
• 25:41
  Polly Mertens: You know, it was like, like, like the the whole, you know, I've been just plowing, you know, doing concentrated work for all quarter and like learning AI and just all this like mental, you know, masturbation of, you know, just work, work, work kind of stuff, pumping out, producing things, creating new things in a context, right?
• 26:00
  Polly Mertens: That felt very, I know the word is like right brain, and maybe there's not right and left brain, but more mechanistic than creative, feminine, intuitive, if you will.
• 26:10
  Polly Mertens: And I was thinking, you know, if we had a flower and we just, you know, if we watered it with like we only watered it once a quarter or something, like would we expect it to flourish and thrive and grow and flower and all that stuff, or if we just kept it lack of water, you know, it's like the tree.
• 26:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Would we expect fruit from the tree?
• 26:33
  Samantha Pruitt: Uh good luck with that.
• 26:34
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, people.
• 26:35
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 26:36
  Polly Mertens: So it's like our so what I declared.
• 26:39
  Polly Mertens: I mean, I'm I can remember being at Lightning in a Bottle, and I was just so like it was such night and day how my life had felt, you know, before it.
• 26:47
  Polly Mertens: And then I get immersed in just, oh, I love you, people, you know, and it was like so great.
• 26:51
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, why do I deny myself this?
• 26:54
  Polly Mertens: Why don't I do this more often, right?
• 26:57
  Polly Mertens: Just the it was like a straitjacket gets lift off, or my brain gets just cracked open, or what if my heart's just wide open, just all this like sense of freedom.
• 27:05
  Polly Mertens: It's like the plant just got, you know, fertilized, you know, and it's like, holy smokes, these creative brain.
• 27:10
  Polly Mertens: I'm I'm like, okay, I could and I was telling you, I think I texted you from there, I was like, I can see why MLMs, multi-level marketing companies, do these quarterly retreats for their people, fly them to, you know, beautiful places, like la la la la la, whatever.
• 27:24
  Polly Mertens: It's like, it's like a it's like a rebirth, you know, because they're like down in the trenches, you know, gotta get some more people on board or whatever, you know, and then like they have these experiences.
• 27:35
  Polly Mertens: And so like these quarterly retreats, I'm like, I'm committing to that, you know.
• 27:39
  Samantha Pruitt: But back to the question, why do you deny yourself?
• 27:42
  Samantha Pruitt: I know those opportunities.
• 27:44
  Polly Mertens: Why does anybody well that's that's an old paradigm?
• 27:46
  Polly Mertens: That's an old paradigm.
• 27:47
  Samantha Pruitt: It's like well, it's like these stories, paradigms, you know.
• 27:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, I'm it doesn't generate money, uh, it's not good enough, nobody will like it.
• 27:56
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, it's not worthy of my time and attention or some resources that might go towards it.
• 28:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, you know, all of these things, story things, paradigms that we craft around that that limit us.
• 28:10
  Samantha Pruitt: Many people have the whole like, oh, well, I'm not good at it, right?
• 28:13
  Samantha Pruitt: Because maybe they tried when they were younger or they wanted to try when they were younger, and somebody told them no, or that they shouldn't or couldn't, or that it wasn't good.
• 28:21
  Samantha Pruitt: And that's still looming around, flying around in that brain of theirs, and they're attached to that.
• 28:28
  Polly Mertens: I was thinking, you know, lackful thinking.
• 28:31
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, scarcity and lack, like, oh, I have to be producing.
• 28:34
  Polly Mertens: There's no time for the luxury of being creative.
• 28:37
  Polly Mertens: There's no time for the luxury of taking a creative break or whatever that looks like for somebody.
• 28:42
  Polly Mertens: But you know, I mean, you gotta breathe.
• 28:44
  Polly Mertens: And it didn't take me that much more time yesterday when I went on my little scooter tours, you know, it's like I was gonna go for a walk or whatever.
• 28:50
  Polly Mertens: It's like, oh, just be creative in the act of something you're already doing, too.
• 28:54
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, exactly.
• 28:55
  Samantha Pruitt: I see, I don't see it as luxurious at all.
• 28:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Maybe because my forms generally are not luxurious at all, like they're not like relaxing in in that way.
• 29:06
  Polly Mertens: Extravagant or something.
• 29:07
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 29:07
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 29:07
  Samantha Pruitt: They're they're generally even even whether it was building a business or doing music or whatever, I don't consider these things or you know, being out in nature as luxuries.
• 29:17
  Samantha Pruitt: But if you say that art is a luxury item and it's for a certain class or group of people, then there's again that separateness, right, of the who gets it and then who doesn't.
• 29:31
  Samantha Pruitt: And really, I just can't say enough that that's a bunch of bullshit and that we're all uh it's available to all of us, right?
• 29:39
  Samantha Pruitt: If we so choose.
• 29:41
  Samantha Pruitt: So stop saying no, I guess is the answer to that real question, right?
• 29:45
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, exactly.
• 29:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, you know, and that's just like a little mental pivot, yeah.
• 29:49
  Samantha Pruitt: So well, that was going to be one of my questions for you is like, how do you keep it alive?
• 29:54
  Samantha Pruitt: Is your creativity something that evolves over time throughout your life?
• 29:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Is it seasonal in nature?
• 30:00
  Samantha Pruitt: Is it cyclical?
• 30:01
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, how do you keep it stoked?
• 30:04
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, and I'm curious how you do that, and then I'll share how I do it.
• 30:08
  Polly Mertens: Well, I can definitely see you know, when you we talked about having this conversation, I'm like, I can see doing such a better job at this.
• 30:15
  Polly Mertens: So I am gonna give myself some grace that I haven't been generating as much as I'm now present to as possible and not seeing it as a luxury because I was sitting in that camp.
• 30:25
  Polly Mertens: So I'm the one in this conversation.
• 30:26
  Polly Mertens: If you're out there that was like, you know, oh, I don't have time for the playing and the did-day, you know, whatever creativity or so like reform.
• 30:35
  Polly Mertens: Let's all like jump into Sam's boat.
• 30:37
  Polly Mertens: I'm I'm I'm sold, you know, sign me up for that.
• 30:40
  Polly Mertens: I'm gonna be doing that.
• 30:41
  Polly Mertens: But I would say for me, I think you're right.
• 30:44
  Polly Mertens: It's like I I curate it almost like subconsciously, like like the art in my house and redecorating or moving things around, or I have ideas for video, like even the things like you know, I just redesigned my website, right?
• 30:58
  Polly Mertens: And I'm doing thumbnails and stuff like that, and my brand, my logo.
• 31:02
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, yeah, all those things.
• 31:04
  Polly Mertens: So I just gotta stop telling myself I'm not, you know, and then I, you know, and then I say, because I I it's funny, there was a period where I, as I mentioned, these friends that were super like could paint like phenomenally type thing.
• 31:17
  Polly Mertens: And so it inspired me, like, I'm gonna get a little paint set and this and that.
• 31:21
  Polly Mertens: And the amount of I label it as work that goes into A, because I'm like way behind them in terms of the learning curve.
• 31:31
  Polly Mertens: You know, it's like, oh, the the work to get decent at this, and then B, the setup, cleanup, finding the stuff, you know, like I just don't have this stuff sitting around, you know.
• 31:40
  Polly Mertens: So it was like sort of like if you want to become a good skier, oh, you gotta get the gear and you gotta get lessons, you know, and all that stuff.
• 31:47
  Polly Mertens: And I just hadn't invested in that.
• 31:49
  Polly Mertens: So I sort of I tabled it, right?
• 31:52
  Polly Mertens: But there is plenty to be creative, like you said, like my garden.
• 31:55
  Polly Mertens: That's you know, I get compliments on my garden and stuff, so yeah.
• 31:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, and I don't think we have to be good at any of it.
• 32:02
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, so whatever that even means, it's like totally hilarious to me, okay, dude.
• 32:09
  Samantha Pruitt: Because I don't really care.
• 32:11
  Samantha Pruitt: I nobody says so many things.
• 32:13
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, who gives a shit?
• 32:15
  Samantha Pruitt: Even if I if when whatever I eventually write a book or books, honestly, at the end of the day, I need to do it for me.
• 32:25
  Samantha Pruitt: It's a form of expression.
• 32:27
  Samantha Pruitt: I want to express this these thoughts, these ideas, this concept out into the world.
• 32:32
  Samantha Pruitt: And damn it, I'm gonna do it.
• 32:34
  Samantha Pruitt: If anyone responds to it, and honestly, that's when we took on this podcast, that was a commitment we made.
• 32:40
  Samantha Pruitt: Hey, we're doing this for us.
• 32:42
  Samantha Pruitt: This is about us.
• 32:42
  Samantha Pruitt: This is about us having a form of expression and getting our voice out into the world.
• 32:47
  Samantha Pruitt: If you and I are the two people that listen, fine.
• 32:51
  Samantha Pruitt: And by the way, we're still doing it almost three years later, right?
• 32:55
  Samantha Pruitt: So I think that's how people have to really pivot that idea about, you know, if they are creating or creative in whatever capacity, which they are obviously.
• 33:04
  Samantha Pruitt: There can't be that judgment attached to it, standards and all that kind of stuff.
• 33:08
  Samantha Pruitt: That just robs the joy out of it most of the time, you know.
• 33:11
  Samantha Pruitt: One percent of the world is gonna be the published author on the bestseller list and the la-da-da-da in the art gallery and whatever.
• 33:18
  Samantha Pruitt: So who cares?
• 33:18
  Samantha Pruitt: But the other 99% of us are just humaning.
• 33:21
  Samantha Pruitt: It's cool.
• 33:23
  Samantha Pruitt: Let's just get on humaning together, you know?
• 33:25
  Polly Mertens: Hell yeah, like have fun.
• 33:27
  Polly Mertens: This is one one shot at this, right?
• 33:29
  Polly Mertens: Mine, why is Mel, have a good time, make it as colorful as you feel good with, and and and just I would say, like, you know, I said I like lifted the veil off of myself or lifted the lockdown I had on my brain.
• 33:40
  Polly Mertens: Like, I'm not a creative, that's not me, that's for someone else.
• 33:43
  Polly Mertens: Just give yourself permission, right?
• 33:44
  Polly Mertens: And see what happens.
• 33:45
  Polly Mertens: Like, let her rip, you know, who knows?
• 33:47
  Polly Mertens: Like, and I'm a big fan, like I have this yesterday or the day before, I think it was, I I have this list that I created, and it's there's gonna be more, but it's a list of a hundred things that I created a couple years ago.
• 33:59
  Polly Mertens: And these are not like climbing Mount Everest things.
• 34:02
  Polly Mertens: These are my I should be able to do these fairly easily without maximum resources or something, you know, like visit a new park, or um, like I want to write a one of my ones this week is to write a poem for my aunt, you know, and this one, yeah.
• 34:16
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, like whatever they are, you know.
• 34:19
  Polly Mertens: So one of them was get on my rollerblades.
• 34:21
  Polly Mertens: I have a fucking set of rollerblades in my storage from who knows where, whatever, right?
• 34:26
  Polly Mertens: So I got my damn rollerblades out.
• 34:28
  Samantha Pruitt: And I was like, off I went, you know.
• 34:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, that's so funny because recently I saw something and it was roller skating, and I was like, I'm totally in.
• 34:35
  Samantha Pruitt: And then it was like for young people, I was like, what about me?
• 34:39
  Samantha Pruitt: All right now.
• 34:39
  Samantha Pruitt: I was the roller skate queen, dude.
• 34:43
  Samantha Pruitt: I could easily have a comeback, all right?
• 34:45
  Samantha Pruitt: And so we need to get on these things.
• 34:48
  Samantha Pruitt: These are so fun, they're play dates, really, if you will, like just letting ourselves out to play kind of concept.
• 34:54
  Samantha Pruitt: If I circle back to kind of like keeping it alive, you are much more disciplined and structured than me in these ways of like having lists and schedules and carved out time and whatever.
• 35:05
  Samantha Pruitt: I do think for some people that is a best way, a best practices, you know, and there's a lot of philosophies around this, especially for uh writers or writers for sure, but creators, you know, it's like you set a certain schedule and 30 minutes a day or whatever the time that you can allot to this project is carved out and come hell or high water, you are showing up and delivering on that.
• 35:28
  Samantha Pruitt: And like Elizabeth Gilbert says, you know, I go to my desk, everything is prepared for the ideas to come through me into my writing.
• 35:38
  Samantha Pruitt: And sometimes I am met there with the ideas.
• 35:43
  Samantha Pruitt: Sometimes the universe doesn't deliver, but I sit there anyway.
• 35:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 35:47
  Samantha Pruitt: Because the last thing I want to happen is for that the universe to deliver these ideas, these thoughts, these words, whatever.
• 35:54
  Samantha Pruitt: And then you're in bed.
• 35:55
  Samantha Pruitt: Not at my desk.
• 35:57
  Polly Mertens: Totally.
• 35:58
  Samantha Pruitt: I am somewhere else, circling around.
• 36:00
  Samantha Pruitt: Totally.
• 36:02
  Samantha Pruitt: So I think that's kind of a fun idea, too, that some people might fail really resonate with some people is that like blocked out, carved out time on your calendar, you know, highlighted in pink, and it's, you know, twice a week or once a week, whatever the thing is going to be for you, that you are just doing nothing but creative play and exercising some kind of creative outlet.
• 36:23
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and that what you're talking about too, that morning page's idea is from one of my favorite books in yours, The Artist Way, you know, Julia Cameron, and she has this little prescription, and one of them I loved.
• 36:32
  Polly Mertens: And I've done it before, like more structured, because I was finding that I wasn't doing it, and that is artist dates.
• 36:38
  Polly Mertens: So you take yourself once a week solo on a little sojourn, whatever that can look like.
• 36:43
  Polly Mertens: It can be visiting a museum, it could be looking at butterflies, it can be, you know, whatever your artist date looks like.
• 36:49
  Polly Mertens: And there's some idea she gives you.
• 36:51
  Polly Mertens: Yes, the artist for life.
• 36:53
  Polly Mertens: Put it in front of your chest.
• 36:54
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 36:55
  Polly Mertens: Sam's holding up a book, says right for life.
• 36:57
  Polly Mertens: Right for life.
• 36:58
  Polly Mertens: Is that one of hers too?
• 36:59
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 37:00
  Polly Mertens: Oh, okay.
• 37:00
  Polly Mertens: Anyway, so the artist's way, the artist date, highly recommend those if you are leaning into this or want to.
• 37:07
  Polly Mertens: Some of this is sparking something inside of you.
• 37:09
  Polly Mertens: That's a great classic.
• 37:11
  Polly Mertens: And the artist's date is just once a week, take your little self out, you know, take your little inner artist, and yeah.
• 37:17
  Samantha Pruitt: So let's say you're into music, okay.
• 37:20
  Samantha Pruitt: Um you can either just commit to playing music in your car when you drive to and fro or whatever, like blocking out of time with friends to go see music.
• 37:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Like these things will feed the musician in you and make you more apt to play your instrument if you have one.
• 37:40
  Samantha Pruitt: Um, I was coaching a young gal that was interested in being a musician and had an instrument, and the instrument was in her closet, sealed in its little container.
• 37:51
  Samantha Pruitt: And I was like, I don't know how you're gonna play it in there.
• 37:54
  Samantha Pruitt: First of all, what is this instrument?
• 37:56
  Samantha Pruitt: Bring it out.
• 37:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, and and we were doing this whole recalibration of her house.
• 38:01
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, and so she brings the instrument out, and I said, This is a work of art, and it's sitting in the living room.
• 38:08
  Samantha Pruitt: From now on, it's out of the case and it's sitting in the living room.
• 38:10
  Samantha Pruitt: What?
• 38:11
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, and so because you're gonna walk by it how many gazillions of times a day, and you're gonna see this work of art and it's gonna be calling to you, you're going to play it.
• 38:20
  Samantha Pruitt: And I don't care, it could be a couple strands, it could be, you know, a few minutes, it could be a jam session, whatever.
• 38:26
  Samantha Pruitt: But your hands are getting on the actual instrument.
• 38:30
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, this is how we do it, and it was just so funny and like kind of crazy and ironic.
• 38:35
  Samantha Pruitt: And then I've got this other gal, you know, she's got quite a health crisis that she's up against.
• 38:39
  Samantha Pruitt: And so I'm really, really encouraging her to do as many creative projects as possible.
• 38:44
  Samantha Pruitt: She is home because she's ill and she's in treatment, right?
• 38:47
  Samantha Pruitt: So she has a lot more time available to her rather than sitting around feeling like crap or being full of anxiety and fear and depression around, you know, a disease state.
• 38:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Like, let's find creative projects.
• 38:59
  Samantha Pruitt: And it's so the stuff she's coming up with is fantastic.
• 39:02
  Samantha Pruitt: The other day she was walking up and down her street, and a neighbor put out an old like chandelier light thing, and she took it, you know, like free traffic, and she's redoing the whole thing.
• 39:11
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm like, wait, you know how to do that?
• 39:13
  Samantha Pruitt: She's like, not really.
• 39:14
  Samantha Pruitt: I'm on YouTube and I'm gonna like paint it.
• 39:18
  Samantha Pruitt: And I mean Earth's new life, yes, yeah.
• 39:21
  Samantha Pruitt: And how cool here is this person who is gravely ill and has decided that every day and throughout the week, I'm gonna do these different creative projects, and I'm gonna let that part of me out to breathe.
• 39:38
  Samantha Pruitt: And through that, the amount of mental and emotional healing, which I then believe affects, of course, the physical healing, yeah, it's next level.
• 39:47
  Samantha Pruitt: Like it's so cool.
• 39:48
  Samantha Pruitt: It's changed her whole vibration, just like that.
• 39:51
  Samantha Pruitt: Just like that.
• 39:52
  Polly Mertens: Well, I have a little stat.
• 39:53
  Polly Mertens: So data on creativity and mental health.
• 39:55
  Polly Mertens: So in 2023, there was a poll of 2,200 American adults found that people who rate their mental health as very good or excellent, right?
• 40:04
  Polly Mertens: They rate themselves as very good or excellent mental health, engage in creative activities far more frequently than those who don't, where they rate it as poor.
• 40:12
  Polly Mertens: 71%, they would give themselves a 71% like their mental health score, 46% of those who don't.
• 40:21
  Polly Mertens: So nearly half of Americans use creative activities specifically to relieve stress or anxiety.
• 40:26
  Polly Mertens: Hell yes, right.
• 40:28
  Polly Mertens: And there's more.
• 40:29
  Polly Mertens: The UK has a government commissioned study that participation in arts activities has measurable benefits for the individuals and the whole society, right?
• 40:37
  Polly Mertens: Including some reducing symptoms of depression, anxiety, boosted productivity, and improved quality of life.
• 40:43
  Polly Mertens: So, like, you know, and they say that the societal benefit, like the UK is like, well, you know, what are we doing on this great stuff?
• 40:50
  Polly Mertens: Societal benefit was an estimated eight billion a year in their country.
• 40:56
  Polly Mertens: Okay.
• 40:57
  Polly Mertens: Like that didn't just translate for that.
• 41:00
  Polly Mertens: Hit some of y'all, yeah, some of y'all that check the box, like, okay, you know.
• 41:03
  Polly Mertens: So yeah.
• 41:04
  Samantha Pruitt: Well, when you were reading all of that, which is mind-blowing, of course, I immediately was thinking of the trickle down, because that's what you're talking about, outcomes of people having creativity and creative acts and art within their life, and the amount of human connection that is oriented towards the creative nature of people and whatever their art is, right?
• 41:26
  Samantha Pruitt: So if for me, if it's building community or building business or whatever, there is creative acts within that, right?
• 41:33
  Samantha Pruitt: If it's music or whatever the dynamic is.
• 41:35
  Samantha Pruitt: I told you I'm super into music right now, and I always have been, but it's been cyclical in my life.
• 41:40
  Samantha Pruitt: It's definitely a seasonal thing.
• 41:42
  Samantha Pruitt: And I'm using it right now with great intention to connect to people.
• 41:47
  Samantha Pruitt: Now that might sound weird because I'm not going to concerts and I'm not in a band.
• 41:53
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay, even though I pretended in high school I was in a band.
• 41:56
  Samantha Pruitt: I told you we had a girl's band named Girlstyle, and we never actually had a band, but that's a good video.
• 42:00
  Samantha Pruitt: So anyway, but because I love music and I've been back playing different types of music and whatever, I will shoot a song to a person and I will send it to them and I will say, This reminds me of you, or do you remember this song?
• 42:16
  Samantha Pruitt: And I will create connection around that music, and then they will listen to it, and I get the greatest responses from people.
• 42:23
  Samantha Pruitt: And so, with several people that I sort of had fallen out of touch with, we now have this ongoing every week, it's like music back and forth, back and forth.
• 42:30
  Samantha Pruitt: And there's this really lovely connection that we're sharing through that piece of art that's moving through us, our emotions, our thoughts, our memories, our ideas.
• 42:41
  Samantha Pruitt: It's a form of us, you know, expressing with each other without having to, you know, write some long text or this or that.
• 42:49
  Samantha Pruitt: So I feel like, you know, creative elements are everywhere and available as tools for really improving pretty much every aspect of your life.
• 42:59
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, they that's how I feel about it.
• 43:02
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 43:02
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 43:03
  Polly Mertens: What are some of the takeaways?
• 43:04
  Polly Mertens: What are things like that people can, or do you have another question, or what do we want?
• 43:07
  Polly Mertens: I have a couple things to so I was thinking of, you know, like what would, you know, what, you know, if you can't take these, you know, a weekend away and lightning in a bottle style and go get immersed in like that whole wonderful experience.
• 43:20
  Polly Mertens: If you can do it, highly recommend it.
• 43:22
  Polly Mertens: But like, so some of the takeaways I have is remember you are already creative.
• 43:27
  Polly Mertens: Like you've been hitting that home, right?
• 43:28
  Polly Mertens: Like creativity means to grow, to make.
• 43:31
  Polly Mertens: It's not, you know, like defined by looks like Picasso.
• 43:35
  Polly Mertens: That's not what the art, you know, that's not what the definition is.
• 43:38
  Polly Mertens: So just allow yourself to express, allow yourself to be free and to own that, you know, because like if we identify as an artist, if we identify as creative, we're more likely to come from that place.
• 43:50
  Polly Mertens: Like you said, it's a way of being, right?
• 43:52
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 43:53
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, there's evidence that your brain needs to wander, right?
• 43:56
  Polly Mertens: And I would say this because of the hypnotist in me is I think some of the most creative states are when people are like yesterday.
• 44:04
  Polly Mertens: So I was, I was, I'm I was thinking, I was like, how am I going to share this?
• 44:07
  Polly Mertens: Because I've only done it one day so far, but there's so there's self hypnosis, right?
• 44:12
  Polly Mertens: And all hypnosis is technically self hypnosis, but I was doing self hypnosis yesterday, and I was purposely doing it.
• 44:19
  Polly Mertens: I've been studying the Silva method, which is from the 70s and 80s or something.
• 44:23
  Polly Mertens: It's having a new, it's having a comeback.
• 44:25
  Polly Mertens: It's like Dolly Parton's having a new comeback, whatever, you know.
• 44:28
  Polly Mertens: So the Silva method is back.
• 44:30
  Polly Mertens: And it really is a proponent of they call it going to your level.
• 44:34
  Polly Mertens: And so they call that the alpha state, which is it's just really like a relaxed state of mind, relaxed state of body and a relaxed state of mind.
• 44:42
  Polly Mertens: And then you just have access.
• 44:44
  Polly Mertens: They say you have more access to more parts of your brain and all this stuff, right?
• 44:48
  Polly Mertens: Because I will attest to being in full throttle, busy, and I don't do social.
• 44:54
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, I don't even know if people are putting that junk in their brain with like TikToks and stuff like that.
• 44:59
  Polly Mertens: Like you don't have, you're not, you are consuming, you're not creating when you are on social media, just a reminder that, you know, field note, like that's a consumption act.
• 45:08
  Polly Mertens: It's not a creative act.
• 45:10
  Polly Mertens: So unless you're the one creating the video, of course, you know.
• 45:13
  Polly Mertens: So going into this alpha state is an opportunity to drop down into this relaxed state, more of your brain.
• 45:19
  Polly Mertens: And I was, and the practice I'm doing is just like you talked about, like Elizabeth Gilbert sitting at the desk in the morning and receiving.
• 45:26
  Polly Mertens: So I wrote down, like I was, I was just like, one of my, you know, evil twin sisters is confusion, right?
• 45:33
  Polly Mertens: Like twas confusion and doubt.
• 45:35
  Polly Mertens: And so I was like, oh, you know, because I get so many ideas, and they're just like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, what do I do with all this?
• 45:40
  Polly Mertens: So I was like, okay, I need this.
• 45:41
  Polly Mertens: And then I had like four questions, and I narrowed it down to one question.
• 45:44
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I'm going in on that question.
• 45:46
  Polly Mertens: So I wrote that question down, went into my alpha state, and I just like opened up my mind, right?
• 45:52
  Polly Mertens: And it's hard to explain, like, what does that mean?
• 45:54
  Polly Mertens: Go look, go listen to a silver method, whatever.
• 45:56
  Polly Mertens: And I just like Elizabeth Gilbert was ready to receive from the universe.
• 46:00
  Polly Mertens: And the downloads, I was probably there for 30 minutes.
• 46:03
  Polly Mertens: Like I was motionless, like my body was just, we got more down.
• 46:07
  Polly Mertens: Like it was coming in.
• 46:08
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, crap, I gotta like, as soon as I get out of this, capture this.
• 46:13
  Polly Mertens: I like wrote and wrote, I'm like, and another thing, and another thing.
• 46:16
  Polly Mertens: Like that, and some of it was confirming, you know, some of it was like, yeah, this, not that, kind of confirming.
• 46:21
  Polly Mertens: And some of it was like, oh, oh, you know.
• 46:24
  Polly Mertens: So yeah.
• 46:26
  Polly Mertens: So I would just say, like, your brain needs to wander like that.
• 46:29
  Polly Mertens: Like, so turn things off.
• 46:31
  Polly Mertens: I think walks are great, being in nature.
• 46:33
  Polly Mertens: Anything to say on that, my dear?
• 46:35
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah, I think that's an energetic flow state where you're tapping into the energy of whatever the planet, the earth, the ground, the water, whatever.
• 46:46
  Samantha Pruitt: Can do music, higher self.
• 46:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Music is an opening to that too, because there's a very specific energy to different music, visually, colors, sights, smells, like all of those things that make us human are portals in, I, in my opinion, right, to that flow state.
• 47:04
  Samantha Pruitt: I mean, people love to meditate, and I'm not a big meditative person, but I do see the value in it, and you know, that can get you to that state also.
• 47:14
  Samantha Pruitt: But just being, you need to be open, right?
• 47:18
  Samantha Pruitt: And like what you said was really interesting.
• 47:20
  Samantha Pruitt: When you are consuming whatever that might look like, that's not an openness.
• 47:26
  Samantha Pruitt: You know, people think that that is an openness when they're consuming audio, video, so entertaining, maybe entertaining at best, but yeah, yeah.
• 47:36
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 47:36
  Samantha Pruitt: So there needs to be, it doesn't have to be quiet, but it there needs to be the space available.
• 47:43
  Samantha Pruitt: I'll just call it oxygen, right?
• 47:46
  Samantha Pruitt: For that new whatever circle of creative energy, concept, ideas.
• 47:53
  Samantha Pruitt: You were talking specifically about ideas and downloads to come in.
• 47:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 47:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Right.
• 47:58
  Samantha Pruitt: And so it's like a tuning in.
• 48:00
  Samantha Pruitt: I guess it's maybe like a tuning pitchfork or some kind of thing like that, if you think about it like that.
• 48:04
  Samantha Pruitt: And that could look different for everybody, you know, it's going to.
• 48:08
  Polly Mertens: Sure.
• 48:08
  Polly Mertens: And my idea, yeah.
• 48:09
  Polly Mertens: I mean, because I, you know, I so I find that doing dishes and shower, my brain goes into just like, you know, that auto state.
• 48:16
  Polly Mertens: It's kind of like driving and you forget where you are.
• 48:18
  Polly Mertens: That's actually a hypnotic state, right?
• 48:20
  Polly Mertens: You're like, oh, how did I get here again?
• 48:21
  Polly Mertens: You know, you just parked and but you forgot the whole road to work because you know it on autopilot.
• 48:26
  Polly Mertens: So those are hypnotic states.
• 48:28
  Polly Mertens: Well, that's actually a relaxed state for your brain.
• 48:30
  Polly Mertens: I find like in the shower, like I do the same, you guys probably all probably shower in the same direction and you know, for each other, you know, like whatever.
• 48:38
  Polly Mertens: But when you do that, like your brain is open, it's not having to process as much, right?
• 48:43
  Polly Mertens: So, so just you know, allow your brain to wander or allow it to relax, or you know, just be receptive, I think is what we're saying.
• 48:49
  Polly Mertens: Be allow it to create, be creative, not consuming.
• 48:52
  Samantha Pruitt: So and I would add a really important piece, in my opinion, is create just for you.
• 48:58
  Samantha Pruitt: Hmm.
• 49:00
  Samantha Pruitt: Yeah.
• 49:00
  Samantha Pruitt: The so many brilliant ideas and so many creative ideas and acts are stopped because the human, the creator, feels like somebody else is gonna see it, read it.
• 49:15
  Samantha Pruitt: I've done this to myself with writing uh endless times, endless times, and ultimately is gonna have an opinion about it.
• 49:22
  Samantha Pruitt: And so it will either change what I do or it'll just stop it altogether.
• 49:26
  Samantha Pruitt: It sort of just will rob the joy of the whole thing.
• 49:28
  Samantha Pruitt: And when I don't care, because I shouldn't, by the way, I got endless ideas.
• 49:34
  Samantha Pruitt: It's just an endless flow of all this crazy shit, right?
• 49:37
  Samantha Pruitt: Because it's in there, yeah, it's in there, and it needs to be expressed, you know, energetically.
• 49:43
  Samantha Pruitt: It's literally in these cells, you know, it's in our little mitochondria.
• 49:48
  Samantha Pruitt: Me, me, me, me, me, me, me, me.
• 49:49
  Polly Mertens: Totally.
• 49:50
  Samantha Pruitt: Let it out.
• 49:51
  Polly Mertens: Totally.
• 49:51
  Polly Mertens: Let it out.
• 49:52
  Polly Mertens: All right.
• 49:53
  Polly Mertens: So I would say a couple other things.
• 49:55
  Polly Mertens: So having a weekly creative practice, if that's your thing, but you know, it's mental health benefits.
• 50:00
  Polly Mertens: We talked about that earlier, you know.
• 50:02
  Polly Mertens: So like coming up with a practice, it's good for your health, it's not a luxury, right?
• 50:06
  Polly Mertens: Like start seeing it as a necessity, not a luxury, not a need nice to have, a need to have, right?
• 50:11
  Polly Mertens: Because it's the counterbalance to all that other stuff that we're doing.
• 50:15
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, and LAB experiences, you know, lightning in a bottle, doing these creative retreats, it's not indulgent, right?
• 50:22
  Polly Mertens: Those are creative retreats that, you know, it it has so much payback, you know, like the return on investment for my business, for myself, my sense of self and create, you know, joy.
• 50:33
  Polly Mertens: You can't you can't buy that.
• 50:35
  Polly Mertens: Priceless.
• 50:35
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 50:36
  Polly Mertens: Yeah.
• 50:37
  Polly Mertens: And and you don't have to call yourself an artist to create, right?
• 50:40
  Polly Mertens: So just liberate yourself from whatever the labels might be have held you back until now, right?
• 50:46
  Polly Mertens: Because now this, if you're listening this far, you have permission.
• 50:49
  Polly Mertens: You ding, you remember the creative glitters in your ears, like curious, creative, whatever it looks like and feels like for you.
• 50:55
  Polly Mertens: So yeah.
• 50:57
  Samantha Pruitt: Exactly.
• 50:58
  Polly Mertens: Anything else to add?
• 50:59
  Samantha Pruitt: Just do it.
• 51:00
  Samantha Pruitt: Just do it.
• 51:01
  Polly Mertens: So, what's your one thing?
• 51:02
  Polly Mertens: What's your one thing from today that you want to leave people with about creativity?
• 51:08
  Samantha Pruitt: I do want people to think about when their eyes open in the morning you know, what will I create today?
• 51:16
  Samantha Pruitt: And it could be I will create a particular experience for myself and the people that I love.
• 51:21
  Samantha Pruitt: Cool, or my coworkers or whatever.
• 51:23
  Samantha Pruitt: But I want them to ask the question and then think about the fact that they're going into the day as a creator.
• 51:32
  Samantha Pruitt: Okay.
• 51:33
  Samantha Pruitt: So in whatever that whatever that looks like for you, it's going to be completely unique.
• 51:39
  Samantha Pruitt: But go about each day with the intent, I am a creator.
• 51:43
  Samantha Pruitt: What will I create today?
• 51:45
  Polly Mertens: Wow, that's so good.
• 51:47
  Polly Mertens: That's like a whole episode itself.
• 51:48
  Polly Mertens: I would say for me, and I'm the one speaking it, and I'm speaking it to myself and to you, beloved listener.
• 51:55
  Polly Mertens: And that is, you know, if you're like me, if it's not on the calendar, like it doesn't get done, right?
• 52:00
  Polly Mertens: And so, like, I do have a trip planned a quarter from now.
• 52:04
  Polly Mertens: So in you know, about 90 days, I have a trip.
• 52:07
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, okay, great.
• 52:08
  Polly Mertens: That is another, you know, so keeping those out there for myself.
• 52:11
  Polly Mertens: And they don't have to look extravagant, they don't have whatever they look like, but putting it on my calendar helps me ensure that it gets done and not making it a nice to have, but uh like it's an essential part of how I like the little watered plant.
• 52:26
  Polly Mertens: Like if I'm if I'm wanting pr to produce fruit in my life, like I gotta water myself, I gotta take care of this, you know, soul creature creativity, all of it.
• 52:36
  Polly Mertens: So yeah, those are mine.
• 52:38
  Polly Mertens: Those are mine.
• 52:39
  Polly Mertens: Okay, I love it.
• 52:41
  Polly Mertens: All right, well, let's sign off now, my dear.
• 52:43
  Polly Mertens: What do you want to tell them?
• 52:45
  Samantha Pruitt: Oh my goodness gracious, how your life feels is so much more important than how your life looks.
• 52:52
  Polly Mertens: Yeah, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.