Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / Creating in Cycles: The Feminine Way to Make Art & Live Fully (Part 2)

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Creating in Cycles: The Feminine Way to Make Art & Live Fully (Part 2) · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Healing Her Story Podcast.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: And welcome back to part two of Creating in Cycles, the feminine way of making art.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't had the chance to listen to the first episode, that is totally okay.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: Because creativity, as we are discussing, is cyclical.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can start here and still get so much from today's conversation.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then in your right time, in your right pace, in your right way, you can circle back to hear more about the beginning phases of the cycle.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're sharing, I'm sharing, about the second half of the creative cycle.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll be honest with you, the first part of the cycle with the pause and the action comes pretty naturally to me.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: I love starting new things and I'm always down for a period of rest and reflection.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: But the second half, that's where my growth edge has really been.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: This part of the process that invites us to finish and follow through.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I've had to get really honest with myself about that over the past few years as I've allowed my creativity to be more fully expressed.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Before we explore the cycles themselves, I want to share a little bit about my creative journey over the last year or so.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of 2023, I would say my main creative outlet was my business.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: As in, all of my creative energy was going into the business.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I was hosting retreats, and so a lot of my creative energy was going into putting programs together and dreaming up new locations and putting together gift bags and things all oriented around the retreat experience.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: But after doing that for a few years, it became crystal clear that the direction I was heading in wasn't quite right.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I took a pause, a really big pause, to reflect and to realign.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that winter, I went so deep into my breath work and somatic therapy.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And in that quiet space, I started getting these messages and images and urges to create again.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: At first, I ignored them and told myself I was too busy or that it wasn't the right time, or that I had more important things to do.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: But eventually the pull became so strong that I couldn't not listen.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I found a creative mentor by the name of Ala Niero, who is a singer, songwriter uh locally in Nevada City.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, she travels all over the world.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: She has this really lovely container that is going to be transitioning in October.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: But um around this time she had just opened the container and it was called is called the Living Song.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: And what I really love about Ayla's perspective, which I shared a little bit on the last episode, the part one, was that Ayla has this concept of us being a vessel, and that the only job that we really have is to tend to our vessel, to keep our vessel clear, to keep our channel clear, and to let whatever wants to come through come through.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so I started doing that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I started having songs and poems and big ideas just beginning to flood through.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like my creativity just exploded the moment I began working with her and being in this container.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: They were flooding so fast, in fact, that I had to start an idea notebook just to keep up because she also really encouraged us to catch and capture what was coming through.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've still have this idea notebook going, and I still have this practice of writing things down.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: And when I write them down, I know that I may not pursue them all, and that's okay.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: But at least I've honored what's come through, and maybe it's an idea that comes in later down the road, or maybe it's an idea that's for someone else, or maybe it's just an idea to create a pathway into something else.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Through all of this, I was also doing parts work, and I began to really connect with this part of me, my planner manager that loves to control and manage and do.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: And as I began connecting with her and really started listening to her, she said that the only thing she really wanted to do was create.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I find that this is really the power of creating in a cyclical way, allowing and trusting these cycles to carry us and to lead us.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whether you find yourself as an artist or whether you see yourself as an artist or a hobbyist or maybe somewhere in between, my hope is that you'll see how these cycles can really support you through your own creative process.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the last two phases of the creative cycle.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: We've already covered the pause and the action phases in the first episode, and now we'll move into the next phase, which is illuminate.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the peak of the creative cycle.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: This is the moment that things begin to take shape and manifest in their full form.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of this like the blooming phase of a plant life cycle.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: This is also associated with the energy of the full moon and the energy of ovulation.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this is often where we share our creative work and allow ourselves to be seen.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to acknowledge that it can feel really vulnerable and uncomfortable and scary to be seen, especially if you've ever been told that your art wasn't quote unquote good enough.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever that means, right?
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because art is subjective and it's all based on opinion.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last year of taking studio art classes, I can't tell you how many critique days landed right on or near the full moon.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Without me planning it, without my teachers planning it, it just happened.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I found that so interesting and so divine.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it always just brought this sense of affirmation to the process of the critique because the critique process is, I mean, even that word, right?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: Critiques, and maybe you think of critical, right?
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: It it doesn't always feel super great to have someone give you feedback about something that you've created.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: I remember the very first critique that I had to do, which was the first critique I had ever done.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: I had to share one of my drawings.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And this drawing was something that I created for my imagination, an image that came through in one of my meditations.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was very personal to me.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And when it came time for my turn to share, I felt this trembling in my chest.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I moved through it.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: I spoke to what I could speak to.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say exactly what I wanted to say, but I do feel like I captured the essence of what I wanted to share about it.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And afterwards, I found I was okay.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: The trembling went away, my nervous system settled, the world didn't crumbled, nobody told me my drawing sucked, and I went on with my day.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: There was another time I had to stand in front of my class wearing a sculpture because for my final and my 3D art class, we were asked to create a wearable sculpture, and we were also asked to work with a concept, and so I did mine, of course, on the menstrual cycle, and I created this menstrual cycle dress that was covered in blood stains, not actual blood, it was acrylic paint that I had very intentionally designed to look just like blood.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: And these stains were on this cotton dress, and it was flowy and and exposed quite a bit of my skin, and it was it was loud, it was it was out there, it was in your face, it was a bloody dress, okay.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we had to wear this in front of our class, and I remember when it came time for my turn to share that trembling came back again.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: But what I did differently for this critique because I knew I knew that this feeling would come back again.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: I wrote down my artist statement, which was required for the assignment, but I put it in my notes app on my phone and I read my artist statement.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And while maybe it can be more impactful to speak from the moment and to speak from the heart, for me, this was something that gave me the sense of security in what I was doing, and it allowed me to be so grounded in what I really wanted to say and how I wanted to say it that my nerves and my fear couldn't get in the way.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I was so grateful that I did that for myself.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I find that being seen in our art can really touch a deep primal fear.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: In ancient times, a bunch of eyes on you often meant danger.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: It often meant that you were praying.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes sense that our nervous system reacts in this way.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I truly believe that sharing our art, or rather, and I believe that true that sharing our art is truly an act of service.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And we talked about this on the guest episode with Leah Morris.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't had the chance to listen to that episode, I invite you to give it a listen before Leo season comes to a close here in the next couple of weeks.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I have found, and my dear friend and sister Leah has found that when we put ourselves out there from a place of authenticity, that the work is often received well and deeply.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so if this is an edge for you, I invite you to maybe look at it in this way.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you have some art or some creative part of you that is really wanting to be seen and expressed, whether it's through an open mic, or maybe it's through something you share on social media, or maybe it's something you just share with someone who is close to you.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: Being seen is a beautiful and essential part of this process.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I do feel like it it has the potential to bring more meaning and impact into our art as well.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because when others can view our art and can see something inside of themselves, or it can touch on something inside of themselves, it's it's no longer about you, it's about how your art made that person feel.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: And there is something about that, oh, I'm being so touched emotionally right now, that is so so beautiful.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to let yourself be seen in a way that feels manageable and safe for you, and really harnessing the power of this peak of the cycle, this illuminate of the cycle to do that.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: This also might be a time for collaboration and for connecting with other people.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: This might be a time where you maybe go see a show.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you go witness someone else and notice how that impact is occurring within you when you see someone else share their artwork.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: This also might be a time where things are coming to a completion, as I shared a little bit in Monday's cycle sync episode.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe go and give that a listen because we were also attuning to this sort of full moon energy there as well.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe creative projects are coming to a close at this time.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're culminating and slowly bringing things to their closing point during this time.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: This has um become really one of my favorite cycles.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think that the blooming is really a phase of the cycles that our society really celebrates.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: And so it makes sense that I really enjoy this time.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Let's move on to the next phase as well.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: The next phase of the cycle is this maturation phase, and this is the final stage of the creative process, it's the completion phase, and it's honestly one I'm still learning to master, which is maybe why I have a little bit less to say on this phase.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: In this phase, we become more aware of what's not working, and we can begin to shift our focus to tending to what needs to be done to wrap things up.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: I will share a little hack that has worked well for me because completion has not been my strong suit.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I do lean on the moon phase and my menstrual cycle for this phase.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: During the waning moon and during my pre-menstrual phase, I intentionally avoid starting new things.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Even if I get a really good idea during the full moon, I write it down in my ideas notebook, and instead I focus on finishing, editing, and tying up loose ends so I can create space for the next cycle.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: And then the cycle begins all over again.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: When we begin to pair the creative phases with our own cycles, to me, I feel like we get this practical roadmap.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: It inspires and grounds and elevates the creative process.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what I find to be the most magical part is that the creative cycle is literally encoded into our bodies and into the natural world.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so you see, you were literally born to create.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So excited to share them with you.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And don't forget, next weekend is our free mending, the mother wound weekend immersion.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is happening August 22nd to August 24th.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: This will be happening during a new moon, and it's really such a beautiful opportunity to slow down, to nurture yourself, and to tend some, tend to some of those deepest, earliest wounds.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Often the wounds that keep us from being fully expressed and seen in our creative selves.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can find the details and the link to register in the show notes.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I very much look forward to connecting with you again next week.