Latest / Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul / (RE-RECORDED) The Creative Cycle: A Feminine Framework for Sustainable Creativity

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(RE-RECORDED) The Creative Cycle: A Feminine Framework for Sustainable Creativity · Healing Her Story with Riva Jean-Paul

• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, and welcome to today's episode of the Healing Her Story Podcast.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: This is a space where we reclaim our stories, where we reconnect with our bodies, and where we remember the wisdom we were never taught and yet always carried.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Reva Jean-Paul, a trauma-informed somatic therapist, menstrual cycle coach, and interdisciplinary artist.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And today we're talking about something that completely changed the way I create, and that is the creative cycle.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been here for a while, you already know the moon is cyclical, the seasons are cyclical, your body is cyclical, but what many of us were never taught is that creativity is cyclical too.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever started a project and abandoned it, if you've ever felt inspired one week and completely dry the next, if you've ever burned yourself out trying to quote unquote stay consistent, or if you've ever wondered why your creativity feels so unpredictable, this episode is for you.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I will orient us to the season that we are in right now.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because these Friday episodes, whether they are solo episodes or guest episodes, are always working with the universal energy, the collective energy.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: And right now we are collectively in Pisces season.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Pisce season just started on Wednesday.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: And in Monday's episode, I shared our guiding words for the cycle.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll remind you of them again.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Water, creative vision, emotions, imagination, mysticism.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: So these are our guiding words over the next several weeks.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: And these are the guiding words that I was feeling into as I was combing through some of our episodes from our previous season and taking note of which ones were not listened to that much.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And perhaps this is a topic that maybe is less pressing.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: However, I don't think that's true.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think that often it's about timing, um, and often it can be about the language and the way that we're approaching a particular topic.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I was feeling inspired today to re-record this episode.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you may have caught this episode.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was actually two episodes that came out in August of last year about the creative cycle.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: So if you listened to that, this may feel familiar.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't listened to it, then I trust that you receiving these teachings at this time in this episode is right where you're meant to be.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's begin.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Most of us were taught to create in a linear way.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: We start, we push, we finish, we produce, we repeat.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: That is patriarchy.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is capitalism.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's this non-stop pace of productivity and output and showing up.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: And even just the thought of that sounds exhausting to me, even just as I'm naming that.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes sense, right?
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because the nervous system doesn't operate in a linear way.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: The menstrual cycle, our bodies don't operate in a linear way on a biological level, and neither does nature.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when we try to force our creativity into this same constant output model, what usually happens?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you might know burnout, self-doubt, or just complete creative shutdown.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: What I've discovered through my studies and through syncing my creative work with my menstrual cycle, with the moon, and with my own inner rhythm of my nervous system, of my emotions, of my healing.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's that creativity moves through four predictable phases, just like the moon, just like nature, and just like the season.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: So today we're going to be going through these four predictable phases.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: And this is perfect time to be tuning into this episode because we just started a new cycle with a new moon eclipse that happened on Tuesday.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we also are in a new lunar new year, which just started on Tuesday.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a lot of new, fresh energy coming in right now as this episode is airing.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: So what better time to tune in and to attune to these predictable phases?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: The phases are pause, action, illumination, and maturation.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And when I began honoring those phases instead of fighting them, my creative practice completely changed.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really interesting.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I started creating slower, and yet I somehow was producing more.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems like that might not make sense.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: And in my own experience, I find that the the slower we go, the smoother we go, the faster we can actually go in a roundabout sort of way.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll share kind of where this shift started happening for me.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of 2023, my primary creative outlet, I would say, was my business.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: At this time, I was hosting retreats, no longer hosting those for the time being.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of my creative energy was going into producing and building these retreats.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And while those were very fulfilling in many ways and enriching and just downright beautiful and fucking magical, there was also something that felt misaligned.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that misalignment was really honestly something I experienced externally before I realized internally, ah, something is off here.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: But that's another episode.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: With that, though, I entered a pause.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it and it wasn't even really a pause that I chose.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: It was a pause that just sort of happened just because of the nature of what was happening in my life.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really have much of a consistent creative practice, I would say, at this point.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: I do have a dance background, and I have my background as a hulu hoop dancer.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so I definitely would still pick up my hoop and have a good hoop sesh from time to time.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as a creative practice that I was actively showing up for, it was almost non-existent.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And with all this other change that was happening around me, it really brought me inside.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went very deep into my breath work practice, into my somatic therapy practices during that winter of 2023.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: And in that very quiet, empty space, something unexpected began happening.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Images, songs, ideas, and these really deep, undeniable urges to create.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: I just kind of like ended up in this really beautiful creative container.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I began creating the space.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when I did, it was like a damn broke.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Songs, poems, drawings, paintings, ideas.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_00: It was just, it was honestly a bit overwhelming.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually had to create what I called an idea notebook, a place where I just write my ideas down before I even do anything with them, just to begin capturing everything that was coming because it was coming so quickly.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Through my parts work, I met this part of me, this part of me who I know oh so well that loves to control and manage.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: I call her my planner manager.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And when I asked her what she truly wanted, and something that she continues to express to me as I continue to check in with her, she always says, I just want to create.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I was the only one in my whole class that was like, no, I'm not gonna start that second project yet.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: I know it's due fairly soon after we get back, but I just want to finish this one project.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I get back, I'll be off of my period, and you know, my period will be done, and spring break will be over, and then I'll be ready to really drop in and start the second assignment.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I made that choice, and I was actually one of the first people finished with the clay project after spring break.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: So it just goes to say that that timing piece, learning how to really work with your energy at the right time, can really smooth out the friction, and having less friction, I think, is what allows us to seemingly move at a quicker pace.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is the power of cyclical creativity.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to break these four phases down for you today.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And as I've named today, this first phase is the phase that we are in right now with the lunar phase and also with the season here in the northern hemisphere because we are in the season of winter and we just had a new moon.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not any new moon, a new moon eclipse, but new moon nonetheless, nonetheless.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I do feel like this pause phase is a phase that a lot of people resist.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: This phase looks like resting, it looks like allowing space, nothingness, the void, stepping away from projects, kind of like I just explained or shared in that last story.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: But I have found from my own creative practice that creativity really needs space.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: And neuroscience shows that our best ideas often arise during the default mode network when we are resting and daydreaming or disengaged from the act of problem solving, or even I would say, from living in this like fight or flight state.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you are constantly in go, go, go mode, there is no room for inspiration to land.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: So for me, before I start anything new, I really like to intentionally create space.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: And this might look like stepping away from a mural mid-project to just get some space from it.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: This might look like clearing out some things on my calendar.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: This might look like just really taking care of myself, my body.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And this also might look like quietly reflecting and looking within to really get clear on what is most important to me right now.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: This is the phase where a lot of my biggest, deepest, most beautiful, powerful ideas come from.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you think of that seed being planted in the soil, the soil is dark, and yet that seed really needs that season, that period of darkness to germinate, to lay its roots down before it begins to grow and expand.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think because of patriarchy and maybe a bit of capitalism too, that so many of us feel like taking a pause is as us being lazy, or it's us not doing enough, or like we're gonna somehow fall behind if we just take a moment to pause.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: But as you can maybe see, it's it's really not.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's an incubation period, and it's where everything comes from.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a really important, beautiful phase.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And again, this is where we are right now.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're wanting to work more with your creative energy during Pisces season, this particular day, this weekend that this episode is airing is a beautiful time to do that inner reflection, to maybe take a couple social plans off your calendar and spend some time with yourself, taking care of yourself, again, reflecting and getting clear on what is most important to you right now.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: Where do you want to invest your energy right now?
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: What creative project are you most excited by?
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_00: What are you feeling moved to create at this time?
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then we move into the action phase, and I will say that the creative cycle it could align with your menstrual cycle, it could align with the moon cycle, it could also happen over a more extended period of time as well.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we can move through these phases all in a day, too.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't always have to be happening with the moon phases.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: However, energetically, the phases of the creative cycle do align with the moon phases.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so this next phase, this action phase, this is associated with the waxing moon, with the follicular part of the menstrual cycle, right after the bleeding ends.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this is really where that fresh energy begins to rise.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is a wonderful time to research, to begin sort of sketching out your ideas, to begin experimenting, testing things out.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is also a wonderful time to meet with collaborators and to begin making small yet sustainable steps towards this idea, towards this project that you've committed to in the previous phase.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned through my creative practice that this is a really tender place, especially creatively.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: I found where I would get a lot of my ideas in this phase, I would share them with people, and maybe I wouldn't share them with the right person.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that person might criticize or put my idea down, and that left me not really feeling so great.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that really helped me to see that these new ideas that are beginning to form, they're like little seeds.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: Little seeds.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Three quarters don't make a hole.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: It makes three quarters.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: So this is a really important one not to brush over.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as we start the new week next week, if you are wanting to work with this phase in alignment with the moon phases, because that is one way that I really love to create, is for example, take a song and I'll work on this one song over the course of the four phases.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm usually, if it takes me a month, I'm finishing up that project, that song in the winter in the pause phase.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then we'll go into the illumination phase.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is the third phase.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the phase that is associated with the full expression.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: This is the full moon.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is the ovulatory.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is the summer.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's the peak, the blooming, the sharing.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is the part we all love and I feel like are constantly striving towards.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: And we just want to be in full bloom all the time.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Which, again, not sustainable and only a piece of this whole puzzle.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: This is also where we allow ourselves to be seen.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be really terrifying.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I remember in one of my first studio critiques, my hands were literally trembling as I shared a drawing that was straight from my imagination.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: There was another time.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, these both did happen on full moons, which I thought was just really interesting.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like once you begin to really work with your cycle, life begins to work with you in these ways.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: There was another time I stood in front of my class wearing this sculptural menstrual cycle dress that I had made.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll release some photos one day.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, just trembling.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I really was so gentle with myself and so compassionate with myself in this moment because being seen, it really does activate something primal.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: From an evolutionary perspective, a room full of eyes once met danger.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if your nervous system flares up when you share your work, it makes a lot of sense.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And sharing our art is also a beautiful act of service.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: We never know how our art is going to touch one another.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I've learned that when I've shared from authenticity rather than performance, my work has been deeply received.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not by everyone, but certainly by at least a few.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_00: Last we move into the maturation phase.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is the waning moon.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is the luteal.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is the growth edge.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is the perhaps wrapping up, the editing, the refining, putting on the finishing touches.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this, I feel, is another one of those phases that we try to just rush through.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: But we do ourselves a disservice because this is where we really get to see what's not working.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: And for me, instead of starting something new, if I'm during this time, if I'm in this phase, creatively, cyclically, even if I get ideas, I will write them in my idea journal.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then I use this time to wrap up loose ends.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's taken a lot of discipline to really get to this point, but really leveraging this particular phase is what allowed me to actually begin completing projects.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because before this, before this time of my life, I had this story that I didn't complete things.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't finish things.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: I always start things, but I would never actually get to finishing them.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so knowing that about me, I was really able to like, okay, it's waning moon time.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dive in and let's wrap up and finish what needs to be finished with this creative project.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're someone who really struggles to finish, this is where I would really invite you to lean in here.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And without this phase, without closing the loops and completing the projects and creating the space, these cycles stay open and open cycles drain our energy.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the four phases.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I do also want to highlight as we're wrapping up here why this framework really matters.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: When we begin to pair our creativity with natural cycles, we create a roadmap.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of asking, what's wrong with me?
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: You get to ask yourself, where am I in the cycle?
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: Creativity has a rhythm to it, there's a pulse to it.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: And what I find to be so magical and beautiful is that this creative process is literally encoded into the female body.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: Literally.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe we don't have the filter on that allows us to see it through this way.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: But you already know because this is already built into the biology of your body.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: The hormonal shifts that happen throughout our lives and throughout our cycles really influence our energy, our verbal fluency, our tolerance for risk and vulnerability, our focus, our social capacity.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: We were never meant to create the same way every day.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: We were meant to create cyclically.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: We are built to create cyclically.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: So here's what I invite you to do.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Notice where you are right now.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: Are you in a pause?
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: Action, illumination, maturation, maybe you have projects that are each in their own different phases.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's probably more what I got going on right now.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: As we move through this Pisces season, a time of intuition and imagination and fluidity and creativity, I invite you to consider allowing your creative process to be more fluid and less rigid, more title and less forced.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: And if you find that this framework supports you, I'd love to hear what you create from it.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're wanting deeper support with working with your body cycle, my cycle support map walks you through how to align your creativity, your healing, and your self care with each phase of the cycle.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I will leave that for you in the show notes.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Until next time, may you settle into the unique rhythm and expression of you.