Creative Coaching for Musicians

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S3 E47: Building A Sacred Container Around Your Creative Practice

Rebecca Hass

Even when your creative practice is very important to you, there are a million reasons why it can be really hard to carve out the time for it, especially without an urgent deadline. In this episode I share how you can use timing and environment to help you build a sacred container around your creative practice that will allow you to trust yourself to do it regularly. If you're struggling to make a consistent commitment to your creative work, this episode is definitely for you!

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Hello, everyone, welcome to Episode 47 of Being A Whole Person! 

I'm excited to talk to you today about creating a sacred container for your creative practice. But before I get into that, I want to remind you that Compassionate Creativity Coworking Club is open for enrollment, and we're about to start weekly sessions on Tuesday, September 21. They're going to be every Tuesday from 3:30-5pm Pacific. With that membership, you also get access to a resource library of my best tools that will help you in your creative practice, free admission to all workshops that I do. I usually do my quarterly workshop, Build Your Seasonal Self Care Survival Kit at the beginning of each season, and the fall one is coming up in early October, which I'll tell you more about in the next episode. 

But, I'm super excited about Coworking Club. There's also going to be a strong community element to it. The coolest people have shown up so far, and they're not just cool because they're doing cool things, although that is also true, but because everyone that's shown up has been so encouraging to each other. You know, that's the spirit that I am intending to create with this, and it's just delightful that everyone who has come so far has been the same way. There will also be a Discord server where you can chat, share your goals, and just connect with your fellow artists in between sessions, because I think that's the coolest part of being in a little club like this, or some kind of online offering, is getting to know the other people that are there with you. 

I had announced that there was an early bird price through the 15th, but I'm actually going to extend it right up until that first session on the 21st, so if you haven't acted on it yet, you're not too late. I'm offering $10 off for the first three months of the basic coworking membership. There's also an upper tier where you can add the chance to get coaching in a breakout room for me during sessions, and for that I'm offering $20 off for the first three months. So, very exciting. 

I'm also giving away a free month of either one on my Instagram, I will post a link to that. Basically all you have to do is share what you're working on, and share the post - easy peasy. So, links are in the show notes for all that stuff. I'm super excited about all of it. 

I'm also excited about today's topic, building a sacred container for your creative work. When I say sacred, I don't mean it in a religious way, unless you want that, cool. But I mean sacred in the guarded, kind of untouchable, dedicated time sort of way. If you're struggling to make a consistent commitment to your creative work, this episode is definitely for you. Or, if you're not struggling, there are good tips in here, too. 

Even when something is really important to you, your creativity, your painting, your drawing, your writing, whatever it may be for you, even if it's super important to you, it can still be really hard to carve out the time for it, if it is not an urgent and pressing need. This is one of those annoying human tendencies - we tend to pay attention to the biggest threats first, which totally makes sense for our survival and all that good stuff, but it's not as helpful when you're trying to find time to do something that's really important and is not urgent. 

One of the best ways to strengthen your commitment to something is to strengthen your connection to it. So I think setting yourself up for the successful practice of creativity really just has two main elements, timing and environment. I'll talk about timing first. 

I'm imagining a storm chaser who really wants to spot that sweet tornado. We're gonna ignore for a second the obvious fact that tornadoes are really destructive and they ruin things. I'm not a fan of that, obviously. But if you're a storm chaser, you want to catch that tornado at the right time. If there's a tornado watch, that means the conditions are ripe for tornadoes to form. Then when they hear, “Oh, there's a tornado warning,” that means it's happening right now. Just wanted to explain that, in case you don't come from a land where there are tornadoes. 

So if you're that storm chaser, if you don't show up at the right time, you won't see the tornado, you won't get to witness this rare event. There's that Woody Allen quote, I think it's Woody Allen, I'm not even remembering right now, that 80% of life is just showing up. I may have gotten that completely wrong, but the gist is, it's a big deal to show up. If you get there, that is worth a lot. Because, if you're not there, it's not going to happen. Which means, in the creative context, setting aside the time for your creative practice goes such a long way. 

Your time commitment could be the same time every day, same time every week. You could go through your schedule each week and find out where you have some time blocks, to put that in. It might change from week to week. Whether it's a regular time or not, if you put it on your calendar and guard it fiercely, that is going to ensure that nothing else can encroach upon that time. Something like Coworking Club could also help if that sounds appealing to you. 

Assuming that your goal is just to build this consistent practice, and that you're not facing a rapidly looming deadline, making a time commitment rather than an amount of work commitment can be more attainable. It doesn't have to be a long commitment in order to add up. 

You may have heard me talk about my 100 Day Project that I did in 2017. Actually, I did two of them that year. But I promised myself that I would write eight measures of music a day for 100 days. Eight measures is not a whole lot of music, but at the end, I had 800 measures of music. Not all of it was great, not all of it was stuff I loved, but it gave me so much material, and it led to a lot of the stuff that ended up on the album I recorded the next year. 

So even if you have this teeny amount of time for commitment, it's still a commitment. If you have made this commitment to this time slot, it helps. If you're feeling stuck, you might just end up sitting there and trying to figure it out. You might not make as much forward progress, but that's all part of the process, too. Having an appointment with yourself ensures that you're going to show up for whatever creative challenge is there that day. I think that's still progress, even if you're having kind of a fruitless day.

Unlike that storm chaser I mentioned earlier (that metaphor is not the perfect metaphor), you actually have more power to create the conditions for creativity, you just might have to experiment with it a bit. 

Timing plus atmosphere - now we're going to talk about the atmosphere part. So, your physical environment, that's probably something that you have control over, at least to an extent. I know not all of us can paint the walls like we want to, if you're renting versus owning your home, or if you're sharing space with other people. If you just don't have a dedicated room for your creative stuff, maybe you can find a corner. Maybe you can have a table where you get your stuff out and you arrange it the same way, even if you do have to put away your stuff when you're finished. Or, say you're a pianist like me and you have a practice space that you go to, you know, you set up your stuff, and then you leave again, but it's still the environment that you're setting up. 

So what does your creativity want from you? What makes you feel good when creating? Don't overthink this, whatever comes to your mind first instinctively is probably the right way to go. You can change this later. But in the moment, maybe you want to throw some extraneous things to the side. Maybe you need to just clear off your desk and put everything somewhere else so that you have this clear workspace. Or maybe that doesn't matter to you. Maybe you like to light a candle before you start. Maybe you like to work outside. 

You could also make a creative altar. Using things from nature, using maybe some stones or crystals that you like, pictures of artists that inspire you, or just people in your life who have encouraged you. There are all kinds of meaningful things that you could create in this altar space. It doesn't have to be anything big, it could be just a little shelf above your workspace. Anything that holds some creative magic for you and reminds you why you do what you do is perfect stuff to put there. So that gets you feeling more positive in your environment. 

Then whatever kind of ritual feels good to you around your creativity, maybe there's something that you do before starting each time. Maybe you have different rituals for different moods and different energy levels, which totally makes sense. So, maybe part of your ritual could also be checking in with your feelings that day, putting a hand on your heart and breathing a couple times and just seeing what's coming up for you in your feelings. 

Maybe you need an energizing and focusing ritual. So, maybe that means you go take a brisk walk around the block to get your blood pumping, or you dance it out for a few minutes, or you get down to do some stretching. Maybe you need more of a relaxing and calming ritual, if you're feeling anxious, either because of creating, or just in general. 

Or, maybe you need something more grounding, because you're feeling really scattered and you’re feeling resistance, and you want to open Instagram 50 times before you sit down. So maybe part of your ritual is to put your phone in a different room. There are so many things that could be part of your getting ready to create ritual. Let your imagination run wild there. 

I think going back to the senses, if you are a little bit at a loss for what this ritual could entail, just thinking of the five senses. Maybe visually, you need to reduce the amount of clutter, like I said before, maybe looking at a certain color makes you feel good. So maybe you put up something blue because you like the color blue, or whatever it may be for you. 

In the auditory realm, maybe you like to listen to music while you work. I know that doesn't really work for composers, or people who are practicing music, but everybody else, that works for you. Maybe listening to ambient soundscapes, maybe you like ocean sounds, there are actually websites where you can create ambient noise like you would hear in a coffee shop, if that does it for you. Maybe you need no sound, maybe you need to be quiet for work. Maybe you need to say something out loud to yourself to kind of gear yourself up and reassure yourself, whatever it may be.

I kind of already mentioned smells, like lighting a candle, if it's scented. You could also utilize essential oils. I have a blend I like called Mental Clarity that has grapefruit and rosemary and mint, and all these sort of energizing scents in it. That does help me feel a bit more awake and aware when I'm feeling kind of sleepy. Or something calming, if you're feeling jittery, etc. 

Maybe taste is a sense you’re going to utilize. You want a beverage that makes you feel a certain way, when you taste it, like coffee has caffeine, maybe you want that. Maybe this certain kind of tea that's a fruit flavor is a cue to your mind that you're getting ready to create whatever seems appealing to you there. 

Then touch - maybe you are having a moment where you're just sort of blanking out and you're staring at the wall and thinking about what's going to be next. I have a little palm stone, mine happens to be a carnelian, but the main point is that it is this cool round stone that's the right size to fit in my palm, and it's very satisfying to squeeze. Sometimes I'll do this while I'm on a call with somebody, and I feel like I just need to kind of have this sensory thing to ground me. So there's that. Or if you have a squishy stress ball, that can be satisfying. 

The sensory stuff can also apply to what you're wearing. Maybe dressing up makes you feel powerful and ready to create. Or maybe you just really need to create ultimate comfort and wear something really soft and that is tactile, pleasing in a tactile way. So maybe that changes from day to day. Or maybe you have a certain bracelet or necklace or some accessory that you wear each time you create, that's your talisman for creativity, and that gives you a certain feeling, too. You can really get playful with this stuff and have a lot of fun with it. 

But I think the important part is that you are making the start of your creative session that day special. You're reminding yourself of why you're doing it and what motivates you, and you're kind of making it into this mini ceremony, because it is special that you’ve sat down to do your creative stuff. It is special that you're showing up each and every time. That's important, and it's really important to reinforce, and congratulate yourself for showing up, because it's not easy to make the time. 

Creating a ritual around it, even if it's something really small - you definitely don't have to do all the stuff that I mentioned - that signals to your brain that you're doing a familiar activity, and kind of reminds it that, “Oh, yeah, when I smell this smell, that means it's time to create.” This really does have powerful effects. 

Creating that container around your creative time also makes that time safe. It makes it safe from the other things that are trying to steal your time and energy. It just signals to your brain that you were in a safe, loving, welcoming place. If each time you sit down to make art, you have that same ritual in place. 

If your creative practice is stressful - and sometimes it is even when you love it - reinforcing those positive feelings is going to help. It's going to make you want to come back the next day and the next, and that commitment continues to build on itself. The more that you make a commitment to yourself and your art, the more stuff you're going to make that you love. That's what we want. That's what I want for you. 

So I hope that this helps. I hope that you have some new ideas for creating this sacred container around your art time, your creative time. If you have rituals that you already do, I would love to hear about them. You can email me at hello@rebeccahass.com or you can find me on Instagram at @rebecca_hass. It's on my website too. If you can't remember that or if you're driving right now. I'd love to talk about this stuff. And I always love hearing from you. So I hope you have a fabulous week. I hope to see you in Coworking Club if you're interested. And I will see you next time.