E97 - Creative Health with Sylva Solace
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Speaker: Hello,
Hello my creative friend. Welcome to another episode of Create Today with Beth Buffington. I am still feeling some vibrations after coming [00:01:00] home from a sensational Silva Solace retreat. Now, this was the first of many to come for these Silva Solace get togethers. Silva solace is a creative resilience retreat that I co-led with Lisa Murphy, who is a healthy aging coach, and we were gifted with the present of Margo Tantau from the popular podcast, window Sill Chats, and she was our Special Silva Solace guest post.
And I had the absolute honor of spending some powerful moments with creatives who were amazing and came to us from all across the United States to explore, renew, and strengthen creative resilience in their lives. The experiences we shared during Silva were so inspirational. [00:02:00] So inspirational that I feel the need to share a bit of the magic with you today.
Now, Silva Solace is a retreat with a very special focus. It's about understanding, resilience, what it is, why we need it, how we can nourish it, and how we can maintain it. And then use it when we need it.
Resilience is the power to bend and adapt through the difficulties that we need to face our lives, We all face storms in life. Some of these storms are just sprinkles. Some are actual hurricanes and some are just moments of being uncomfortable for a short time, and some leave us completely toppled with the need to rebuild in a way that includes [00:03:00] changing the normalcy of what was,
Knowing how to build strength and the flexibility to bend and ride out the storms in our lives. Well, that's what resilience is all about. Now, this past year, Lisa and I were curious about resilience and we examined and looked at resilience from different perspectives, and we discovered that there are tools that we can use to help
us build strength that will allow us to be resilient. So we combined our shared passion. Lisa is being core health through movement and mindful meditation and nutrition and my passion through realizing that you can use your innate creativity to become happier and healthier in heart, mind, body, and soul.
And we discovered that when you combine [00:04:00] core health with creative health, you have powerful tools that can help you be resilient. And help you cope when those life storms arrive. And these tools can also help us stay strong as we are faced with new adaptations in the after storm. That life brings our way as we start to determine what this new normal has to be will be, and how we can find joy even through changes in life that we did not choose.
Here's what we focused on during our time at Silva Solace. Lisa coached on health, mindfulness, and movement, and I coached on four unique creative tools that you can keep at the ready to make you happier and healthier.
but we also added one more important aspect into [00:05:00] our focus for Silva Solace. We determined that there are three important areas that need to be utilized together in order to grow strong resilience.
So we organized this focus into three Cs, core care, creative care. Community care, and this is where we brought in the amazing Margot Tantau to talk about the power of having community.
Margot is known as a creative connector. She's someone who possesses the skills to introduce people to people.
She is the host of the popular podcast, windowsill Chats, and she also runs the Foundry. A creative membership
being in community with people who have the same passion as you is another vital piece to having the strength to carry on, to adapt, [00:06:00] to be strong in the face of uncertain times.
and. When used together, these three Cs give you powerful tools to use as you build resilience and as you maintain resilience in your life. So to put it simply, creative resilience is a way to rise and find your footing through the changes in life. And resilience allows you to do this with imagination and grace.
Resilience is what keeps us from hiding or running from adversity, and it allows us to see new possibilities when times are dark. Resilience keeps us from pretending we're fine. Resilience, helps us face adversity and look at it straight in the face.
And resilience gives us the confidence to think and make plans about what can I make from [00:07:00] this my friend? Resilience is not a magic potion that will keep you free from bad days, and it will magically make hard things disappear or become immediately easy. But it will help you be brave enough to consider options instead of running away or instead of hiding.
And it will help you walk out of your comfort zone to try new things. And resilience will help you bend and pivot and adapt to the changes life brings you, and you'll be able to do it one step at a time.
Psychologists call this cognitive flexibility, the ability to see more than one way forward. And my friend, having strong resilience keeps you flexible. So these three Cs create a linked [00:08:00] chain. Creativity and health and community into a tight interlocking bond, and that is the essence of Silva Solace. So I'm going to share with you a quick look at these three Cs.
and then I'm going to give you a list of things that you can do on your own to start building your creative resilience. Today. Let's look at the first of these three Cs right now, which is, how are you caring for you?
During Silva Solace, Lisa Murphy expertly walked us through how we can care for our bodies through movement, mindfulness, and good nutrition. She shared how to calm racing minds through sensory walks. And these calming walks provide precious time to escape screens and the random noise.
[00:09:00] Our world blares at us constantly.
Lisa demonstrated breathing techniques that can be used daily, that could be used to settle nerves when you're feeling stressed or calm and anxious mind before meetings or interviews, or just to settle yourself and feel grounded as you prepare for bed.
She also shared gentle stretching and yoga practices that were possible for all to engage in and benefit from no matter ability or challenges that we have.
Lisa's skills as a healthy aging coach. Show us how we can nourish ourselves with food, how you can become stronger by keeping your body in movement and how you can use your mind to care for yourself through mindful meditation and yoga practices and all of these pieces. That she teaches through her coaching will help [00:10:00] you determine how you can take care of the engine that is you and have it perform well for you when you are faced with challenges in life.
Lisa made caring for you a cherished experience. During Silva Solace, She gave us mindful and easy tools to take home and use daily to keep nourishing moving and being mindful in our lives. So now let's take a look at that second. C, your creative health.
Now most of us realize these essentials of good health and movement, nutrition and sleep, that we need to be doing these things
in order to be strong and healthy, but I believe that in order to build a truly strong sense of self-worth, that creativity needs to be just as important as movement, nutrition, and a good night's sleep.[00:11:00]
According to a 2020 study in Frontiers in psychology, people who regularly engage in creative activities like writing, drawing, knitting, gardening, They show greater emotional regulation and adaptability when facing stress.
Another study from the Journal of Positive Psychology found that people who did something creative every day, even something small, felt more energized and optimistic that next day. So you can see that you are building on to your, creative resilience. When you have an active creative practice, each day, a 2018 study from Drexel University found that just.
45 minutes of creative activity like painting or journaling, even just coloring in a coloring book, significantly lowered stress hormones [00:12:00] regardless of skill or experience, or the so-called success of the creative outcome. So you do not need to make masterpieces to reap the benefits that creativity provides.
Enjoying any creative activity will slow the breath, will lower cortisol. Any creative activity, shifts the brain into a calm, open state and it tells your nervous system you are safe and you can play again. And please note, this is so important. In order to reap the benefits creativity can provide you, you must give yourself the permission to play, and that is key.
It can be as simple as taking time to arrange flowers and a vase just because, or cooking a new recipe that sparked your interest or doodling while on the phone or in a meeting. These [00:13:00] tiny acts. They're not just hobbies or even just a way to kill some extra time. These are small creative acts that are repairing.
They are easing stress. they are lowering anxiety. These creative acts, they're helping you focus and they are providing solutions. They're rebuilding the connection between mind and body, between chaos and calm. So you see, when you nurture your creative health, you're giving your body and mind the same care that you give yourself through through a nutritious meal, a good night's sleep, or having regular exercise.
So creative care, so important, we're going to pair that with our core care. Very important attention to your creative care and your core care. Well, they help you bend and adapt to the curves in the road that make [00:14:00] life difficult. But Lisa and I realized that there was really a third C that we needed to look at as vitally important in our lives, my friend.
This is a powerful resource that must not be overlooked. This resource is community resilience doesn't grow well in isolation. It grows. It thrives. It flourishes through connection with other people who have your same passions. When we are enjoying community with others, we share ideas and we witness each other's creative efforts.
We celebrate successes. We provide support when we stumble. It is a safe space, a safety net, where we can build strength, we can find out how to be brave because when we are seen, when we are heard, when we are applauded, and [00:15:00] when we are cared for, that's when we find strength in ourselves. During Silva Solas, we felt community in a fierce and beautiful way.
Most of the creatives who attended Silva Solas, they had never met, but we left as friends, as sisters, as confidants. who linked arms through the beautiful bonding that community provided us, and Margo Tantau was key here.
She shared her gifts of connection and she provided insights about the strengths we find through a community where we are seen and where we are heard. where we can share our celebrations, and we can weep about the aftermath of life's storms. Feeling free to laugh and let the tears flow our strong indications that you have found your people.[00:16:00]
And during Silva Solace, we found our people. We discovered that we are unique And that your creativity is your voice, your authenticity. But doing it alone, that's hard.
When we are alone, it becomes an easy default to focus on what you perceive to be all the flaws in your life. Imposter syndrome gets a really loud voice, and quite often you let fear drive your bus, but being in community gives you a perspective that you cannot see by yourself.
Community gives your creative voice a platform to experiment, to play, and to learn, and it gives you a way to actually see and understand your self-worth in a way that you cannot do on your own. A 2021 study from Harvard found that [00:17:00] people with strong social support systems were far better able to manage stress and maintain hope during hardship.
So. The three Cs, core care, creative care, community care. They are powerful and vital tools that you need to build resilience. This is what we explored deeply at Silva Solace this past weekend, and my friend, here's what I want you to take away from this podcast.
Creative resilience doesn't mean that you will be strong every moment of every day. It doesn't mean that you have all the answers. When problems, or trauma arrive at your doorstep, resilience means that because you've gathered tools in your toolbox. Because you have built this strength, this resilience, that now you have a variety of [00:18:00] ways you can cope.
Resilience allows you to see options instead of brick walls. It helps foster ideas about how to adapt to whatever or however life is bringing change to your life today. Resilience means that you can trust that your imagination, that your curiosity, your strength, it's enough and that you can now use the tools that you have through core care, creative care, and community care to help you cope, and that these tools will let you begin again step by step.
So I hope you are thinking, yes, please. I want resilience in my life. So I have a list of some small steps that you can do right away that will help you look at how you can start to build.
Resilience [00:19:00] in your life? First, I want you to give yourself grace. Remember that no one has a perfect life. No one problems are going to arise. That's that's life. And when they do, when they do, not if they do, but when I want you to take a beat and breathe. You are not alone. You're not alone. And you can find ways to cope.
here are some ways to cope. Number one, this is so simple, but if you do it every day, it will create some strength in your life.I want you to keep a what if list when life gets rocky because as we discussed it will. Instead of spiraling by focusing on all the rocks in your way, all the, all the brick walls you feel like you've run against [00:20:00] or run into, I want you to ask yourself, what if there's another way? So I want you to write your options and let your curiosity interrupt your frustration.
Let your options bring you positivity from this negativeexperience. What if there's a way I can flourish through what I'm experiencing? What if, keep a list? Number two, doodle your thoughts. As strange as it may seem, taking a moment to doodle in times of strife has shown to help with emotional processing and focus.
Doodling is a powerful way to let your brain sort information and solve problems. So allow yourself to doodle. Choose some quiet time to just let yourself draw and do this when you're on the phone or when you're in a meeting, or when you're sitting in a waiting room waiting for that next [00:21:00] appointment.
Just let your brain relax your body by doodling.
number three,
change your sensory input. So think about simple ways you can calm an anxious mind. Tiny things like lighting a candle and spending time gazing at the flame, or enjoying the aroma that that candle is emitting.
Step into a patch of sunlight and purposefully enjoy the warmth that it is emitting. Watch the clouds in the sky. Actually just take some time to maybe lay in the grass and watch the clouds. Just calm yourself by looking for shapes in those clouds that you recognize. You see these small sensory shifts where we are.
Enjoying textures. We are are enjoying aromas. We are feeling warmth. [00:22:00] Well, they invite your brain to rewire. They invite your brain to settle and to find calm. Number four, rearrange something. Getting something newly settled or organized.
Well, this reorders your environment. It's a signal to your brain that you know change is possible and it's okay. So think about rearranging something. It could be something large like rearrange the furniture in your bedroom or your family room, or in your studio or office. Or you can do something small.
Like just organize a drawer. We all have those drawers. That are kind of a hot mess and you know, it doesn't really take that long to empty the drawer and sort through the things you need and don't, and then put everything back in and just have this clean, organized drawer that you can pull out and find things quickly.
Or you could straighten a closet or just simply sort those [00:23:00] socks. Find something that you can rearrange and that clean feeling of organization is going to help you find some calm. Number five, join a book group or have coffee with a friend. call a pal that is moved away who you love to talk to, who will always provide a calming conversation.
Find your people, my friend, and immerse yourself in their laughter and in the care they can provide you. you see each of these tiny acts is creative and it's healthy. They're all tiny steps to begin building resilience. None of these things are
gonna completely solve problems immediately. They are not magic potions, but they will help you calm down, and they may help you figure out that next right [00:24:00] step.
and my friend. Here are a couple other ideas to help you grow your creativity, take better care of your core health, and help you find community. Yet on the wait list for the 2026 Silva Solace Retreat. when you are on the wait list, you can enjoy activities and information that will be shared to the Silva.
Wait listers. Send me an email at [email protected], and you will be blessed with some amazing resilience building ideas. You'll be able to find a live link in the show notes and or come and join me inside the Create Today Community.Consider joining the Create Today membership. It's designed to help you stay inspired and build the creative resilience you need to keep generating everyday [00:25:00] creativity. It will also help you build your creative confidence to reach goals, and you'll discover how to use your creativity to cope. When life feels dark, you're going to learn about your creativity as you enjoy this beautiful community inside Create Today.
Sign up for the Create Today membership by going to www.bdicreate.today. Or if you're just unsure what you should do next, my friend, send me an email and let me know. You'd like a free coaching call to learn more about how you can be resilient in your life. You'll find links to all this information in the show notes.
So my friend, if this week feels a little heavy or uncertain, do something small. Light a candle, make a doodle. Rearrange your desktop. Take a walk. Call a friend. [00:26:00] Each creative act that you shower upon yourself and allow yourself to enjoy well, it's a reminder that you are adaptable, you are capable, and you are endlessly renewing yourself.
Our world is kind of a wild place for many of us right now. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have access to tools that you can use to help you cope? Consider the three C's from Silva, Solas, Core care, creative care, community care. and when you use these three C's, you can begin to build the strength you need to be resilient and remember that I am here for you.
And as always, my wish for you is to stay creative, my [00:27:00] friend.
