E117 Tiny Deposits - Big Returns
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Beth: [00:00:00]
Hello.
Hello, my creative friend. Welcome back to Create Today. I'm Beth Buffington.
Hello, my creative friend. Welcome back to Create Today. I'm Beth Buffington and I am so glad you're here. Now I wanna start today with a question. It's not a hard one, but it's an honest one. I. So my friend, when was the last time you [00:01:00] picked up something creative? A sketchbook, a crochet hook, A paintbrush, a pen.
And now for my professional creatives, I am talking picking up something creative. Just for yourself? Just for you. Not for a project, not for a deadline. Not to make something for someone else and not because this thing was on your to-do list.
I'm talking about picking up something creative and doing something creative just because you needed it. When was the last time you did that? If you had to think about that for a second, that's okay. That's actually why we are here today because so many of us are walking around on empty creatively, emotionally, mentally.
There's a lot going on in our world right now. A lot going on in our world right now and we, many of us [00:02:00] are running on creative emptiness, and we don't even have a word for this empty, stagnant feeling. You might recognize this strange emotion if you find yourself scrolling and scrolling and later you don't feel any better than when you started, or you are exhausted but somehow strangely wired at the same time.
You have a dozen half started projects and no energy or inspiration to touch any of them. Your brain feels foggy. You are feeling emotionally heavy, like something was left on all night and now the battery is just drained. That my friend is what I call a creative deficit. And today I want to talk about how we can turn that deficit around.
Not with a grand gesture, not with an amazing immediate [00:03:00] transformation, not with a whole studio makeover, and not by adding three more hours to a day that you already feel behind on.
let's talk about how you can turn this around with as little as 10 minutes. 10 minutes, but 10 daily minutes regularly if you listen to this podcast regularly. You've heard me use the word compound
When you invest in your creativity, it compounds because creativity works a lot like money That compounds in a savings account. And the best part is you don't have to have a massive investment to see meaningful returns. You just need to make small, consistent deposits and over time. The growth is extraordinary.
I promise. I've seen and felt the benefits in my life, better [00:04:00] health, better happiness, and that's what we're going to talk about as we create today, together. Are you ready? Let's go. Now before we talk about building up your creativity, let's name what's happening and why we are running low on energy and happiness, and even on our health.
The modern world today is relentlessly demanding. Our world often is literally on fire in many places. Wildfires, fires from war, fire from angry words, fires from worries and stress. Our attention, our energy, our emotional bandwidth is constantly being poured into and onto attempts. To control these fires, and we give our attention to our families and our jobs, our phones, [00:05:00] the news, other people's emergency and the energy needed to control.
The fire is pulled from our Energy bank account and at some point the account runs dry because we do little or nothing to replenish. The account. For example, many of us reach for a phone or a tablet during our free moments. Now we've talked about doom scrolling before as a creativity killer, so let's revisit that for a second because scrolling.
Isn't just a time drain. It's a neurological drain. Research from the University of California San Diego found that the average American consumes over 34 gigabytes of information every day. Let that soak in for a second, and most of what is consumed is [00:06:00] passive. Reactive and emotionally activating and not in the best way, and it does not refuel our energy.
You're taking in constant stimulation, but you're producing nothing. There's no output. There's no release, there's no expression. Now compare doom scrolling to the act of making something, anything. When you take even 10 minutes out of your day to play with creating even a lopsided granny square, even a quick sketch of your coffee cup, when you create, you shift from receiving or consuming to expressing and producing.
See the difference? That shift matters
enormously to your nervous system, and it is a beautiful gift [00:07:00] to your brain.
If you've been feeling foggy, depleted, or emotionally flat lately, I want you to hear this. Feeling this flatness. This fogginess? Well, it's a reflection on how you're spending your free time. It's a result of giving out constantly and dealing with these fires without building any of that energy back into your account, into your energy bank.
See, so you're not broken. You're actually broke. Like turn your pockets inside out broke. Because you have no currency,
or energy to work with. You've overdrawn your energy bank. But the good news is that the deposit process is actually simpler than you think. You've heard me talk about creative snacks. Listen to episode [00:08:00] 33, and you've also heard me talk about tiny art in episode 1 0 5.
Listen to these episodes for the first time, or again, to get more clarity on how you can refill an empty tank in just a little time each day, because you don't need to do anything that requires a giant commitment or complicated skills to get your energy bank to start compounding again.
Think about how a savings account works. You don't need to deposit your entire paycheck each week to eventually have something meaningful, but it does take consistency. You need to deposit something regularly, hopefully daily, and let time and repetition do the rest.
Your creativity thrives when you do this. So 10 minutes a day of genuine creative engagement. It's the small things, but [00:09:00] they are a big deal. It's a signal to your brain and to your nervous system that says, I matter and I am important. my friend. This means that you're not consuming.
You are creating. So what does a 10 minute deposit look like? And the good news is that it's easy and it's playful, and almost, almost anything counts. Doodling a thought in the margin of your notebook while you're drinking coffee. Picking up a crochet project for just a few minutes to get lost in your yarn.
Mixing some colors as you play just for fun. On a canvas or with your watercolors, the list is long about what you can do to make these deposits. Woodworking, collaging, gardening, hand lettering, cooking, arranging flowers, organizing a closet, coloring in a coloring book, paint by number, [00:10:00] punch needle projects.
You see the list is long. And here's the thing, whatever you choose to create today. It doesn't have to be Instagram worthy. It doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be created for anything or anyone, and you never have to finish anything that is part of this kind of energy, creativity. The entire point of this daily creative practice is the act of making the act of allowing your brain to play.
It's the doing, not the done.
Hey, now I want to share something with you, and if you're listening to this on audio, just picture this in your mind, but right now on the video here on YouTube, I'm holding up. A glass jar with a lid, This is an example of if
Every time you do a 10 minute creative [00:11:00] deposit, you take a slip of paper and you write on the slip of paper what you did for 10 minutes and drop it in the jar. It could be one word. I doodled, crocheted. Painted whatever you created and watch that jar fill up over a month and then at the end of that month, tell me that you didn't feel something shift.
Because you will, you really will. You will have visual proof in your jar that you've been investing in yourself. You've been allowing yourself to be creative. Even if it's just for 10 minutes a day, you've done something for yourself to increase your energy, and that my friend, is a powerful thing.
Okay, let's talk about what's actually happening in your brain when you make that daily deposit.
because this is where it gets genuinely exciting. [00:12:00] You know, I love the neuroscience that makes creativity so magical, and the research here is truly remarkable. So listen to this. A study published in a journal of positive Psychology followed participants for two weeks tracking daily creative activity and emotional wellbeing.
And researchers found that even small acts of everyday creativity, making something, solving a creative problem, expressing yourself artistically, It was strongly associated with greater positive effect and a sense of flourishing the following day.
Researchers describe this as an upward spiral. Creativity doesn't just respond to wellbeing, it generates it. That's incredible. One day of creative engagement makes the next day easier to approach with energy and openness and wow. Doesn't that [00:13:00] feel true? I mean, when I have a creative day, I wake up the next morning feeling lighter and a little bit brighter, a little more ready.
The energy generated. Yesterday continues the next day and fuels how I choose to create today and what I choose to create tomorrow, and then the next day and the next day. And here's the compound interest piece. That spiral up means that their returns don't stay flat and they don't spiral down. They grow.
They spiral up.
Research from Harvard Medical School found that repetitive physical activities like knitting and crochet, rhythmic drawing, and similar crafts, activate the parasympathetic nervous system while quieting the brain's threat detection circuitry.
This shift reduces [00:14:00] cortisol, lowers heart rate and blood pressure. In other words, your granny squares your gardening watercolors, bread baking. It is literally medicine for your nervous system. When you work with your hands in a rhythmic focused way, crochet, embroidery, doodling, your brain enters what researchers call relaxed focus and the prefrontal cortex quiets and the default mode network activates.
And this is a state where anxiety loosens its grip, where insight, peace, and emotional processing can actually open. It's not magic, it's neurology and it can be yours starting with 10 minutes a day. A 2016 study published in art therapy found that regardless of prior experience or skill level
Having a [00:15:00] creative time in your day Significantly reduced cortisol levels in 75% of participants. Wow. Cortisol, my friend, is the primary stress hormone associated with anxiety, poor sleep, inflammation, and burnout.
Researchers emphasize that skill doesn't matter at all. People who couldn't draw saw the same benefits as those who considered themselves artists. So the act of making that was the active ingredient. Can we sit with that for just a second skill? Doesn't matter. You don't have to be good at whatever you are doing creatively.
You just have to do it.
and this is why the goal is a creative practice, not a perfect project. The goal is. Having a brain that is [00:16:00] practiced in wanting to be creative, every deposit you make into this creative energy bank is literally rewiring your neuro pathways, strengthening the connections that help you regulate emotion, reduce anxiety, and return to yourself when the world gets loud.
That is the compound interest that I'm talking about. Every day you show up for at least 10 minutes. You're not just getting today's return, you're building the infrastructure for better returns tomorrow and the next week and the next year.
Now, uh, let's talk about those returns. Not in abstract terms, but in real ones. Because you have shared so much with me over the years. I want to honor that You've told me that picking up your crochet hook for just a few minutes after a [00:17:00] hard day is what keeps you from spiraling
Your 10 minute morning sketch routine has become more sacred to you, maybe even more than your coffee,
and that you have found peace and creativity that you could not find anywhere else. These are not small things. These are things that my listeners have told me, and if you are listening to this for the first time. Try it out for yourself. The research calls these outcomes psychological capital, a real term from positive psychology.
It includes increased emotional resilience, which is the ability to bounce back from setbacks with being completely derailed. It reduces rumination, and this means that you spend less time in anxious looping thought patterns that spiral down. That happens maybe when you're spending too much time doom scrolling.
it gives you a greater [00:18:00] sense of agency, and that is a feeling that you are actively shaping your life, not just reacting to things that happen to you.
daily creative practice. Can improve your sleep quality because a nervous system that has been given a daily release doesn't stay wound up super tight all night every night.
You see, researchers found that individuals who maintained regular creative practices demonstrated significantly higher levels of emotional flexibility and resilience.
The protective effect of creativity was particularly strong for individuals experiencing life stress, meaning the people who need it most also benefit most. So if you're having a hard time. Creativity is a wonderful thing for you to be doing right now. Creativity [00:19:00] isn't just good when life is easy. It is most powerful when life is hard.
so, if you're creative, who's been feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders lately, my friend, take a moment to think about your creativity. Have you let yourself soak into its goodness often.
Often when life gets hard, we tend to shut ourselves away from our creativity. We feel we just don't have the time or the energy to be creative. But when life is hard, that is when creativity is most powerful. You need to remember that it's most powerful when life is hard. Not when you have those [00:20:00] studio in the perfect position and you have that beautiful free weekend, but right now when things feel overly busy or overly stressful, right now when the world feels like it might be on fire, it's when you're in the mess, in the busy, in the drained in the fire, that's when you really benefit from your creativity, especially then.
Now I know that some of you are thinking, I know you've told me that Beth But I don't know. I don't think I have 10 minutes. I have dishes in the sink and I have laundry in the dryer and a work email that hasn't been answered, and I just can't justify sitting down to paint or crochet or garden when all of this is yelling at me.
I hear you. I really, really do. But here's what I wanna offer you gently and clearly, I want you to think about this in a new direction. [00:21:00] You are the person who does the dishes. You're the person who answers the emails. You are the one holding everything, job, family, relationships, you're, you're holding it all together and the question isn't whether you can afford to invest in yourself.
The question is whether you can afford not to, can you afford not to? You see, creativity is not an award that you get to do after the work is all done. It's not that celebratory party that you only do when there's nothing else to do. It is fuel for the person who is doing the work. It is fuel for the person who is going through the fire.
When you skip your creative practice so you can be more productive, you're depleting, the very resource that makes everything else [00:22:00] sustainable. You're spending from an account that you're not replenishing, you are creating a creative deficit. And we've seen where that ends.
That is burnout, that is resentment, that flat heavy feeling that nothing matters. So your creativity, my dear friend, it is not selfish. It is maintenance. It is self-care. It is the oil change that keeps the engine running. It is adding gas to the fuel tank or charging your car if it's electric so that you can move forward
And hey, no one feels guilty about getting an oil change or refueling their car. No one does. So in case you need it, my friend. Here is your permission slip. You are allowed to be creative even when your house isn't perfect, even when your inbox isn't empty, even when there's some laundry to fold or [00:23:00] dishes to wash.
Even when everyone else's needs haven't been fully met yet today, you my friend, You matter. Your inner life matters. And 10 minutes, just 10 minutes. This is not a luxury. It is a minimum viable investment in you, the person, everyone else is counting on.
Okay, let's take a moment here to take a quick break to talk about something that I am very excited about because everything we've been talking about today, well that is exactly what I am doing in person, and you can be there too if this episode is landing for you. If something in you is saying, yes, this is what I've been missing.
I need some daily creative time, but I'm having trouble getting this invested in my life. I would [00:24:00] love to meet you in one of two places very soon. First, if you want an immersive experience, if you are wanting to step out of your regular life and into a dedicated space where you can soak deliciously.
Into understanding your creativity and your wellness. I wanna tell you about Sylva Synergy Creative Wellness Retreat. It is happening in Atchison, Kansas. This May, this is an in-person gathering that I'm co-hosting with Health Coach Lisa Murphy Sylva.
Synergy is designed around exactly the principles we talk about here on the podcast. A creative practice of self-care, science-backed tools for emotional wellbeing and real human connection with people who get you. People who understand that keeping yourself well creatively isn't frivolous.
It's fundamental, [00:25:00] and I would genuinely love to meet you there in person. Details and registration are in the show notes and on my website and my friend's spots are limited. So if you feel the pull, don't wait on this one. And then I want to also tell you about Sylva Sessions. It's my monthly online creative wellness membership.
if an in-person retreat isn't the right fit for you right now, maybe the timing isn't right or you want to start with something smaller, or you want to start with something right away. I wanna tell you about Sylva Sessions. Sylva Sessions is our monthly online creative wellness membership.
Each month, Lisa and I and you come together as a community to check in on your happiness and your wellbeing through creativity, through core health practices and the kind of genuine encouragement that only a warm like-minded community can offer. If you've been [00:26:00] listening today and thinking, I want, I need this kind of commitment to my health and my happiness in my life.
Sylva Sessions and or Sylva Synergy is exactly that. All the details for the Sylva experiences are linked in the show notes, and you can also find them by going to www.bdi-create.today. Today I look forward to meeting you so that we can create today together in person. So let's bring our topic home today.
Let's figure out what our takeaways are. You started this episode, maybe feeling a little bit drained, maybe feeling a little behind, maybe like creativity is something that belongs to a future version of yourself who has more time, more space, more permission. And I [00:27:00] want to tell you that the future version of you is available right now today.
For 10 minutes, the science is clear. And honestly, you probably kind of knew it, but didn't let yourself realize it. You felt it. You know those days when you made something and you felt better afterwards, you felt it, you noticed it. You just maybe needed someone to tell you that this feeling was real because science says so, and your creative time is worth protecting.
You need to make that investment in you. So here's your invitation for this week. Make deposits, one each day, write them on a slip of paper. I'm holding up my jar again. Write them on a slip of paper and drop them into your jar. Or if you don't have a jar like I do, just jot them down [00:28:00] as a list in a notebook.
Notice how you feel on day seven compared to day one, not because you finished a project, not because anything was perfect, but just because you showed up for yourself. Go you, and you showed up for yourself every day in a consistent, creative way. And that is how transformation actually works. Not in an overnight sensation, not in a grand gesture.
In tiny tender daily deposits that are caring for your creativity, and my friend. I would love to hear from you. What was your Wellbeing investment. How'd it go? What did you do? Drop in the comments. I read every single one. Your story might be exactly what someone else needs to hear.
To start their own creative practice. So don't be shy. And if this episode meant something [00:29:00] to you, will you please share it? Send it to a friend or someone in your family who's been running on empty, because sometimes the most generous thing we can do for someone else we love is to hand them the permission slip that says It's okay to create today.
And here's something I want you to sit with before next week, because we're going to go somewhere a little unexpected. We've been talking about what you can do to fuel your creativity, and so next time we're going to talk about other fuels that help you function like what you eat, because it turns out the same
instinct that nudges you towards beautiful colors in your sketchbook or your palette on your canvas with your watercolors. Well, it's trying to tell you something at the dinner table too. Curious to understand creativity at the table. More on that next week, my friend.[00:30:00]
Thank you so much for being with me here today, for showing up for yourself, and for the belief that creativity, not a luxury. It's a lifeline. I'll be back next week with more creative news. Until then, make something. Just for the making, not for the finishing. And allow this creative investment in yourself to compound daily into something strong and resilient so you can face the world.
I'm Beth Buffington, and as always, my wish for you is to stay creative, my friend.
