Creativity is a Lifeline: Tools to Rekindle Your Spark ✨
A Creative Reset: Practices, Prompts & Tools to Find Your Flow
Hello! Welcome to The Pause.🌻
This month, I had the joy of hosting the first Flourish & Create workshop of the year for people seeking creativity and better habits at Espai Antoni Miró Peris, in Barcelona, supported by a grant from Liforme.
My last event in my hometown was during the Summer solstice of 2024, so an in-person gathering was way overdue. Thanks to everyone who showed up.🥰
It was a chance to get together, chat, and kindle our creative spark through breath, movement, and reflection. A space where we shared and found inspiration.
What is creativity?
When talking about creativity, we often harbour quiet doubts and internalised narratives about what being creative (or an artist) should look like, who’s allowed to claim it, and whether what we make is “good enough.”
I truly believe that creativity isn’t about creating art per se, or about how productive you can be on a given week or year.
As Bell Hooks puts it, “Creativity is an inherent part of being alive.”
Creativity happens when you choose to be present, connected, and intentional with yourself, others, and the world around you.
Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way, offers some of the most accessible and enduring insights on creativity. Her core belief is that creativity is a spiritual practice: a birthright, not a privilege.
“Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.”
– The Artist’s Way
This foundational idea reframes creativity not as something reserved for “artists” but as an essential life force we all carry, and we can choose to strengthen. To me, this means that any activity that I choose to do with intention, with purpose, can be a creative act.
From drawing, writing, and making music to tasks considered more mundane like cooking or even organising your home, these are all activities that require your attention and your intention: your creative energy.
Entering the creative space with intention
In yogic philosophy, the second chakra, Svadhisthana, is associated with the element of water. It governs creativity, emotions, and your ability to flow with life.
When you learn to tap into these qualities, you reconnect with the parts of yourself that are fluid, intuitive, and expressive.
Journaling Prompt✍🏾
One of the best ways for me to check in daily, or when I’m about to embark on any creative project or task, is to take some time to be with myself, breathe, and check in to see how I feel.
You can choose to reflect or journal on the following:
Right now, if my energy were a body of water, what would it be?
Would it be an ocean, a river, or a waterfall? Is it still or wild, murky or clear, deep or shallow? Would it crash against the shore, or gently ripple on the sand under the moonlight?
As you observe or write, take a moment to pause. Just observe it. Let it show you something about how you’re arriving in this moment, to give you more information about how your creativity feels right now.
What gets in the way, and what brings you back
Even when you may have the time and feel inspired, creativity doesn’t always flow freely. There are times we feel stuck, disconnected, or overwhelmed before we’ve even begun, and it can be very disheartening.
In the workshop, we took some time to name the things that block us, which are not failures, but patterns we’ve absorbed or developed to protect ourselves.
Sometimes it’s perfectionism or comparison. Sometimes it’s fear of failure, of being seen, of not being good enough. Sometimes it’s simply exhaustion, lack of time, or feeling like creativity is a luxury you can’t afford.
Whatever the reason, these blocks are real, and it is important that you have tools and resources to strengthen your sense of flow.
I like to call these tools lifelines.
They are healthy habits, practices, spaces, and small joys. They don’t have to be big or impressive, but they can be small gateways to increased quality of life.
In fact, the most powerful lifelines are often the simplest:
Journaling or Morning Pages
Time in nature
Going for strolls
Doodling
Phone detox
Playing
Resting, napping
Spending time with people you love
Creating a daily routine
Making something just for fun
Listening to music that moves you
The point is to find activities that you can comfortably integrate into your life, small habits that bring you to a version of yourself that’s more grounded in what you truly want, and that helps you feel more alive and present.
Journaling Prompt✍🏾
Take a moment to reflect:
What supports your creativity? What helps you return when you feel disconnected?
Make a list. Keep it somewhere you’ll see it often. Let your lifelines be reminders: you don’t have to do this alone, and you don’t have to do it perfectly. You just have to do it. 😎
Building New Habits That Support Creativity
Once you begin to identify what nourishes you and what blocks you, the next step is to build habits that make space for creativity—gently, consistently, and without pressure.
Contrary to what many believe, sustainable creativity doesn’t come from bursts of inspiration alone. It comes from showing up. From choosing to begin, again and again, and letting go of perfection.
There’s a concept I return to often:
Action creates motivation and not the other way around.
Waiting to feel ready can keep you stuck forever. There is always something else you need, whether it’s more time, a new tool, or more training. But I invite you to consider that when you take a small step (write one sentence, make a sketch, or pause to breathe), even when you don’t think you’re ready, something shifts. That movement, however small, begins to ripple.
Another idea I often revisit is the Law of Minimum Effort: the principle that when we align with ease, presence, and authenticity, we can achieve more without pushing ourselves to burnout.
So instead of asking: How do I get it all done? Try asking: What’s the smallest, simplest step I can take right now?
Minimum effort for maximum efficiency.
Journaling Prompt ✍🏾
If you had no limitations (no time constraints, no fears, no pressure to get it “right”), what creative project would you explore or return to?
Would you write a book? Paint a room in your home? Start a podcast? Learn to sing? Would you make music in your living room or design clothes?
Let it be bold. Let it be playful. Write everything that comes to mind, even if it feels unrealistic or out of reach.
Plant the seed.
Resources to Support Your Creative Flow
If you’re feeling inspired to continue this exploration, here are a few tools to help you create at your own pace:
🧘🏾♀️Movement
A short, accessible practice to unlock creative energy and to help you find your groove and connect to your natural rhythm.💛
📖 Book Recommendation
If you’re looking to build a sustainable creative practice, check out The Artist's Way, by Julia Cameron.
This book (or rather manual) is a wonderful companion to your creative journey and developing healthy habits that align with you. With weekly reflections, exercises, and tools like Morning Pages, it is a journey that guides you back to your creative self.
🍅 Cozy Pomodoro Session
Need help focusing on your creative work? Try this cozy, beach-themed 25/5 Pomodoro audio session with gentle ocean sounds: perfect for easing into a project.
I hope this post offered you some inspiration and that it helps you reconnect with your creative spark.
If you try any of the prompts, movement practices, or the Pomodoro sessions, I’d love to hear how it lands for you.
That’s all for now, my friends
Until we meet again, pause often, breathe deeply, and be kind, especially to yourself.
Much love,
Laia
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I love Bell Hooks and the artist way!
Loved listening to this! The flourish and create workshop sounded amazing 😍 I have missed your pomodoro's and the IT community. I'm hoping to find a new rhythm soon, as finishing uni threw my routine out the window. This reminded me to slow down, and that creativity is in the everyday. Thanks Laia 💚 I needed that reminder