511 - A Message for Sensitive Creatives Who Are Struggling Right Now

0:02On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift off, sometimes you'll just need a creative pep talk.

0:20All right, y 'all. I want to check in with all of you for a minute with this episode because let's face it, there's a lot of scary stuff going on. There's a lot of violence. There is a lot of current events. and it's a tough time to be a human on an emotional, mental health level and more. And that's not even taking into account the fact that you're a creative person. It's well known that creative people can tend to the melancholic and the depressive and it can be tough to be a creative person and not be depressive on the good days when the things are great and everything's trending positively.

1:20But when the news is as scary as it's been and the world systems are being threatened the way that they are, it can become incredibly difficult not to just, not to even make stuff, but to get out of bed sometimes. And I feel it. I can get, there can be new cycles where my ability to empathize and also create futures, bad and good and anxious and terrible and positive and negative, just the ability to imagine can become twisted back on yourself and can put you in such a vulnerable state that it's hard to not create hard to just get on with anything right like taking care of yourself taking care of your kids getting out of bed doing stuff like it can be tricky at the best of the times let alone times that are in flux and uh and this tricky as they have been and so i want to do an episode just to check in with you and kind of tell you some things that have helped me recently that I think have been pretty essential, not just to taking care of myself, but also to playing the role that I think creatives need to play because that vulnerability to depressive states and that sensitivity to negativity, it isn't just a curse.

3:00I'll say that. And so yeah, that's what this episode is. And stick around until the end. And I'm going to come in with a CTA, not just some feel-good thoughts, but a call to adventure that will help you put this to action to help you do what you got to do to get some of that juice that you need and the world needs from you. And it's called Vacuum the Vacuum. And I'll explain what the heck that means, but it's been very helpful to me and it's helped me find some sanity and some creativity in times that have been, you know, a lot. And so I'll be back with that in a minute, but let's get into this episode.

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5:30So if you listen to this show, I am guessing on some level you consider yourself to be a creative person. and if you're a creative person, I'm gonna make an assumption about you that there are often a lot of times where you're looking around at the world, moving on like everything's normal, everything's hunky-dory and you're like, yo, are you even taking all of this in? Like, are you feeling what's happening? Are you soaking this up? Because good Lord, I'm sopping wet with these freaking things happening that I'm soaking up. Like this is so much. And the truth is they're probably not. A lot of people aren't soaking it up to the degree that you are.

6:24And that is really tough. And when you realize that, you feel even more compelled. Like I got to keep myself glued to this thing. I got to keep myself vigilant, making sure since I'm the only one soaking all this up, I got to make sure that I am tuned in because nobody else is, right? But that's only part of the equation. You know, we in culture have this idea that creative people are the sad clowns. They are the melancholic people. They are the depressive people. And I think the research actually reflects that a little bit. I don't think that that's completely a myth, but I think it's only half of the story because I don't think it's as simple as, oh, you're taking in all the pain and suffering of the world.

7:16I think that you're not just doing that. You're a sponge. You do have this porousness. You do have this sensitivity and that sensitivity does make you vulnerable to the pain of the world, but it doesn't in there. The only job of the sponge is not to just sop it up and to soak it up and to soak up the spills and the mess of the world. It also soaks up the good stuff. It also can absorb the good material and carry it to places it needs to be. You know, soap. You got to get the soap in the sponge sometimes, right? You can't just spend all of your time soaking up the world's mess. You've also got to soak up the good stuff too, or you're not able to carry out all of that good stuff to where it needs to go.

8:18And the truth of the matter is, I didn't know this until I was a full-grown adult washing my own damn dishes. You don't realize like, yeah, the freaking sponge can soak up all that wetness, but you got to wring that bad baby out sometimes. times. It's not meant to hold all of that mess all the time. And if it does, it goes bad. Sure, that's part of its job, but it has to release that stuff somewhere too. And so I was re-listening to this episode of Broken Record with Rick Rubin interviewing Andre 3000 of OutKast. and uh he was talking about um andre 3000 was talking about being diagnosed with uh social anxiety and hypersensitivity and they were talking about rick was saying like yeah that hypersensitivity is difficult to walk with in the world but that hypersensitivity is also what makes you an artist And Andre 3000 laughs and is like, yeah, that's what my therapist says.

9:34And I think it's so poignant because it's so much more of the full equation that, yes, we are hypersensitive to the pain of the world. But we're also hypersensitive to the joy. We are hypersensitive to the sunsets and the laughter and the poetry of being alive. and if you don't remember that, if you don't take some time to release all of that mess that you've been soaking up, find places to put that so that you can soak up the good stuff too and be sensitive to that stuff, you're not going to be able to do the artist's job and we need people in the society who are soaking up why it's good to be alive, why it is worth fighting for humans.

10:36And I just wanted to take a minute in this episode to just encourage you to remember. And honestly, man, in times like this, it is freaking difficult. And I was just touched by Andre 3000. Connor, just play that little clip that I saved from the episode of him talking about what it feels like to carry this. It's a blessing and a curse. It's harder to be in the world, but that's the gift. And it's, I know. There have been times where I was like, I've prayed, like prayed to a God that I didn't even know it existed really. Yes. Prayed like, I would rather you take this away from me. Yes. All of this.

11:25And just, if I could just feel normal like that, if I could just feel normal, like take voice career, all that shit, you can have it. Yes. If I could feel normal. Yes. But it don't work like that. No. Yeah. It, I get that, that I've felt that before. There've been a lot of times where my creative nature or my neurodivergent nature, there's a lot of times where I feel like I love being like this type of person. I love being able to be a sponge and feel things deeper than other people. But in times like now, these days, it doesn't feel too much like a blessing a lot of the time. It feels like carrying the world on my shoulders.

12:03And I know I'm not the only one that feels like that. And I'm just a little silly illustrator in the Midwest. I can't imagine what it feels like to be in so many more fraught places in the world. But I think now is a more important time than ever to remember that as a creative, as a sponge of a human, as a porous, vulnerable vessel, that yes, you are sensitive to the pain and the struggles and the obstacles and the problems of the world, but you are also so sensitive to the gifts and the beauty. And because of that, your state is highly suggestible. You actually have a little power not to escape all of that, but to spend time taking a break from the pains of the world, to soak up the kind of moments in art and films and music that remember, that help you remember why it is so vital for you to stay full with the truth that this is worth fighting for.

13:27And so I wanna encourage you in this episode, this week to take a minute, just, you know, if you can take a day off social media, off the news, take an afternoon away from soaking up all the mess and prioritize some time to soak up the kind of stuff that helps you remember why you love art, why you love the people you love, Why being on this planet is something to relish and cherish. And I wanted to remind you that being a sensitive person means that you are sensitive, highly sensitive to the good stuff. And all it takes sometimes is prioritizing, soaking that stuff up too. And so it's time to soak up some medicine.

14:33Just to break the metaphor, it's time to soak up some of that cleaning fluid, that good stuff. Let's soak up some soap. Let's clean. It reminds me of this thing of, I say, you aren't what you eat. I don't hear, you know what's funny? Like we talk so much on the internet about our diets, you know, the food that we eat and the microplastics. Sorry, I know you're sensitive and you don't need that reminder right now. That word just get man. When I hear that word, I'm just like, oh man, don't remind me that I'm half plastic man by now. But we are constantly talking about the stuff that we're putting into our bodies.

15:18I don't hear almost any conversation about what we're putting into our minds. Yeah, there's talk about like doom scrolling and that kind of thing. But what's the kind of, you know, this isn't about, you know, I think it's important to take in all kinds of different things and have a diverse diet of media. But I do think that you are in control of choosing health, whole, creative foods. What are the kind of stuff that you are consuming that's helping you feel full of light and hope and imagination and excitement and passion and fight? And that you have the ability because of that sensitivity to take advantage of that suggestibility, of that porousness, and make sure that you're fitting in some fruit and veggies.

16:20You know, one of the things I've been loving lately is I've made a priority to read more purely because I know it's good for your mind. It's good. You can literally read trashy, you know, non-literary fiction. And it's still so much. It's not just better for you than social media. It's actually good for your mind because you're still having to work to construct these worlds and stuff. and it's really good for your cognitive health. And so it's not just about the type of media, like not just about whether it's stuff that makes you feel good or makes you feel bad or whatever. It's also just like, are you reading some opposed to just having TikTok plugged into your veins?

17:11It's felt really good to entertain myself with stuff that I know this is actually improving my state. And I can't always get myself to do it. You know, sometimes I'm just too tired or burnout or whatever to turn to the health foods and that's okay. I think there's time and space for that and also grace for that. But I just wanted to show up today and just encourage you to remember that, yes, you're highly vulnerable, highly sensitive, highly suggestible, but you can take advantage of that for your own good, that you have the ability to soak up the kind of things that are going to brighten up your internal being.

17:56And I think that the world needs you to do that because I don't know about you, but I think we're forgetting the beauty and the joy and the goodness and the love and all that other good stuff that is why the hard stuff and the bad stuff hurts as bad as it does. Because if everything sucked and everything was just total crap, it wouldn't be such a tragedy that we are losing it at times, right? So I'm gonna come back with something you can do actively with these ideas. But I wanted to encourage you, if you're feeling like being a creative is just a curse, being a creative means being low, depressed, struggling, that that's only half the equation.

18:43And the same thing that makes you that way has the ability to pull you out of it too.

19:11All right, it's time for the CTA, the creative call to adventure. You know every episode, we don't want to just get you fired up and then, you know, inspiration doesn't lead to any actual work. We want to give you something that you can do today so that you can make some progress, so that you can take action on these feelings and they can turn into real results in your creative journey. Today, we got vacuum the vacuum, okay? Here's what I mean by that. I'm a millennial, so it means I grew up watching Seinfeld and Friends in these 90s sitcoms. And it occurred to me like, you know, thinking about the sponge, thinking about how your job isn't just to soak up the messes.

19:57Your job is to also soak up the good stuff and carry it out over the messes and clean up stuff. And, you know, you got to soak up the soap, the good stuff. And you also, not only that, you also just get dirty. You have to be cleaned. Like, I don't know if you knew this. Probably did. I didn't know this for a long time. You can put your sponge into the dishwasher to be sterilized, okay? And sometimes the cleaner needs to be cleaned. Sometimes the artist needs art. And the longer you go making art, the easier it is to forget that you are in need of what artists have to give. That it is as much of a lifeblood to you as it is to the people that consume your art or to people that don't make art.

20:50You need art too. The sponge needs a good cleaning too. It might be a great cleaner. You're doing great. But you need to go in the dishwasher sometimes, okay? and vacuum the vacuum comes from friends where Monica and friends has a little vacuum that she uses to clean her big vacuum. And so just like that, your sponge needs to be cleaned too. You got to throw it in there. The artist, the vacuum needs a vacuum. The sponge needs a cleaning. The artist needs art. I also thought about calling this CTA, renew your vows. Renew your vows with, fall in love with art again. Remember why you fell in love the first time.

21:34Fall in love with humanity and life again through the arts. It's one of the things I freaking love about art is that it is so easy in every day to have the hardest heart about the people that are closest to you, let alone the people that you've never met or will never see and need to empathize. And so the daily grind of having to show up and survive and pay the bills and all this, it does a number on you. And I love how a great piece of art can soften that sponge in your chest. Getting spongy. You know those spongy artists, man. I'm one of those. Here's my suggestion. And I say renew your vows, vacuum the vacuum, whichever way you want to take it.

22:31You know that thing that when you're getting married, the bride is supposed to get something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. We've got enough blues, okay? I'm sure you've soaked up plenty of blues and sadness and the messes for long enough. So we're going to skip that one. But here's what I suggest. Take those prompts to go soak up something old, something new, and something borrowed. Stuff that is going to help you remember why it's worth fighting to be alive, for others to be alive, to enjoy life, and to love people. And the way that this looked like for me over the weekend was I had a big movie weekend.

23:20We were watching movies, man. We showed my youngest for the first time, Hamilton. So that was my old. And I love Hamilton. You know, it's theater. And as an adult, I've gotten into it. And it just makes me feel like these are people that are fighting for their lives, fighting for a cause, fighting for their legacy. And, you know, there's the good, bad, and indifferent and all that kind of stuff mixed in there. But just watching people risk their lives because they believe this thing is worth fighting for. And it just reminded me and just watching it's about forgiveness and it's about passion and it's about drive and ambition and how ambition can get in the way of what really matters, relationships.

24:10and it just, it softened me and I cried because I cry every time I watch it and it really helped me soak in some of that good stuff. So that was my old one. Then my new one was we went on Father's Day, we went to How to Train Your Dragon, live action. Now, look, we don't go to a lot of the live action remakes. I heard if you liked the movie, they really did it well and I have to say, other than the fact that they didn't get Jonesy from Seaguaros to do a theme song for it like they did the animated ones. Other than that, I gotta say, I don't know if it was just a Father's Day thing because it's kind of about, it's about a son and a father and I sat there with my boy who loves How to Train Your Dragon.

24:52I don't know if it was that or if it was the fact that this movie is kind of Jungian in my opinion. It's really about like befriending the shadow. They have to face the facts that they've done horrible things to these dragons and there's these shadow dragons. I'm getting way into it. That's not what this is about. But I just felt like, look, there's some mythology. There's good psychological stuff happening in there that I needed to hear. These terrible beasts aren't as bad as you think. We need to befriend them. And the terrible beast in reality is inside of you. Okay, I can't stop. But it was, again, you can see, right?

25:37It was inspiring me. It was getting me into that juice. It was giving, I was soaking up the creative juices that make me me, that make me remember what I love and why I want to make stuff. It made me want to go write a story. It did. I was like, I want to write about how things like chaos are misunderstood in the chaotic mind of the ADHD individual and how it can be a blessing and a curse. Anyway, sorry, I'm going off, but I'm trying to, you know, I'm letting myself tangent there just to give you a flavor of what can be possible when you let yourself soak up the good stuff a little bit on purpose.

26:11And I really went into this weekend thinking I want to soak up. I don't want to just watch a movie Friday night where I'm falling asleep. I want to soak it up because I need a refresh, baby. So I got the old with the Hamilton, the new with the How to Train Your Dragon. And the borrowed was I've had a bunch of people tell me that I needed to watch past lives since it came out a few years ago. And so we watched that last night and it just, it's a gorgeous movie. Like it's a 24 movie. So, you know, it's going to be difficult in some ways. It's not going to be completely satisfying, you know, in terms of traditional kind of movies.

26:57but it was gorgeous and it got us thinking and it got us feeling and the soundtrack, you know, the composition, if you will, was just fantastic. And the score, that's what I'm trying to get at. And so, yeah, it really pulled out that artistic side of me. So that was my borrowed. So you ask yourself, what's something old that you know, like this is a go-to, this is going to make you remember why you like to be alive, Why you remember, make you remember what's worth fighting for about being alive and being human. Then what's something new that you need to try out that you think this is a good bet for soaking up some good stuff.

27:36And then what's something borrowed? What's something that you've been sleeping on because all your friends told you you're going to love it and you're a contrarian little baby who doesn't want to listen to other people's advice? Look, soak it up. Suck it up and soak it up and get on with it. You need it more than ever, baby. So just take a minute and think about what's something that everybody's been telling you about. Maybe it's an album. Maybe it's a book. Maybe it's a podcast. Maybe it's a freaking movie. Whatever it is, I'm giving you permission. You know, if you need to do a marathon, do a marathon.

28:07You need it. You need to refresh. Get that sponge in the freaking dishwasher, vacuum the vacuum, and soak up some good stuff because we need you to spread that all over this land and back. We need you artists, you porous, spongy folks to not just clean up the mess, but spread the goods. So get on with it.

28:49Guys, what the freaking heck are you doing? Why are you not signing up to these Creative Pep rallies? We're having a blast over there talking about the episodes. we've gained some critical mass. We have people that, you know, in the summer it's a little bit more intimate. That's great. That's fine. That's also fun too. I'm a little bit of an introvert. I know you don't believe it, but it's true. So I like the small group sometimes. But if you are a person who likes the show, sometimes thinks, hmm, maybe Andy should think about this aspect of it that he didn't represent on the show. Or you think, I have a question about that, about how that applies to my creative career, whatever it might be.

29:32If you want to have conversations about this stuff that we're talking about, you're listening to it. Why don't you join the conversation? Every month we meet on, usually it's the last Monday of the month. Sometimes we meet in the morning, Eastern time, sometimes lunch, sometimes late afternoon. And we have the recording of it afterwards for people to catch it if they missed it. And we just go through the episodes from that month. And we just explore some of the CTAs, talk about it from different angles, all that kind of thing. And it's been great. So I hope to see you there. You can get access to that by supporting the show on Patreon or Substack.

30:14So patreon.com slash creativepeptalk or go to andyjpizza.substack.com, become a paid subscriber there. Supporters from both platforms have access to these events. and you know this is more than just let's hang out because we're creative people this show is about creative careers it's about creative practice these are people that are serious about their creativity and we have beginners who are just getting started and trying to figure it out we have people that are right in the thick of it we have people that have been there for a long time sold books that you know done all kinds of stuff and they all have stuff to bring to the table and it's just been it's been great getting to know you but it's been even better just to have people on the other side of the screen to talk back about this stuff that I just love to talk about so selfishly.

31:03I just love that aspect of it. And yeah, it seems like it's been great for the other side too. Okay. Thank you for listening. Thanks to Sophie Miller, editor and producer on the show. Thanks to Connor Jones, audio edits, video edits, sound design, animation on YouTube. or on youtube if you like to watch and listen or have it on the background some people like that but i also respect you know i do a little bit of both myself um depending a little bit on the podcast but also just like if i'm in the car obviously i'm not watching it okay i'm being safe i i know that some of you are highly visual like to have it on the background so we wanted to make that available go to youtube search creative pep talk you'll find it um and uh connor has made it look real nice and tasty for you.

31:52So I thank you for that, Connor. Thanks to Yoni Wolf and the band Y for our theme music and soundtrack. It's a dream. And thanks to all of you for listening. Until we speak again, stay pepped up.