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40 | Balancing creativity and consumption
When you're consuming too much, it's time to start creating.
A while back, I asked people who read my newsletter what practices they have in place for creative expression. I'd been feeling overwhelmed by too much information coming in - client stories, courses and CEUs, news, etc.
Side note: If you're not subscribed to my newsletter for practitioners, you can sign up here
I find that when I'm consuming too much information, it helps to have some creative outflow to balance things out.
If you're feeling overwhelmed, it can be hard to tap into your creative side. Sometimes I can't even remember what I like to do, creatively.
In case you're in a similar state, I've compiled some of the links, resources, and ideas that people shared at the bottom of this post. There's something for everyone here.
Thank you so much to everyone who contributed.
Feeling inspired and want to focus on creating this summer?This summer in Monday Mentoring we're going to have a focus on creation and visibility.
Our Summer challenge will center on creating and publishing content daily (as always, challenges are optional!). We'll be having an optional book club to read and practice "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron.
And, of course, we'll meet every week to go over clinical cases, practice management questions and more.
If you're in practice or will be soon, I highly recommend giving it a try.
Learn about Monday Mentoring Ideas for Bringing more Creativity into your Life books:- Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldman (Shan)
- The Artist’s Way (Lauren, Linden, Jillian)
- Firefly Creative Writing (Linseed) (Note: I have taken some of their classes & can vouch for them as well - so lovely & nourishing - CF)
- Macrame class (Michaela)
- Group workshops at Michaels (Rachael)
- Yoga course (online) centered on creativity (Elizabeth)
- Adult coloring books (Nora)
- Crochet of the month club (Liane) "I had zero knowledge going in, and have been able to keep up every month with the monthly kit and videos. I just finished block # 9 out of 36!"
- Knitting (Gina) "The colours, the feeling of the wool, the nourishing ancestral connection vibes!"
- "I love drawing plants as a way to deepens my connection to their spirit as well as growing my observational skills. I’m not one to sit still most of the time and I find sitting in the garden, meadow, or woods and drawing feels very grounding to me. I often completely lose track of time doing this and it becomes very meditative. I like colored pencil, graphite, and pen and ink as mediums that are portable and don’t require cleanup." (Miranda)
- Embroidery + a habit tracking app like HabitHub to stay on track (Tabatha)
- Doing a mandala with fabric markers on a canvas tote is a nice easy one that doesn't require a ton of supplies or mess. Resin flow art is also very fun, quick and gratifying if you you're going to something abstract (Rachael)
- Paper cutting (Linden)
- Glass pen lettering (Alison)
- Let's Make Art "I started with watercolors -- they share most of their outlines and instructional videos for free. I still play around with those, but I have NO hidden talent. Then they started offering art journaling which I absolutely adore." (Sherryl)
- I also love Make It Artsy for inspiration. For short bursts, I love The Reverse Coloring Book™: The Book Has the Colors, You Draw the Lines! (Sherryl)
- I have a stack of GreenCraft magazine and you can find some free projects on Free Projects (stampington.com) Some of their projects are a little too froufrou for me, but I can usually de-froufrou them and there are others that I enjoy (and often have the materials on hand or could find them in a second hand store). (Sherryl)
- Letterboxing: "I do not consider myself to be very artistic but one of my BFFs recently got into letterboxing. If you don't know about this already, YOU WILL LOVE IT. Part of letterboxing can be making/carving your own unique stamp/s. My son is NOT AT ALL crafty and he went HOG WILD making his own stamps when my friends showed us how. Me, too!! If you don't know the author, Kate Milford, I think you'd love her. Here she gives a teaser on letterboxing and a link to the "main" (and very clunky) letterboxing website." (Krista)
- Nature-based dioramas: "My most favorite creative practice is to visit the beach and gather anything that strikes my eye. From these items I create a diorama and a story to go along with it. Sometimes the story is about a surfer (witches burr/sweetgum makes a a great surfer head!) who finds respite on a deserted island after a storm, sometimes there is an entire community, with elegant figures made of plants I have yet to identify. I play with these scenes until I have reached an end point, and then leave them to the rising tides, weather, or for some other creative soul to happen upon (the thought generates new stories in my mind). It’s a kind of mandala that way. And, Bonus: I always collect the tiny pieces of plastic and waste from the beach, which serves my desire to contribute to the environment. Win:win. This simple practice is in no way revolutionary; we have been playing with objects on the beach and telling stories since we were kids! And, I have found it serves my soul." (Deborah)
When things start to feel out of balance, I find it helpful to evaluate whether my balance of inputs to outputs is in place. If I've been consuming too much information/content/etc then it's easy to feel overwhelmed. This can be balanced by spending more time in creative mode, making things either just for fun or producing content or materials to help my community/clients.
This summer in Monday Mentoring, we'll be focusing on the balance between consumption and creation in our seasonal challenge (content creation & visibility) as well as our book club (The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron). We'd love to have you join us if this has been on your mind as well ❤.
Questions? Thoughts to share? Let me know.
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I'd love to hear from you. Leave me a voicemail with feedback or submit a question (click the pink "Send Camille a Message" button on the side of the page) 💚
Camille's Helpful Links for Practitioners
Transcript
Camille (00:00)
Well, hi there. Welcome to in the clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist, and in this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners.
Camille (00:21)
Well, hello. As a reminder, I am doing Creativity and Visibility Challenge, which means that you will be hearing more podcast episodes than normal for me over the coming several weeks or months today. I have a question for you, which is, do you have your own practitioner who does something similar to what you do? A lot of us are going to answer no to that, and there's a couple of good reasons there you might think, oh, well, I spent all this time and money training to do what I do, and I don't want to pay somebody else to do what I'm already supposed to know how to do myself. And I would really encourage you to rethink that.
Camille (01:02)
There's a couple of reasons for why I think you should have your own practitioner. Number one is that it's really hard to be objective about your own health or that of your own children or partner anybody who's really close to you. It's incredibly challenging to do that yourself, even though you think you should know it all. I have worked with more practitioners than I can count who come in and they're like, well, I tried this for two weeks, and then I took that on top of it and they sort of throw everything at it and let's just see how it sticks approach. Which is fine if you're learning and you're trying to experiment on yourself and see what happens.
Camille (01:43)
But if you are really trying to support yourself through a specific health condition or really want to have the best care that you can have, don't treat yourself like you're some sort of experimental subject. You need somebody who can look at the big picture and help you sort through everything so you're not just taking anything you've ever heard of that may possibly help with whatever it is that you have, but you've got somebody who can really look at the big picture and who can really say, oh, how about this, this and this. This is what I'm seeing. I've had more times than I can count as well where I have personally forgotten about entirely obvious things that I could be doing, sometimes to the extent that would be taking herbs in general. But other times there are major things that I've missed because I'm just too wrapped up in my day to day and the way that I do things and overwhelmed.
Camille (02:41)
And there are times, especially when you are really not doing well, that you can't remember what it is that you should be doing. You don't have the energy, the perspective, or whatever needs to be in place. You just don't have it in order to be able to give yourself the best care. Another reason that I think you should have your own practitioner is because you deserve that. When you have another practitioner, you have a team, it's not just you.
Camille (03:13)
And I think that's something that's really hard for people to understand. There's a certain amount of vulnerability in that, but it is a way of connecting and that connection with another person on that level where you are asking for help and they are partnering with you to give you that help and support. There's something very healing about that particular component. So it's not just about whatever the herbs, the supplements, this, that or the other. It's not about what should I do, it's also about the relationship.
Camille (03:46)
And that is something that of course we have relationship with ourselves. But sometimes as part of the healing process, those relationships that you have are incredibly important. So give yourself that permission to be vulnerable and to lean on somebody else when you need help. It does not mean that you're not a good practitioner or that you didn't learn what you were supposed to learn in school or anything like that. I think we all understand, or if you choose a good practitioner, they will understand that you cannot always be objective about your own case.
Camille (04:24)
So part of the role of the practitioner is to be there and to have that kind of moral emotional type of support to help you navigate and to help you see things that you can't see on your own. So let yourself have that, understand that that's an important part of the healing process. And if you don't, if you are like no, I know enough, I don't want to be in that vulnerable position or et cetera, why are you expecting other people to put themselves in that vulnerable position and come see you? I really want you to think about that. If you're not willing to go and work with other people, other practitioners in the same way, I think that you might uncover some assumptions and beliefs that need to be worked on a little bit in order to facilitate the best type of work that you can do as a practitioner as well.
Camille (05:18)
The last reason I will share with you is that by putting yourself in this position of being the client instead of the practitioner, you can learn so much about the way you want to run your own practice. One of the most valuable things that I've ever done is to come into a client practitioner relationship in the client role with the idea or the intent to really think about what is working for me as the client. And what I want to emulate and what maybe isn't the best option for me right now, or what I don't want to bring into my own practice. Sometimes you will be working with practitioner and you will be like wow, this is a really amazing way to do this. I really loved the way they asked this question, or I liked the timing of their visits, or I liked the way they have this kind of program set up.
Camille (06:06)
Or sometimes you'll be like, wow, this didn't really work for me. I did not like feeling I didn't like the way that I showed up, or I didn't like the way that I felt. In this particular situation, you'll notice whether certain practitioners are approaching their work in a place of partnership or whether there is that sort of I'm the expert, you're the newbie, and that's, again, something to think about. Where are you thinking about yourself when you are in the practitioner role versus in the client role? And how does that reflect on the work that you do with your own clients?
Camille (06:39)
So I think you'll learn a ton from thinking about these interactions and what you want to bring in to your own work. Okay, so there's a couple of reasons to have your own practitioner. I know it's hard. It's hard to make the time. It's hard to think about the money.
Camille (07:01)
It's hard to think about the vulnerability and to follow through on the plans and all of this kind of stuff. And these are the same struggles that your own clients are going to have. So I want you to get the help that you need and the support that you need. And maybe that's just going in once or twice a year for a tune up. Maybe you just want to have an extra pair of eyes.
Camille (07:20)
There's nothing going on, but you just want to be in that position and have that community of support available when you need it. Or maybe you're really working with somebody more seriously one on one to see where you could get when you've got other people that you can rely on and trust and work with, as opposed to just trying to do it all yourself. All right, so I hope this is helpful. I'd love to hear from you. If you have any revelations that you've had from working with somebody as a client or any questions or suggestions that you have on this topic, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Camille (07:56)
And otherwise I'll be back really soon for another episode. All right, take care.
Well, hi there. Welcome to in the clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I am a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist, and in this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners.
Camille (00:21)
Well, hello. As a reminder, I am doing Creativity and Visibility Challenge, which means that you will be hearing more podcast episodes than normal for me over the coming several weeks or months today. I have a question for you, which is, do you have your own practitioner who does something similar to what you do? A lot of us are going to answer no to that, and there's a couple of good reasons there you might think, oh, well, I spent all this time and money training to do what I do, and I don't want to pay somebody else to do what I'm already supposed to know how to do myself. And I would really encourage you to rethink that.
Camille (01:02)
There's a couple of reasons for why I think you should have your own practitioner. Number one is that it's really hard to be objective about your own health or that of your own children or partner anybody who's really close to you. It's incredibly challenging to do that yourself, even though you think you should know it all. I have worked with more practitioners than I can count who come in and they're like, well, I tried this for two weeks, and then I took that on top of it and they sort of throw everything at it and let's just see how it sticks approach. Which is fine if you're learning and you're trying to experiment on yourself and see what happens.
Camille (01:43)
But if you are really trying to support yourself through a specific health condition or really want to have the best care that you can have, don't treat yourself like you're some sort of experimental subject. You need somebody who can look at the big picture and help you sort through everything so you're not just taking anything you've ever heard of that may possibly help with whatever it is that you have, but you've got somebody who can really look at the big picture and who can really say, oh, how about this, this and this. This is what I'm seeing. I've had more times than I can count as well where I have personally forgotten about entirely obvious things that I could be doing, sometimes to the extent that would be taking herbs in general. But other times there are major things that I've missed because I'm just too wrapped up in my day to day and the way that I do things and overwhelmed.
Camille (02:41)
And there are times, especially when you are really not doing well, that you can't remember what it is that you should be doing. You don't have the energy, the perspective, or whatever needs to be in place. You just don't have it in order to be able to give yourself the best care. Another reason that I think you should have your own practitioner is because you deserve that. When you have another practitioner, you have a team, it's not just you.
Camille (03:13)
And I think that's something that's really hard for people to understand. There's a certain amount of vulnerability in that, but it is a way of connecting and that connection with another person on that level where you are asking for help and they are partnering with you to give you that help and support. There's something very healing about that particular component. So it's not just about whatever the herbs, the supplements, this, that or the other. It's not about what should I do, it's also about the relationship.
Camille (03:46)
And that is something that of course we have relationship with ourselves. But sometimes as part of the healing process, those relationships that you have are incredibly important. So give yourself that permission to be vulnerable and to lean on somebody else when you need help. It does not mean that you're not a good practitioner or that you didn't learn what you were supposed to learn in school or anything like that. I think we all understand, or if you choose a good practitioner, they will understand that you cannot always be objective about your own case.
Camille (04:24)
So part of the role of the practitioner is to be there and to have that kind of moral emotional type of support to help you navigate and to help you see things that you can't see on your own. So let yourself have that, understand that that's an important part of the healing process. And if you don't, if you are like no, I know enough, I don't want to be in that vulnerable position or et cetera, why are you expecting other people to put themselves in that vulnerable position and come see you? I really want you to think about that. If you're not willing to go and work with other people, other practitioners in the same way, I think that you might uncover some assumptions and beliefs that need to be worked on a little bit in order to facilitate the best type of work that you can do as a practitioner as well.
Camille (05:18)
The last reason I will share with you is that by putting yourself in this position of being the client instead of the practitioner, you can learn so much about the way you want to run your own practice. One of the most valuable things that I've ever done is to come into a client practitioner relationship in the client role with the idea or the intent to really think about what is working for me as the client. And what I want to emulate and what maybe isn't the best option for me right now, or what I don't want to bring into my own practice. Sometimes you will be working with practitioner and you will be like wow, this is a really amazing way to do this. I really loved the way they asked this question, or I liked the timing of their visits, or I liked the way they have this kind of program set up.
Camille (06:06)
Or sometimes you'll be like, wow, this didn't really work for me. I did not like feeling I didn't like the way that I showed up, or I didn't like the way that I felt. In this particular situation, you'll notice whether certain practitioners are approaching their work in a place of partnership or whether there is that sort of I'm the expert, you're the newbie, and that's, again, something to think about. Where are you thinking about yourself when you are in the practitioner role versus in the client role? And how does that reflect on the work that you do with your own clients?
Camille (06:39)
So I think you'll learn a ton from thinking about these interactions and what you want to bring in to your own work. Okay, so there's a couple of reasons to have your own practitioner. I know it's hard. It's hard to make the time. It's hard to think about the money.
Camille (07:01)
It's hard to think about the vulnerability and to follow through on the plans and all of this kind of stuff. And these are the same struggles that your own clients are going to have. So I want you to get the help that you need and the support that you need. And maybe that's just going in once or twice a year for a tune up. Maybe you just want to have an extra pair of eyes.
Camille (07:20)
There's nothing going on, but you just want to be in that position and have that community of support available when you need it. Or maybe you're really working with somebody more seriously one on one to see where you could get when you've got other people that you can rely on and trust and work with, as opposed to just trying to do it all yourself. All right, so I hope this is helpful. I'd love to hear from you. If you have any revelations that you've had from working with somebody as a client or any questions or suggestions that you have on this topic, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Camille (07:56)
And otherwise I'll be back really soon for another episode. All right, take care.
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