I hope you enjoy this one.

The whole piece was born from a clip I watched with Tame Impala, which started a rabbit hole of thinking and writing around this topic of creative confidence. In this one we discuss self-doubt, following an idea into uncomfortable places, and the - often a little bit triggering - process of having to change yourself as the work changes.

I really hope you enjoy it, and get a kick out of the new live recorded creative minds format here too.

You can catch the video above, or listen to this one now on your favourite podcast platforms.

Thanks for being in here, and best,

Will ✌️❤️

The idea arrives first.

And if we’re willing to push into that space, the confidence will (more often than not) arrive later.

I saw an interview with Kevin Parker last week, and he spoke about this.

'For me, the music …

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The new one. And another members extended and advert free cut, which I really hope you enjoy.

Shouts to all the members - the love is in this one. And please do let me know if you have a question, or something you’d like to see discussed in the Arftershow.

Some links here -
Thundercat interview
Thundercat on World Cafe | Full Interview
Chantal Joffe…

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It used to be less conscious for me, but the more time goes on, the more I can feel it coming up ahead.

When I used to trip up, it came like a big crash, some large event that felt unseen beforehand.

But now it’s slower and seen ahead.

Now it sits on the horizon like a building wave, or a city bridge, closing inevitably just in sight.

And maybe you've felt this yourself?

Time has moved on, but you've not.

And the bankruptcy of whatever kind - in how you're spending your time, or relating to others, or conducting your professional affairs - has now run its course.

And a new way must be found.

I'm just a little older now. I haven't learnt everything, but I've learnt some things.

Like how to tell myself, at times like these, to stay calm.

To remember that these things move in waves.

That bad things have happened before, and look 👀 - here I am, still bobbing away in the white water.

Regardless.

And I tell myself too, when the fears come in, real or not, to rate each one one, on a scale of 0-12.

I guess it doesn't matter much why, but honestly that helps.

And I know that sometimes too - the best thing you can do for the work is just survive.

...that sometimes the best thing you can do for the work is just survive.

Even when almost everything is telling you to change your project or start again or make a rash decision or step into cyclical condemnations of yourself or 'just throw it all away'.

As I walk past the South Bank and towards Waterloo station at 9pm on a Saturday evening, watching as the road lifts up ahead.

And I wonder this time, what lies beneath the paving stones?

‘Cause there's always something there.

So the truth probably is, the work requires this consistent friction.

A collapse that leaves space for the new.

I pull off to the side of the walkway as it thins, and the footsteps approach me from behind.

It’s just another man on his phone, but I hate the constant presence coming closer, and would rather wait for him to pass before carrying on myself.

And the front of the station is always busy.

Past the Italian restaurant and the falafel stall and the Sainsbury's and Tesco and the bus stops and the entrance to the cut and the Old Vic theatre and up towards Elephant and Castle where the new build flats swear to us that there’s still some culture going on inside.

And I used to think, I knew there wasn't. But now I claim to know far less.

When the road runs out, and sometimes all you can do is keep making the work.

Sometimes all you can do, is trust it again, and maybe even a bit more than you had to last time.

Back in the flat it’s already late.

So I boil the kettle and take a tea to bed, and listen to the voices chat as I fall asleep.

Honestly, some days it just doesn’t work.

Some days it feels broke.

Some days it feels like the wrong choice or choices.

It feels like the end not a beginning.

But tomorrow the work's still there.

Standing by the door.

Pulling itself together.

Pointing the way.

Telling us there's no choice.

Telling us we need to follow it.

Will ✌️❤️

The CM Newsletter is reader funded. If you enjoy the work here, pls consider supporting with a membership. Members receive exclusive content, and the knowledge that they're helping to support artists and creatives of all types and all ages, wherever the work finds them.

Today then we have the full podcast, or video available on the YT if you fancy that too.

This summer has felt busy (for good and bad) - but I stepped out for a week, and took Creative Minds with me. And I guess if there’s a single goal for this one, it’s to inspire some people out here, to take a creative retreat of their own.

I’m going to put a short reading list/watching list, which supported me in the production and storytelling for this one. And yeah, I really hope you enjoy it.

✌️❤️,

Will

Reading list/watching list
Camus ‘Create Dangerously’

https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/christianmieves/files/2020/04/Camus-Albert-Create-Dangerously.pdf

Various introductions to the work of E.E. Cummings

https://www.themarginalian.org/tag/e-e-cummings/

The George Saunders book I speak about in the piece

https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-from-the-man-booker-prize-winning-new-york-times-bestselling-author-of-lincoln-in-the-bardo-george-saunders

Fantastic overview of the impressionist movement

Creative Minds is a small operation, that drives large impact. My work here, and the time I spend on it, is supported by the CM Members, and wouldn’t be able to exist without them.

If you think what I do matters, please consider supporting it. You’ll get early access to the feature pieces, extended cuts of some videos, a thank you at the end of the edits, and the knowledge that you’re supporting this work for everyone who gets value from it. Sign up now, and cancel anytime it stops working for you. It matters.

Subscribe now

Below is a members only, early release of the new main channel video. This was my first foray outside the country with CM work, and it was... nice.

As an artist and creative, I've always related my work to periods of disconnection from my everyday environment and the people around me. I'm not even saying it's always healthy. But there's plenty of stories in this one, to explore the intricacies of all that.

I wanted to share the reading list and video list below, prior to the paywall, so it’s accessible for both members and non members. And if you do fancy the membership (which goes directly into supporting my time making Creative Minds), then I hope this will be an opportune time to come support. It really matters.

Subscribe now

Reading list/watching list

Camus ‘Create Dangerously’

https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/christianmieves/files/2020/04/Camus-Albert-Create-Dangerously.pdf

Various introductions to the work of E.E. Cummings

https://www.themarginalian.org/tag/e-e-cummings/

The George Saunders book I speak about in the piece

https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/stock/a-swim-in-a-pond-in-the-rain-from-the-man-booker-prize-winning-new-york-times-bestselling-author-of-lincoln-in-the-bardo-george-saunders

Fantastic overview of the impressionist movement

OK. Thanks for being here, and for members, enjoy the full length video below.

✌️❤️🇫🇷

Read more

---

The history of great artists and creatives is full of retreat.

This call for disconnection, is one that many feel from time to time - the desire to escape the noise of the everyday, and find some environment or new way of being that opens up barriers, and lets deeper types of presence and focus present themselves.

Whether we’re discussing a writer like Orwell, who built a wide understanding of the human condition through his travels, then escaped to the remote island of Jura to realise his final, powerful novel ‘1984’…

or perhaps an artist like Georgia O’keefe, who’s radical steps beyond the forms of painting that had been handed to her, were reflected in her step away from the city life, and into the more remote landscapes of first lake George, and later New Mexico - creatives have proven time and time again, that sometimes they need retreat… And so might you.

And maybe you’re sitting there thinking - but I’m not a famous artist and these stories don’t project too well over the realities of my own life. Well yeah I get it. But one of my goals with these pieces, is to ground the lives of famous creatives in reality, not as huge models that dwarf our own possibilities, but as places to find direct inspiration and kinship.

So I wanted to form my own, manageable creative retreat, share some stories of creative travel along the way, and hopefully inspire some others to find their own path into this too.

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And as for my journey - in the end I took some inspiration from a recent video I’d seen, showing someone walking the GR2 from Le Havre to Paris. And I planned to walk myself, starting in Le Havre, then working my way along the Seine to Rouen, where I’d set up in an Airbnb for some further time for writing.

Now as we know these days, you can access modern life anywhere you go. Somewhere as we speak, there’s a budding artist sitting on a beach in Goa, hoping for fresh and new experience, whilst lying in over-ear headphones and listening to their favourite podcaster.

For this reason, a retreat in 2026 requires rules. And for me, it would be pretty simple. Apart from books and some music, the social media and life admin would stay at home for a week, and my headphones would stay at home too. Especially in the first few days I’d be spending long periods walking, and I wanted these to be a mental reset, not treated like a workout, or soundtracked by my usual Spotify playlist.

I’d be recording a few vloggy bits for my video and keeping up with any necessary work on an IPad that I borrowed. But other than that, my time would be spent working on my creative projects, including a big, sticky, piece of fiction, which I’d been trying to get back into for awhile - as well as trying to be open to other ideas or thoughts that could come throug h too.

To See It As It Is

‘Other painters paint a bridge, a house, a boat. I want to paint the air in which the bridge, the house and the boat are to be found’ - Claude Monet

Claude Monet was born in my starting point of Le Havre, and was a great painter of the Seine river. I was watching a documentary about Monet and the impressionist painters before I went, and it was said, that unlike their predecessors, the impressionists painted scenes of real people and everyday life.

To do this, the movement was synonymous with plein air painting - taking their canvas outside into the world to work. And when thinking of travel or retreat, we can think of it through this same lens.

When we change our environment or habits, we are creating opportunities to take our work (and ourselves) out into a new world, to remove the blurred vision that can come with regular routine and familiar spaces, and find the world as it is, afresh.

In his highly recommended travelogue across the USA, travels with Charley, John Steinbeck sets out to remind himself first hand of the country he’s been trying to capture in his novels - setting up a small van, and going around the country with his dog, looking to update his sense of place.

And when Scottish painter Joan Erdley took her easels to the wild coastline, infamously using an old boat anchor to weigh her painting equipment down in all weather, wasn’t the goal of seeing and experiencing things as they are - as opposed to how society or our socialisevd selves constantly colour them - a major part of her call?

As I left the port in England on my own trip, I remembered the journey I took after the Covid lockdowns. As artists (and people) it’s interesting to realise the long lasting effect the pandemic lockdowns might have had on us. That great shutting down between ourselves and the world, when the silos of our own personal realities were at their most individualised and isolating.

That trip I’d taken after Covid had been longer than this one, with less structure and a more virulent throw into different experience and the unknown.

This trip would be more measured. But a little older now, and a little more rooted in the responsibilities and routines that age can (and most often) will bring, I was hoping to be more aware of the gift of a full week to get away, and be in some new places, with my creative work as my focus.

Things Do Come Up

Werner Herzog wrote of his journey on foot from Munich to Paris

‘The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot’…

And by day 2 of my own journey, things were slowly being unveiled to me. I was remembering agin how sleepy rural France can be, how you can walk all day and find only hairdressers and pharmacies that are open, and how I could manage to sweat through 4 t-shirts in 8 hours.

After a long day and a slightly uncomfortable night, I woke up on morning two genuinely feeling like I’d made the wrong decision. Honestly, I had wanted to go home. But it wasn’t the discomfort that was the problem really. It was what the loss of routine, and what the lack of my usual distractions were doing to my mental state.

We all carry things around with us, baggage in our lives, ways we might feel about ourselves, or things we’d love to change but can’t, and these will arise pretty quickly when we lose our usual routine and certainty, and start to lose a bit of sleep or miss a shower or two even.

I’m talking about the reality of escape here.

Because what I don’t want anyone to do, is to create a week for yourself to paint everyday somewhere you’ve always wished to, then get there and find, now you’ve secluded yourself from you daily stressors and routine, the space that’s been created is being filled with those deeper levels of stress, as opposed to the work and thinking you’d wished for.

At the start of any retreat or trip, you might find a moment of resistance. You might find a place where things don’t feel right, or feel a bit hard, and you have to kind of let go a little, and remember the intention that drew you out here.

My first few days on trail were testing me in this way.

I had run full pelt at my little adventure, and fallen pretty quickly onto my face after doing so. Then, after packing up my tent - feeling sorry for myself - I had descended a steep wooded valley, heading for the cathedral town of Lillebonne.

Yes my feet hurt and my back hurt, but my spirits were lifting somewhat with the movement, and on arrival, I had headed directly into a cafe on the square, where I ordered a drink, and sat as the crowds changed from trades people, to leisurely friends, smoking cigarettes whilst the world passed by.

As I sat there, I thought about one of my favourite French songwriters Serge Serge Gainsbourg, I thought about how I needed to send my driving licence to the delivery job as soon as I got home, and I thought about a travelogue that I’d first read at the impressionable age of 18.

The travelogue was written by Alistair Humphrey’s, about his mostly solo cycling adventure he took around the globe in his 20s.

And there’s a moment from that text that always comes into my own mind when I’m away from home, and struggling with these early kinds of resistance that we might want to look out for.

Alastair is laying in a hotel room. He’s sick, tired, and missing his partner and life back home. And he’s considering calling it quits.

And then he goes to sleep, has some food and feels better. He realises, that the time away from home needs to have a different set of rules. If he was tired he would sleep. If he was hungry or thirsty he would eat, drink, and rest.

The resistance came from taking his old baggage and old ways of being, and thinking they could translate to being on the road. Being away, he’d need to form these new lines of philosophy and ways of being. And actually, that was the point where real discovery could start…

The Time For Big Chewy Projects

On the evening of day 3 I would reach the small Airbnb in the cathedral city of Rouen.

As a very happy loner, this slightly disconnected state, in an unfamiliar city and with my work to do, is my happy place to be honest.

But as I approached the city I realised that I needed to protect myself from sitting back into the ways I’d be at home. With WiFi at hand, I could easily make it just so familiar. But in this later half of my trip, I was resolute to protect the creative boost of being away, and make the most of my time.

The project in question, was perfect for this kind of retreat model, because it needed the added capacity which being away would allow me. I first started working on this story in my MA, and it has followed me ever since. And after re-writing the first chapter, and submitting it to my writers circle last month, I was picking it up again to ‘this time finally finish it’.

In short, I needed to put the burners on, and hit a kind of escape velocity with the project, and having this focused time to do so would allow me that.

So here were the two forms of my own retreat - first the walking on the road, and the movement and unfamiliar experience, then the staying in the small apartment in Rouen near the cathedral. And this mix of movement and a stable place to work, was good for me, but we all have different ways a creative retreat might serve us.

Maybe you simply want a room, with a balcony, where you can setup your painting and challenge yourself with a new work daily?

Or a quiet caravan on the coast for a week, where you can finish that music project you’ve had hanging over you for two years?

Or maybe you’re stuck entirely and looking for completely new creative drive and ideas, and you need to move into something of pure exposure and new experience, where you’ll only take a small notebook to record anything that might arise?

Whatever your particular requirement, the urge for retreat can lead us into all kinds of living and working formats. And it might be a case of exploration as to what works for you, and letting new routines form slowly over the first few days of stepping out.

Weighting The brush

To finish this piece, I wanted to return to its central figure, no not myself, but Monet. Monet did that most inspirational thing that some artists show us, he kept getting more and more expansive and interesting, as he grew older.

In the final part of his life, Monet painted the giant waterlily canvases, based on the solitary views of his own pond and large studio at Giverny. By looking deeply towards nature, and away from the art world, Monet was trying to develop a new, immersive form, with the extra large canvases displayed in a circle around the viewer.

Now as I said at the top, I know we can’t all base our whole lives around our art or creative passions. But when we ring fence our own retreat, to challenge us to paint a piece everyday, or to write a certain amount, or make music in a new landscape or unfamiliar culture, we are weighting our brush with a heavier ambition and drive for when we return too.

On my final full day in Rouen, I was out having a very slow run in the early morning, letting all the other, far fresher and more high-octane runners pass me by on the river. And I settled into my pace for an hour or so, ambling past old steel pier after old steel pier, with some sort of seabirds standing in rows facing down river.

It was then that a few lines of writing came into my head, and I sat down and started a new piece, letting what was in there come through.

When I share that piece at an upcoming spoken word night or someplace else, I don’t know if people will like it or not, but I will know that it’s about something real that happened, and that it was born out of a feeling and a place that emerged kind of naturally. For me, however that piece goes, or is received, I know that it has some innate quality, because of how it came about.

There were other immeasurable things that came from my time away too. There were parts of myself that came up, and thoughts and stories that went through my head, which wouldn’t have if I didn’t go. And I also did some reading that I didn’t expect to either. On the final day I read the entirety of Albert Camus’s essay ‘Create Dangerously’, and was also reading up on EE Cummings’s work around writing process, including ‘Letters to a young poet’. I also revisited some of the stories and works included in this piece. And the reading, the music, my own writing, and the thinking - everything was altered from my usual routine. Not necessarily for better or worse, just different, and carrying that slight change of direction that becomes immeasurable over time.

Perhaps as we close we could circle back onto O’keefe too. When Georgia O’keefe escaped the consuming culture of the city life, for the wide expanses of New Mexico, she too found a place to expand the possibility of her work.

And just like O’Keefe, I hope that my own retreat, and perhaps some of yours, can be a catalyst towards more curiosity, and maybe something new. To push us slowly to take a risk - one that feels like a new step, and over time, and a new place to work from.

‘I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life’, Georgia O’keefe said in a 1977 interview when she was 90 years old, ‘and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.’

✌️❤️🇫🇷

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The CM Newsletter is reader funded. If you enjoy the work here, pls consider supporting with a membership. Members receive exclusive content, and the knowledge that they're helping Creative Minds to support artists and creatives, of all types and all ages across Substack and Youtube.

It’s too hot, can you tell?

Sending peace and love to you, wherever you find yourself to enjoy this one.

Inside, Joy shares a personal journey of pushing and building experience and voice. And in the end, finding great community and success.

Joy is a poet, and I’ve been writing recently too, so wanted to share some words below here to send you into the interview - it’s an extract from an upcoming spoken word piece I’m working on. More emotion than promotion, so sending with love and peace.

And just before we jump into it - go and check out Joy’s work here and her writing community here, and the Creative Minds course here too. There’s community and structure to help you push forwards with your creative goals if you’d like it.

Oh and another thing - I’ve been reading this book of poems recently, and loving it. Go request it at your local bookstore and if you regret the purchase, read it again, then again, then hit me up for a full refund.

Now to the writing… which I’ve been setting to the below song by future dream guest for the next season of CM Conversations ‘Duval Timothy’. Hit play and give the words a read - or don’t - either way, sending love.

River Blue

It gets hotter around here now.

Blinds down I’m hiding from the summer sun.

Friends tell me they’re suffering, I hear them.

This year’s been long.

But not half as long as the one before that.

When my guts were pulled out.

Entrails, trailing me.

As I walked the in-between.

As I walked the in-between.

As I walked between town and my flat.

Entrails.

Leaving my blood splattered past the Waterloo clock, and onto the

northern line then angel, and later on the same journey back.

We all face times like that, she told me, and I liked her.

She seemed to care a lot.

And patient after patient.

It can’t be such an easy job.

I sent an image of my face to my friends, as I careered across…

A continuation to come, in some form. And go now to explore the music of Duval Timothy if you haven’t yet - it’s entirely good.

Speak soon, and peace,

Will

Whenever I have a stressful event to meet in my work (or life), I always fall back on meditation as the best preparation tool. I use it to manage anxiety around upcoming performances, and I’ve found my writing is better - or at least it leads me towards the writing I really want to be doing - when I’m meditating regularly too.

I made this piece to talk about my own experience with meditation, but also to dig into all the uses the many artists and creatives I’ve looked at over the years, have spoken of also.

The link to Kasia Murfet’s Substack, which is featured in this piece is here, and I thoroughly recommend it.

If you want further support to take on your creative goals this summer - come check out the 30 day challenge here - https://creativeminds.mykajabi.com/do-the-hard-thing

There’s an active community in there now, and I’m very proud of how the energy is coming together there.

And with that said, good luck in your own work, thanks for being here, and speak v soon,

Will

Go and check out Holas’s work here and support:

He was also kind enough to give me some links to other Australian rappers so we can up our game here -

Claz (Adelaide)

Elsy Wameyo (Adelaide)

Legac.y (Adelaide) https://www.youtube.com/@legac.y.MP3

Baro Sura (Melbourne): https://www.youtube.com/@barosura/featured

For those interested in the course. DO THE HARD THING - Summer term is now open and active to join.

https://creativeminds.mykajabi.com/do-the-hard-thing

Take the 30 days at your own pace, and join the community today.

I made what I would’ve wanted (and still do want) as an ambitious creative. Built with intentionality and care, and focused on real lasting change.

There’s no better time to come and join the summer term community, and get your journey started there - and I threw in some bonus readings if you check it out now too.

Peace, and speak soon,

Will

Daniel is a poet, but he brought interest and experience on all types of struggles artists deal with - creative routine, approaching the political from the lens of the personal, and the necessity for vulnerability when we share our work.

There will be something in here for every passionate creative, and it’s a great starting point for the new season.

As you jump in here, I also wanted to call forward anyone who’s trying to make a real step-change in their practice this summer, and would like some additional support to do so. I’ve just opened up my second intake for Do The Hard Thing - a 30 day challenge where I support artists and creatives to Step towards the harder work they’ve been avoiding with 30 days of guided reflection and direct action.

Come join here: https://creativeminds.mykajabi.com/do-the-hard-thing

I’ve built on the feedback from the first cohort, and built something more flexible, more long-term in regards the community building, and where the access to the material is completely up to you.

Another thing I wanted to say here, was a massive thanks for anyone who read and supported the first collab post I did here earlier this week. I first reached out to Sydney 3 or 4 months ago now, and to push the collaboration all the way to release, then see such warmth and support shown here for the work - really was a blessing.

If you haven’t checked that one out, go take a read now. It’s getting great support, and Sydney’s writing really hits on Substack - a great follow.

So with all that said, peace, the links to Daniel’s work, which we have the honour of getting a short reading from at the end of this conversation, are below:

Daniel Slumen Insta: https://www.instagram.com/danielsluman/

Daniel Slumen Publisher: https://ninearchespress.com/publications/poetry-collections/pain-songs

And yeah, I hope you enjoy this one, go and show him some support from this community.

Best,

Will ✌️❤️

Hey, it’s Will - and thanks as always for being here.

I found Sydney through her writing on intentionality, and the importance of leaning into personal taste and discernment (in a world that wants your time and attention NOW). So I reached out to her, and asked if she’d write a piece for this audience, and she generously shared what sits below. Please grab a hot drink, drop a like to support the active community building here, and if the piece resonates with you - go join Sydney’s Substack, for the record®, and her community of 25k+ readers.

A lot of work went into this one, and I really hope you enjoy it,

Enter Sydney

the cure to numbness

creative acts might be the only way we feel alive again

There’s a particular kind of tiredness that comes from passive consumption.

You know it well.

The podcasts on the commute to work. Social media during coffee breaks. The mindless swapping between apps while standing in a queue. And after a long day, when you feel completely drained, all you want is to be entertained by something that asks absolutely nothing of you. Someone else’s life. Someone else’s thoughts. Someone else’s outfit, trip, routine, relationship, kitchen, body, morning, success.

There’s nothing wrong with engaging with beautiful things.

I love searching for inspiration. I love learning. I love watching someone make something thoughtful.

But in the way we consume social media, inspiration can turn into comparison. Comparison turns to paralysis. Paralysis starts to feel like a personality trait.

It’s a strange thing, living in a time where we have access to more ideas than ever, but somehow feel less connected to our own. I envy the creative who existed pre social media. There was a different kind of privacy in the process. Creatives could experiment, fail, be rejected, iterate, and slowly build their craft in a bubble. One that was less watched, and probably more forgiving. More kind.

Kate Bush started writing songs at around 11, and some of the songs on her debut album were written when she was as young as 13. Her early demos were rejected before Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour heard them, recognised something unusual, and helped finance a more professional demo. She was signed to EMI, but they wanted a safer, more rock-oriented track as her debut single. Kate trusted her intuition and pushed for “Wuthering Heights” - a strange, literary, theatrical song based on Emily Brontë’s novel. It became a UK number one.

Her “strangeness” had time to form before it was publicly judged. She could be theatrical, obsessive, literary, dramatic, and slightly “too much” in her bedroom, the studio, dance classes, and demo tapes before the world had a comment section. By the time she was famous, she had already built a private inner language strong enough to resist what the industry thought she should release. She had a runway to build creative self-trust.

Now, if you start building something online, you get feedback immediately.

It’s encouraging and it often opens doors. But can also make you overly aware of yourself before the work has had a chance to become anything.

We swapped the love for making with measuring. Was it liked or shared? We enter internal spirals of: was it cringe? Was it even worth saying? And I wonder if this is part of why so many people have decided, consciously or not, to passively engage with the world. It’s so much easier to critique than create. We desire a life, but forget to participate in the making of it. But creating requires something FROM you…effort, imperfection, and willingness to be seen trying. And that can feel very vulnerable.

borrowed identity

In a culture optimized for passive consumption, acting on your creativity is no longer just a hobby. It’s a necessity for a grounded self.

What do I mean by that?

Today, without you actively creating, identity becomes comparative, unstable, and externally defined. When you are always observing other people’s lives, your sense of self starts to form in relation to them. Their pace becomes the measure of your own timeline.

This is comparative identity.

Somewhere along the way, you stop asking what feels true to you. Your attention becomes so occupied with other people’s lives that your own voice grows faint. And that is a very exhausting way to live.

There will always be someone more “ahead”. The algorithm will make sure of it. But when you create, something interesting happens;

You move from watching life to authoring it.
You return to your own hands.

And even if the thing you make, the path you take, is messy or unfinished or only seen by you, it becomes evidence. Proof that you are here, that you can act. Proof that you are not only being shaped by the world, but shaping something back. Proof of your vibrant aliveness.

meaning is made

I recently read Viktor Frankl’s book Man’s Search for Meaning - I love how he explains that meaning is not something we simply find, as if it’s hidden under a rock somewhere waiting for us.

Meaning is created through action.

That really stayed with me because I think a lot of us are waiting for meaning before we commit. We think: I’ll write when I feel inspired. I’ll start when I know exactly what I’m doing. I’ll make art when I feel like an artist. I’ll document my life when it feels more interesting. I’ll become creative when I have something valuable to say.

But, meaning is a byproduct of commitment, not a prerequisite for it. You don’t wait to feel creative. You create, and slowly remember that you are.

If you’re thinking “but, I’m not creative” let this be your reminder;

Creativity is a way of being present. A way of noticing and listening. We were made to make. The real question is, where did I stop trusting my impulse to make? (For me, it was doomscrolling. Watching myself scroll past my own life. It drained my energy and fed my inner critic. So I’ve had to design my life around slower, deeper, more intentional forms of media consumption. That’s a story for another day.)

Whatever act of creation you choose, the only question to ask is; does it bring you back into participation with your own life? If the answer is yes, you’re on the right track. In this sense, to create is about making contact - with the world, with other people, with the parts of yourself that show up when you are paying close enough attention… and ultimately acting on those nudges.

build a doorway back to yourself.

Creative acts can build confidence and a grounded self. You mold the work, and the work molds you.This is why a creative practice can stabilize identity.

You begin to gather evidence from your own life. Your attempts and creations all become an archive. You are a museum of everything you have ever loved.

Invest in your inner museum. Keep building and uncovering, even when it feels ruthlessly vulnerable. Intentionally create that space for yourself where you can explore the side of yourself that feels “too much”. Your museum is powerful because, over time, it uncovers the through-line of your life.

There is something deeply grounding about looking back at what you’ve made and realizing:

Oh. This is what I care about. This is what I keep noticing. This is the language I return to. This is the kind of beauty I’m always chasing.

The observer and the author live very different lives:

The observer scrolls, compares, consumes, waits. The author creates, decides, iterates, participates.The observer asks, what are other people doing? The author asks, what am I building? The observer feels fragmented. The author becomes coherent.

(And of course, we all move between both)

The strange thing about constant stimulation is that it promises to wake us up, but often leaves us feeling more detached. You feel numb, so you reach for stimulation. The stimulation overloads you, so you feel more numb. Then you reach for more.

It becomes a loop.

It’s time to build a doorway back to yourself.

the cure

Creating is the cure to numbness.

The act of creating is no longer just a nice-to-have. It might actually be the only way we come back to ourselves. When identity feels unstable, making something gives it shape. When life feels meaningless, making something asks you to participate. When you feel numb, making something reminds you that you are alive.

So this is your invite to make something.

Write, edit, paint, cook, plan, walk, dance, share. Make dinner feel like an occasion. Make a scrapbook. Make your room feel like a place you want to return to. Make plans with your friends.

We may not have the same world that Kate Bush had, but we can build something equivalent. A deliberate inner life. A practice that happens before, and beyond the audience. Yes, it requires courage and willingness, and yes, it’s vulnerable - and that’s precisely why it matters.

I hope that this helps you to decide that your attention is precious.
That your life is worth participating in.
That your inner world deserves somewhere to go.

Through the act of making, we stop distracting ourselves, and start creating ourselves again.

𖣠 sydney

Thank you to Will for having me here. If you enjoyed this piece, I’d love to invite you over to my publication, for the record®. If you’re craving depth, beauty, and thoughtful ways to connect with yourself and the world, I think you’ll feel at home there. 💌

About the author: Sydney Rheeder is a designer, writer and youtuber from South Africa. She shares creative rituals & journaling frameworks to help you document your life and return to what feels true.

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for the record

the most underrated habit for becoming yourself

for the record® is about to hit 25K!!! I really don't take that lightly. THANK YOU for being here, reading & caring about this stuff as much as I do…

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3 months ago · 406 likes · 36 comments · sydney rheeder 𖣠

Peace, and thanks as always for being in here. Pls let a fellow creative know about the work if you get value from it.

✌️❤️

Will

I’ve just spent this (far-too-hot) Sunday, working to deliver my newest video, but I come here with love, with good vibes, and with that newest piece: one of my most ambitious to date.

Here’s to a summer of longer, and deeper videos and podcasts and articles - with a special one I’m trying to get together for August/September time - my first piece involving a trip out the country ⛴️.

My apologies for anyone who’s just here for the writing, I’ve been spending a lot of the hours I can put into CM, on this video recently - but to me it’s all the same thing, and I know the season for writing here will return soon.

I’ll be sharing the podcast for this piece tomorrow morning BST - so if you’d like to catch it on your morning commute, that will be searchable in your favourite podcast player too.

I do this work with care, and I hope that can be felt in this video and the podcast, and if you do get value from it, pls consider sharing the work, or letting a fellow creative know, it really does matter.

Peace, speak v soon, I really hope you enjoy this one,

Will

Distraction, presence, time, patience, reality vs the online space - this piece encapsulates a lot of the themes that are so close to Creative Minds. And yeah, I hope you love it (like I loved making it).

This piece was also the first main feature to include three snippets from the CM Conversations - powered by artists and creatives from the newsletter community. I’m linking all their conversations and direct work below - so do go and enjoy those too if one of them speaks to you.

Love to all those in here, peace and good luck in your own projects.

✌️❤️,

Will

Featured CM Conversations

Ben Reeves
https://insidecreativeminds.substack.com/p/deep-dive-on-creative-process-with
Publications by Ben Reeves
https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/Ben-Reeves/241394884

OhPandah
https://insidecreativeminds.substack.com/p/ohpandah-sobriety-street-art-leaving
OhPandah’s YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/@ohpandah

GOGO
https://insidecreativeminds.substack.com/p/if-you-stay-present-and-connected
GOGO’S radio show
https://www.dublab.com/shows/the-wavelength

I’ve been gone a little while, cooking this one up - and I wanted to let the video breathe on YT tonight, then I’ll drop the podcast here tomorrow for pod enthusiasts too.

Honestly, I needed to take a little rest. I wanted to bring a whole heap of new interviews and new artists to the table - as well as reaching out through YT to see what, and who, people wanted to see.

I wanted to ask myself again - what would a Creative Minds piece look like if I sat with it for a month instead of a week?

So here’s what happened.

I hope you get some value from it. And hope it brings you some of the peace and presence I found in making it.

If you do enjoy the piece, pls consider sharing it with a friend, and leaving your thoughts or experience or love for the artists below - and thanks as always for being a part of it here too,

✌️❤️,

Will

Annahstasia teaches us that if we define our own sense of quality and artistry, and keep moving towards that, the audience for the work will emerge.

I hope some of you will resonate with what she’s bringing forward here.
And please explore any of the clipped interviews further below.

Annahstasia on Tether, Lenny Kravitz, and co-starring in Kendrick Lamar's "Luther" | Broken Record

Annahstasia on 'Satisfy Me' - What Success Means, Mastering her Craft & Moving On from Modelling

Annahstasia Interview: The Making of Tether & Reclaiming Folk Through Soul and Blues

✌️❤️,

Will