I’m slowly emerging from my vacation cocoon, still healing my brain from a rather spicy burnout curry. What does this have to do with the price of bananas?
Nothing – but it has everything to do with how low my creative output has been over the past few months.
Instead of pressuring myself to ‘suck it up’, ‘get on with it’ and ‘stop being such a baby, you’re just a bit tired’ (actual phrases I’ve heard Negative Nancy say in my brain), I’ve opted for a different approach – thanks to a conversation between Rick Rubin and John Mayer.
Today’s Creative Urge is about how to find your creativity in the energy, vibe and attitude of your heroes.
Embody – don’t copy – your heroes
I love the entire story arc of John Mayer: from boy next door guitar prodigy to Tay-Tay’s rotten ex, he’s played a variety of roles across a really impressive career. At the core of it all, he’s a self-confessed lover of the guitar. That’s his jam – and you can feel it in his music.
Inspired by legends like Stevie Ray Vaughan and other blue’s guitarists like B.B. King, Buddy Guy and Otis Rush, Mayer’s style is driven by melody and deeply reflective of his overthinking mind.
In the conversation with Rick Rubin on his podcast Tetragrammaton, Mayer talks at length about his childhood and using the guitar as a means of escape from school. I can hard core relate to this as someone who spent the majority of her lunch hours in the Art or music room.
When Rubin asked whether or not he, like other guitarists, learned the lead solo of famous songs first, Mayer said no, it wasn’t initially about that. For him, it was more about tapping into the energy of the musician or their attitude, rather than learning their songs note for note.
“Seek what they’re seeking,” Mayer says. Look beyond the notes and into what your heroes are looking for in their creative offerings… it’s not about recreating their sound, but embodying their energy, their vibe and their attitude. That way, Mayer believes, you can play their music in your own way.
Vibe, energy and attitude are about emotion
The burnout I’ve been experiencing has felt like a giant cork in the bottle of my creativity. Wedged in so tightly that there’s no leaks, no room for flow.
So I’ve heeded Mayer’s advice and have turned to my creative heroes for clues on how to BE in the world to loosen the cork and release what I’ve been yearning to express.
And because I’ll never ‘gatekeep’ my knowledge, here’s what I mean:
Painter Frida Khalo reminds me of the power of metaphor and how being unapologetic about the experience of your trauma can yield immense healing and connection
The poet David Whyte reminds me that cultivating presence through noticing the little things, every day, makes a big difference to how you experience life
Chef Daniel Humm reminds me of how important it is to stand for something bigger than yourself, even if that means going against the grain of success and prestige.
There are more examples, but hopefully you’re catchin’ what I’m throwin’.
Creativity is about more than making things
First and foremost, your creativity is about YOU – it’s not about the work, the audience or the acclaim. If you’re not in a good space, you’re less likely to produce things you love.
This is where shit gets interesting: you can absolutely create your way into a new identity, life and reality (…let me explain).
Thinking, planning and consuming will only get you so far – it can become the toxic habit that holds you back from what you desire – because at some point, you have to take action.
BUT… and this is a BIG but… that action doesn’t have to be massive, especially if you’re burnt out, you have a lot of commitments or you’re just starting out.
What John Mayer and my creative heroes demonstrate is that creativity is waaaaay more about how you FEEL. This manifests in the work you create which is transmuted to your audience.
So, this year, as you sit down to think about your creative goals and projects, I invite you to frame them around how YOU want to FEEL in the process, not what you want to actually make.
For it’s when we foreground emotion that we escape the traps of the mind and drop straight into our bodies, the true conduit for creative expression.
Creatively yours,
Dr Maz xoxo
PS: If you’ve made it this far and are feeling brave, hit reply and tell me how you want to FEEL in 2024 about your creativity. Don’t sugarcoat it – I want your truth. I’ll reply with how I want to feel – and the answer might just surprise you…
I really dig this mentality. I think I’ve heard Rick Rubin mention before that his creative work hardly ever considers the audience (if it’s anywhere, it’s at the bottom of his list of reasons for creation). I think that focusing not just on what the creative work means to you, but also how it emotionally affects you is an important part of the process. If it doesn’t speak to you first, then it likely won’t speak to anybody.
I also appreciate the idea that you can look to your creative heroes for emotional direction without near-plagiarizing their work. Great post and keep it up! :)