158. Create Your Most Authentic Work Now - Martine Severin

Have you ever sat down to create, only to find yourself endlessly scrolling for inspiration and losing your voice in the noise? 

In this episode, I introduce a concept for clearing out mental buildup to make space for your authentic ideas to emerge. 

We'll explore the surprising science behind why our best ideas often emerge during moments of rest, and I'll offer you a few simple, actionable ways to incorporate creative thinking into your own life. 

This conversation is an invitation to give your creative voice the room it needs to breathe and to discover the brilliant work that wants to emerge through you.

Chapters

00:00 - A Lesson from the Dentist’s Chair
02:20 - The Buildup of Creative Plaque
04:10 - The Science of Mental Rest and “Attention Residue”
05:32 - When Do You Need a Creative Floss?
06:18 - Three Ways to Practice Creative Floss
08:00 - Why Your Best Work Requires Space, Not More Input
09:23 - A Loving Call to Action

Find our Creative Floss Quiz on Instagram: @thisishowwecreate_

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Website: www.martineseverin.com

Follow on Instagram: @martine.severin | @thisishowwecreate_

Subscribe to the Newsletter: www.martineseverin.substack.com

This is How We Create is produced by Martine Severin. This episode was edited by Daniel Espinosa.

 

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Welcome to This Is How We Create, a show that digs deeper into the creative life ofcontemporary artists of color.
Discover what feeds their creativity and how they found or are finding their artisticvoice.
Through these intimate and candid conversations, you'll gain insights into the lives ofcreative professionals of color that are hard to find anywhere else.

(00:22):
Hey, welcome back to This Is How We Create.
My name is Martine Severin, your host.
On today's episode, we are talking about the creative floss.
It's something that I'm calling the creative floss.
Now we talked about this on our newsletter, Creative Matters.
So hop on over there.
You could check out the information in the show notes.

(00:43):
But before you've clicked away and think that, Martin, you've completely lost it, justwait a minute.
So what I am calling the creative floss is something that you might
used to transform your practice in terms of how you interact with your creative work.
But first, let me set the scene for you.

(01:06):
I am 22 years old and I am lying on my back at a dentist's chair.
And I'm doing this for the very, very first time.
We had the fluorescent lights that buzzed above me like angry wasps and the
was peering down at me and her eyebrows, I swear to you, her eyebrows seemed to be goingup into the air.

(01:32):
Her expression, professional, but professional concern mixed with mild horror, I mightadd.
And she turns to me and she said, you've never done this before, have you?
Some things are really obvious because for her, what she was noticing was that my teeth, Ihad not had a...

(01:52):
cleaning in a long time.
And that's because I grew up as an immigrant child and there were just other prioritiesthan going to the dentist.
I'm not hating though.
I'm not hating on my mom.
She was doing exactly what she could potentially do in raising kids, right?
All by herself as a single parent.
But what I have learned from this whole situation with the hygienist is one, you know,take care of your teeth.

(02:20):
Two, floss.
And three, this leads us to this article, this uh mini episode on flossing and how itrelates to creativity.
If I got you still, hold on.
Let me get to the specifics.
So as I'm sitting in that dentist office, what followed was an hour and a half of hergently removing years of buildup.

(02:43):
And that experience surprisingly taught me something that is profound about creativity.
We often do the same thing, don't you think, with our creative practice?
We allow buildup.
However, instead of plaque, what we allow is endless consumption of other people's work.
Be honest, how many times have you sat down to create something with genuine excitementonly to decide that you need to quickly check Instagram for inspiration or maybe...

(03:15):
Pinterest, well, be hands.
Or somehow you end up watching TikToks about someone organizing art supplies by colortemperature or something like that.
And all of a sudden, 40 minutes has vanished and you've consumed other people's solutionto problems similar to yours.
What ends up happening is that your creative voice gets crowded out before it even has achance to speak.

(03:43):
And it's like trying to have a conversation at a concert, which is technically possible,but you know, good luck with that.
So if this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
We are all navigating this challenge together.
Going back to creative floss, creative floss involves clearing the space between input,you know, the things that we're consuming and the authentic work that we want to emerge

(04:11):
through us, through our
our creative life.
Now this influence, you might think that it's about rejecting influence or isolatingyourself.
Rather, creative floss is about honoring your own creative timing and it's about reallygiving yourself room to breathe.
Now research in cognitive psychology suggests that constantly getting input creates whatStanford's Clifford Nast term

(04:39):
attention residue, which means that our brain, it turns out, aren't designed for rapidcreative consumption.
But there's Dr.
Marcus Reichl whose work on the default mode network shows that our most creative insightsoften emerge during periods of, wait for it, mental rest.

(05:01):
That's why you tend to come up with your great ideas while you're in the shower or whileyou're just not really paying attention to your creativity.
So how does this relate to you?
Well, here are three moments when you might need some creative floss.
First, when your work starts feeling like everyone else's, like you're all playing fromthe same playbook, which let's be honest, we probably downloaded from the same Pinterest

(05:27):
board.
But second, when you're paralyzed by endless options and say you've saved images now andyou can't decide which direction to go to, or third,
when you're stuck and you're refreshing design blogs, hoping the next beautiful projectwill spark a creative breakthrough.

(05:48):
If you've experienced any of these things, well, my friend, you need a creative floss.
What I want to share with you next is what I've learned through four years now, four yearsof interviewing creative professionals.
First, inspiration rarely solves creative problems.
Turns out,
Space does and reflection does and gentle persistence works all the time.

(06:13):
And you know, sometimes we're hungry too, so don't forget a snack always helps.
Now let's turn our minds to how we might practice creative floss.
One, start simple.
So before diving into any project, you want to spend about 15 minutes exploring your owninstinctive response to whatever creative challenge you're facing.

(06:35):
Remember to honor whatever emerges, even if it feels rough or uncertain.
Try this approach before consuming any creative content.
Ask yourself three questions with kindness.
Now, kindness always helps.
Will this serve my current project?
Will this expand my thinking in meaningful ways?

(06:57):
And will this connect me to my community?
If the answer is no to all of these three things, give yourself permission.
to stop ingesting content without guilt.
But here's something that might sound a little radical.
I want you to look at your past work first.
Yeah, your own work, because you can actually discover how you've been quietly brilliantthis whole time.

(07:23):
And I know, I know you're looking at your own work and sometimes it feels weird, but it'slike listening to your own voicemail.
You just kind of have to get comfortable hearing your voice back.
Your most distinctive work will emerge not from getting more input, but from seeing thingsreally differently.
And seeing things differently requires space.

(07:46):
Space between stimulus and response, space between input and output, and space betweenwhat everyone else is doing and what wants to emerge through you.
Creative Floss creates that space with love.
So this week I invite you to try one small experiment.
Pick one technique that feels slightly outside of your comfort zone but totally doable.

(08:11):
Maybe it's sitting and starting a project without researching and taking a break like 24hours before you start researching.
Maybe it's unfollowing accounts that really don't genuinely inspire you.
Alternatively, it could be that you just start creating
before checking any feeds or checking inspiration.

(08:32):
But what you want to do is notice what creative ideas emerge when you create space forthose ideas.
And when you do that, I want you to notice what your voice sounds like, your creativevoice, what it sounds like when it's not competing with everyone else's.
But remember, taking time isn't necessarily about getting your work right or getting itright immediately.

(08:55):
It's really about thinking about
creating more of a loving relationship between your own creative process one small spaceat a time and Your creative expression.
It's there.
It's been there all along.
It's ready to emerge When you give it time and room to breathe creative floss like dentalfloss works best as a regular practice rather than an Emergency intervention as with me

(09:23):
So start small, stay consistent, watch what emerges from the space you create.
That's it.
That's your assignment for the week, my friend.
Give yourself the permission to create that space.
Trust your voice and above all, be tender with your magnificent self.
That's it for now.
Thank you for joining us on this mini episode of This is How We Create.

(09:46):
If you really like this episode, we actually have a downloadable worksheet that will
help you in thinking about how you want to approach.
This worksheet is really not so much of a worksheet, but a quiz.
Check it out.
We'll have that information in the show notes for you.
That's all I have for you.
If you want to keep updated to what's going on with Creative Matters, remember newepisodes come out on Tuesdays and on Thursdays.

(10:14):
And if you need more information from us, we do have our really wonderful
newsletter that's been going on a year strong.
can't believe it.
A whole year of writing every week.
I've done it.
I've done it.
And we are continuing to go with the newsletter because why?
People love it.
Check it out.
All the information is in the show notes.

(10:36):
So thank you so much for listening.
Have a good day.
there.
I have a quick favorite to ask you before you go.
If you're loving the show, would you mind taking a quick second to leave us a five starreview on your favorite go to podcast app?

(10:57):
Here's the thing.
Those reviews are like magic fairy dust.
They help other creators of color discover our show and tap into their own artisticsuperpowers.
While you're at it, why not subscribe to our sub stack
newsletter Creative Matters.
Creative Matters is like a weekly dose of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.

(11:22):
You can find the link to subscribe in the show notes.
Alright, that's all that I have for you today.
I can't wait to see you on the next episode.
Bye.