I think the great fear of most creative people is that we’ll run out of ideas and not know what to do next.
I come up against this time and time again in my own work, so I’ve developed a series of practices for releasing fear, removing blocks, returning to center, and discovering what’s next.
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“You don’t have to identify as an artist, but as a creative person dedicated to noticing and seeing the world, it’s an opportunity to be closer with that part of yourself.”
Tune in to this episode to learn my six favorite tools for when I don’t know what to do, including—
🐋 Morning pages & artist dates
🐋 Movement
🐋 Phoning a friend
🐋 Setting up an easy practice
🐋 List-making
🐋 Recovery & spiritual practice
After you listen, go get my free Creative Ideation Portal, and join me in dreaming up what’s next for you and your work.
Links
🌕 Get the Creative Ideation Portal
🌕 Sign up for my weekly newsletter, Monday Monday
🌕 Get Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way
🌕 Find all these links & more at marleegrace.space/commonshapes
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[0:00] Hello and welcome to Common Shapes, a podcast about practices, systems, and rituals for a creative life.
Today we're talking about what to do when you don't know what to do.
Introduction to the Speaker and Topic
[0:21] I'm Marlee Grace. I'm a writer, a dancer, a teacher, a quilter, a thinker of what the hell do I do next? A tornado person who rides the waves of confusion and stress and resistance to what is and is deeply devoted to finding a little more ease in my practice and in my life. So today I want to talk about six things to do when you don't know what to do next.
This is a common problem for the squiggly-brained people, as the folks at Holisticism call it, tornado people like me, whether you're neurodivergent or just someone who doesn't know exactly what to do after the thing you just finished.
Embracing Uncertainty and Taking Small Steps
[1:17] I hope that these six ways of recentering, getting to center, if you will, help you to to find a little more relaxation amongst your choice-making.
Introduction and Invitation to Download the Creative Ideation Portal
[1:34] Before I jump in, I'd love to invite you to download the Creative Ideation Portal, which is a three-day guide to help you vision and dream up and organize your beautiful projects and release them into the world as an act of service to yourself, the people, and your practice.
You can find that at marleygrace.space slash common shapes, which is also where you can find all of the episodes of this podcast, the show notes and more.
It pairs nicely with the first few episodes of this podcast.
And I think also really supports you as you listen to the interview episodes and you're feeling inspired by other artists and want a place to dream up your own new ideas, ideas, businesses, hobbies, passion projects, and think about making them public.
So grab the Creative Ideation Portal, listen to the first few episodes, and may they serve your process and your practice.
Six Tools for Creative People
[2:38] So today I want to offer my six tools that I most often come back to, and they are, morning pages and artist dates, movement, phoning a friend, setting up an easy practice.
[2:56] List making, and recovery slash a spiritual practice. I think it is the great fear of of most artists or creative people, writers, that we will run out of ideas or we just won't know what to do next.
Or we're experiencing sort of a fight or flight or freeze or fawn situation, right?
Where we're just not really sure what to do next, whether that's on a small scale or a large scale.
So I'm both using these tools in my day-to-day as well as the bigger seasons of my life.
So if I complete a big project and I don't know what to do next, I turn to my morning pages or I phone a friend, right?
Seeking Inspiration and Ideas from Others
[3:44] So all of these tools can be used hour to hour, year to year, lifetime to lifetime, you know, whatever length of time you need them for, they are available to you.
So I wanna start with talking about the artist's way, which right now I'm in the midst of week one of hosting the Artist's Way Book Study.
The Artist's Way Book Study
[4:08] So if you're listening to this live and it's June of 2023 and you want to join us, please do.
[4:17] Head over to marleygrace.substack.com to become a paying subscriber of the Monday Monday Newsletter, and you can join us with the Artist's Way Book Study. You can actually join us any week.
So if we're on week six and you wanna join in and type in week one, how your week went, go for it, right?
You can start at any time.
And if you want to create a cluster of accountability for your own with your friends where you live or your own digital cluster, I highly recommend.
But the two main tools that come out of the Artist's Way, which is the 12-week book for creative nourishment and recovery by Julia Cameron, the two tools are morning pages and artist dates.
And you can employ these at any time. You don't have to be actively working through the artist's way to do them, right?
So I strive to always be doing my morning pages. And of course, they come in seasons.
There are seasons where I'm not grabbing my notebook as much in the morning, or I'm doing some of these other practices in the morning, right?
Whether it's movement, list making, my recovery. So morning pages are three pages of journaling with a pen with no editing.
You're just writing your thoughts in the morning and getting them on the page.
And the reason this helps me.
[5:39] Do something when I don't know what to do is you can't lie to the morning pages, right? It's this, truth portal of seeing exactly what is in front of you. And when you write something enough days in a row, whether it's a hope for what you want to see created in your life, or it's something that's been distracting you or bothering you, you write it enough times and you think, okay, this needs to shift, or I know what is next. It's my way of talking to God, talking to Spirit, admitting the truth to myself. So morning pages, I say them first for a reason. I think they really are the through line that brings me back to myself and shows me clearly what is next on the path, both on the daily level, because I do them every day.
[6:35] And on the bigger level.
I notice the cycles, the cyclical themes that come up that I want to shift or that I want to turn my attention towards.
So I definitely recommend some journaling practice. If 30 pages feels like too much, try one.
You can try half a page. We'll talk about lists as well. And so I also wanna say, you can also do a list making practice.
But I think some sort of daily practice of pen to paper with feelings is going to shine a light on what to do next when you don't know what to do next.
Weekly Artist's Date for Nurturing Your Inner Artist
[7:15] And the other part of the artist's way is a weekly artist's date, which is a solo adventure to nourish and cultivate your inner artist.
And that could be going to a museum, going to a cute shop and looking for new tools for your painting practice.
Maybe you wanna buy a new watercolor set. Maybe you wanna go to a movie by yourself or watch a documentary at home.
Maybe you wanna grab your Polaroid camera and take a walk in the woods and take pictures.
It's anything that you design that is to remember that you are an artist.
If you're listening and you're like, but Mar, I'm not an artist.
That's okay, you don't have to identify as a capital A artist or anything like that, but as a creative person, as a person dedicated to noticing and seeing the world, it's an opportunity to be closer with that part of yourself.
So tool one, morning pages and artist dates.
Movement and being in your body
[8:25] The second one is movement. So at first when I was making the list, I just wrote walking outside, but I think dancing and walking, really go hand in hand for me, as well as working out, putting on my little ankle weights and wrist weights, working out with a trainer or in a class, or just putting some music on on my own and doing some bench presses with my 15 pound squiggly weight, anything that brings you into the body.
So, I'm a Gemini, I have five planets in Gemini.
I'm recording this in Gemini season, and it feels really like a season of like, what do I do with my days?
What do I do next? We're still sort of coming out of winter, even though it's mid-June. It was only six weeks ago that it snowed here, right?
So sometimes I expect myself to be fully in summer mode when the season is still, shifting into something else But movement and being in my body...
Really keeps me knowing where I am. And that also includes swimming, walking, dancing, right?
Anything that sort of makes me remember I'm alive, right?
[9:51] So in the many planets in Gemini, in Gemini season, that's all to say I'm in my head.
I'm thinking, I'm communicating, I'm talking, I'm like neck up.
My body only exists from the neck up a lot of the times. And I have to remember to bring my thoughts into my body to really be able to feel them, which is scary sometimes.
I have had to add a lot of tools in my toolkit from my outside help, from my therapist, from medication, from so many different modalities so that I can feel safe in my body, so that I can feel safe sort of connecting my mind to what is below it, right, as above.
So below goes for the mind and heart and body as well.
And so if I don't know what's next and I'm really stuck and I don't even wanna pick up the journal or call a friend or make a list, like putting on music and dancing, it's like intermission.
I can just dance and I don't have to record it. I don't have to show anyone.
It's just for me. It's just for me to move around and put on a fun song, put on my Justin Bieber, put on my Taylor Swift, put on my Beyonce, and just absolutely jam out in my living room with my dog, pop a fresh LaCroix, and that's what's next, right?
So if you're like, what do I do next?
Walking as a way to come back to ourselves
[11:18] Maybe it's turning towards a walk. And the only thing to do is tie your shoes, right?
We have it stacked. We make it simple.
We just put our shoes on, and then we walk.
We hop in the car, we drive to the trail, we grab the dog, we grab the treats, and we walk.
It's a way to be close with God or the universe. It's a way to come back to ourselves.
And then we hear the answers, right? So when I swim, I hear the answers from Spirit, loud and clear. I can't bring my phone in the water.
I hear the answers. When I'm on a walk, I hear the answers from nature, from trees.
Maybe I am listening to music or a podcast, and I'm just in touch with myself and my own research practice.
And when I'm dancing, I don't really hear anything, and that's why I love it so much.
But then afterwards, the answer appears.
So there's a lot of trust and movement that what to do next will emerge.
Phone a Friend: Simple Step to Ask for Help
[12:28] The third tool is phone a friend, and it's as simple as asking for help. Phoning a friend to ask them if they need help, right? So I might text a friend to say, hey, how are you?
It's that simple. That's the next step. And more often than not, that friend is perhaps really glad someone asked them and is there for them to support them in their own day, right?
A great way to get out of my own head is to ask someone else how they're doing, if they need anything, or to just offer support in a way that you might know they need. Phoning a friend is also an opportunity to just connect with another human. A lot of these tools are solo activities, and so that could also be setting up a Zoom with a friend and doing a studio visit with them. It It could be FaceTiming.
It could be writing a letter to a friend.
Just connecting with another person will not necessarily give you the answers to what's next, but it is what's next.
Companionship, connection, community, being a part of.
Artists need each other. And so we are reminded we are not alone in our thinking or our practice by phoning a friend.
Fourth Tool: Setting Up an Easy Practice
[13:52] The fourth tool is setting up an easy practice. So let's say I'm on the couch, I'm going through emails, I'm working on my newsletter, I'm just doing things on my computer, some of my computer work, and I'm finished, or I can sense that I'm starting to maybe burn out on the screen time and I want a break, but I'm wanting still to be creative and access my creativity.
I'm not necessarily ready to fully take a break or rest or make lunch or something.
I will have a basket of knitting next to my couch at almost all times so that I know that I can grab it.
Something I often suggest is having a watercolor station by the dining room table, just some paper, some paint, a paintbrush, and a little Mason jar for water so that you can pull out painting as a practice whenever you want.
That's for everyone. You don't have to be a painter to paint, right?
You don't have to be a writer to write. You don't have to be a knitter to knit.
Although I might argue that once you do those things, you become them.
So.
[14:59] Having an easy practice to access. Sort of circles back to movement, right?
I try to remember that dance is something I can access all the time.
It's why I started personal practice, my project where I documented myself dancing on Instagram every single day for a year and then continued for many years after that.
And it was a practice in just seeing I don't need a dance studio to dance.
So that's the other thing about having an easy practice is colored pencils and paper.
[15:33] By the kitchen counter or a book to read, right? The easy practice could be wanting to read a book and keeping that book on your nightstand and committing to reading 20 minutes before bed every night. It's not that the practice itself is easy, but you are making it easy to pick up up the practice.
Fifth Tool: List Making
[15:53] This sort of brings us into the next tool, which is list making.
I make a gratitude list every day as part of an accountability practice, and that notebook stays on the couch so that when I'm watching TV.
[16:11] I'm doing my nightly activities, it's right there.
I know I can pick up the practice because I really try not to move it.
I try to keep it exactly where it is.
Another trick, I remember years ago buying this book that was called like Easy Organization for People with ADHD, something like that.
And one of the things was like having a coat at every door because if it's cold outside and I'm towards the back door and I wanna go outside, if there's not a coat hanging there, I won't walk all the way to the front door to grab a coat and then walk back.
Or like I keep shoes by the back door.
There's a pair of Crocs that lives by the back door. I do not move them from the back door, right?
That's an easy practice that lets me go outside, that allows me to just get out and go and walk out the back door. That's where I walk out with June to the backyard.
It's where I walk out to sit and drink my water or drink my NA beer.
I can go and sit back there. So easy practices. Those could be creative practices, setting things up so that it's easy to leave, right?
To help you get to the next thing.
Lists as Tools for Productivity and Creativity
[17:27] So the next is list making. And you can decide which lists help you.
So that might be a to-do list, a list of goals, a list of things you love to do.
There's so many different inventories and lists you could make.
I, of course, love a daily gratitude list, but if we're thinking seasonally what to do next, it could be a list of all the different ways you want to make money this quarter.
Right, so.
[18:00] How do you want to earn this month? Maybe it's adding a new offering.
Maybe it's taking away an offering. Maybe it's focusing on a collection of physical objects that you're making.
Maybe it's picking up some more client work or freelance work, right?
So a list of money-making ideas. It could be a list of books you want to write or classes you want to teach.
It could be a list of people you want to call back, right? There's so many different lists you could make, but when I don't know what to do next, especially within a day, I will stop and make a list.
[18:41] And so it's not necessarily like I make a list of what I want to do that day, although that generally is one of the tools I implement, but I could just say like, I wanna make a list of books I wanna bring on this trip.
I want to make a list of reasons I feel secure in my current romantic relationship.
I want to make a list of things I'm grateful for about my home.
I want to make a list of projects I want to do in my home. That's one I really love to do.
And they're all just ways of checking in with the self and finding the answer.
So think of your own lists that you want to make.
Like what are the different kinds of lists and what could bring you closer to what is next, right? Because these tools both serve as the thing to do next and tools that give you the answers to what is after doing the tool, right? So when you don't know what to do next, you could make a list. That's the thing you do next, right? But that gives you the answer.
Making Lists Helps Find the Answer to What is Next
[19:56] To what is next. What doesn't appear on my list is also like doing nothing, just vegging out, just watching TV, just doing nothing, right? That's always an option. This episode is a little more like what's next for the sake of productivity and creation, but I want to just throw in that resting is a tool.
It's a non-tool, it's a tool and a non-tool. It's something we extract from everything else.
So if you're listening to this and you're like, oh, these are all to-dos, these are more to-dos, please add in the bonus of napping, hydrating, doing nothing, staring at the wall.
Obviously, make your own list of tools. I don't have meditating on my list, but for me, like walking and swimming maybe would be in the meditation category.
So again, make your own tools and your own lists.
Every episode I make, take what you like, leave the rest.
But for this one especially, I feel very called to throw in rest and doing nothing as a tool for what's next.
Because the answers come when we rest and we feel restored when we rest, right?
Recovery and Spiritual Practice
[21:23] And lastly, I have recovery and spiritual practice on the list. And for me, my recovery lives in the 12-step realm. And I put spiritual practice on here and recovery because I will never use this podcast to suggest or promote any 12-step programs as per the traditions of those programs, but I will share that they work for me. And I think that what works for me is being a part of a group and a process of self-inquiry and doing that in an accountable space. And so that could look like anything. That could be you finding a cool, queer, Unitarian, Universalist church to be a part of.
Shout out to Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. But you know, that could be digital community as well. Anywhere that brings you towards people and God or the universe.
[22:24] Great spirit, anything that brings you towards finding what's working for you and what's not working for you. And so I'll share a little bit about why I have this on the list, and it kind kind of goes back actually to rest and making sure we're not finding ourselves so addicted to productivity or capitalism.
Let's say I'm struggling with money. I'm struggling with my relationship to money and I'm feeling really stressed or I'm noticing some of my compulsive spending creeping in.
Turning to Spiritual Practice to Ease Anxiety
[23:01] I might phone a friend or a fellow, right? That's one of the tools.
And sort of share what's going on, hoping that they'll have the answer or like a tool that fixes that thing, right?
[23:17] But often what actually eases my anxiety or obsession about the thing that I have deemed wrong is turning towards my spiritual practice.
So in the 12 steps, I'm gonna be actively working those steps, which again, if you aren't a part of a 12-step program but want something like that, it's really just finding any book.
You could check out Codependent No More or just any book that brings you into alignment, with asking yourself where you're at today.
And.
[23:59] Doing that practice is what eases the obsessive loops for me about the thing that I think is really wrong with me, right?
So if I'm like, oh, this thing, I'm doing this thing again, this habit, this loop, this pattern, I'm fucking up.
The answer isn't to like fix the thing, it's to turn toward my spiritual practice.
It's to turn towards God and see the spiritual solution that I have in front of me to every problem or situation that I encounter.
Again, I want you to really pick what works for you with this one, with this suggestion, in terms of whether it's a spiritual group, or a grief circle or a women's circle or a queer meetup.
Tools for Finding What's Next
[24:53] It's both about the group environment, but it's also about turning toward talking to God, instead of turning towards trying to fix things by yourself.
I think that's what all of these tools are about, is employing the universal source that we all have access to, as well as our community and our own internal compass.
Those are the tools to finding what is next.
So, I hope that you use these tools both in your art practice and also in your relationships.
I think another bonus tool is to pause.
I love the phrase, God is in the pause.
To not rush, to not rush through answering other people, to not rush through answering an email or a text or a call, especially if urgency is on one side of that.
[25:56] Someone else's urgency is not your emergency. You are allowed to move slowly, as you respond to people and respond to the impulses you feel yourself, around your creative practice and your life, and you're allowed to follow the momentum.
Maybe you're feeling quick about something and it looks like you're a tornado person, but really you just know.
That just is your intuition. And that's beautiful and I hope that you follow that.
[26:34] So the six tools are morning pages and artist dates, right? Returning to the artist's way.
Again, I would love it if you joined our book study.
Walking outside, dancing, swimming, anything that is included in your own movement practice.
That could just be stretching, Laying on the ground, staring at the sky.
[26:57] We have phoning a friend, right? Reaching out, asking for help, asking someone how their day is. I think expanding on that is just being of service in your community, right?
Phoning a friend could be being a friend, being a neighbor, being active in the places that need you, where you live.
Number four, setting up an easy practice. So being able to grab creativity wherever you go.
I love having a notebook and pen in any backpack or fanny pack I have, right?
I always have the option to create. My notes app is my easiest practice. It's where I collect all of my ideas.
[27:40] Number five is list making, whether it's making a gratitude list or different inventories.
And then, of course, that's where we found our bonus tool, which is resting and doing nothing and staring at the wall or vegging out and watching TV, just letting ourselves rest or numb out if we want to. And then lastly, we have recovery and spiritual practice. I could, also see this being setting up an altar, writing things down that we want to let go of and burning them, full and new moon rituals, practices of lighting a candle and praying, reading a daily reader, these are all things that help us to know what is next.
Recovery and Spiritual Practice
[28:26] So when you don't know what to do, and you don't know what to do next, may you try some of these tools on.
I'd love to hear how they went if you want to share about them.
[28:40] Thank you for listening to Common Shapes. I love sharing the tools that have worked for me in my own life, and I hope that they are of benefit to you as well. If you want to dream up some more ways to make your own tools, definitely check out the Creative Ideation Portal at marleygrace.space slash commonshapes. Listen to the interviews on this podcast, gain more insights and inspiration from artists like you. I hope that you go forth today knowing that whatever is next that you choose is correct for you. And as we say in the 12 Step Rooms, to thine own self be true. Only you can know what is right for you. And it sounds so cheesy and simple, but I really think that that is so true and overlooked, especially with the noise of social media.
Being True to Yourself in the Social Media Age
[29:43] I feel like we get these suggestions for how to be in the world.
[29:48] And we just sort of start believing them without coming into clear focus with what we actually want and what we actually desire for our own life, whether that's the life that you live privately or the life that you live publicly.
So many blessings as you go on your journey of finding yourself and finding what's next.
Credits and Shoutouts
[30:16] I'd love to thank everyone who makes this podcast possible. Thank you to Lukeza Branfman-Varissimo for our art.
Thank you to Saltbreaker for our music and to Softer Sounds Studio for editing.
Thank you for listening to the show and sharing it with a friend, reviewing it on Apple Podcasts, and giving us a five-star rating on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Thank you for being a listener of Common Shapes.
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