Are you a creative person with no will to create? I am. For sure I am. I am an author and podcaster with a very bottom of the barrel sense of creativity right now…which is exactly what we’re going to talk about. Just because the world feels on fire doesn’t mean we lay down and burn. It means we grab a torch and use it to light our way.
Beloved listeners, I want to begin with something we’re all carrying. The weight of this moment. Wars, the climate crisis, political instability, the unraveling of our social fabric—it’s everywhere. And it doesn’t just live on the news scrolls or in headlines; it seeps into our nervous systems. And I’ll be honest with you: there are days when my own work stalls completely. The burnout feels heavier, amplified by the grief of what’s happening all around us. If you’ve been there too, if you’ve felt like creativity is impossible in a world on fire, I want you to know—you are not alone.
We often call it burnout, but let’s be clear: it’s not just about too much work. It’s about too much sorrow, too much witnessing, too much unresolved weight pressing on our bodies. For creatives, that grief can close the tap of words, images, and ideas. And here’s the reframe I keep coming back to: the block isn’t laziness. It isn’t failure. It’s the body-mind trying to process collective loss. It is our whole selves trying to hold what feels unholdable.
So what do we do? For me, it starts with lowering the barrier to entry. That means loosening the pressure we put on ourselves to create in perfect, polished ways. Instead of expecting a finished essay every time I sit down, I count scraps, fragments, even a voice note as a creative act. Sometimes it’s a sketch in the margins of my journal. Sometimes it’s a single sentence. The culture says: be prolific, no matter what. But lowering the barrier says: stay connected to your voice, gently, even in grief.
Let me share how this plays out in my own creative life. For the podcast, I don’t build episodes all at once. I let shorter pieces grow into fuller conversations. Sometimes that looks like testing a concept in conversation with a friend before I ever hit “record.” Other times, I’ll draft a reflection that feels embodied—something I’ve lived with for a while, not a fresh wound I’m scrambling to make sense of.
It’s not about bulk content creation, but about creating in cycles. Gathering little bits that eventually become a whole. And honestly, that’s what I love about social media, too. We need to create to stay connected. To share what moves us and to be moved in return. It’s not the same space it was in the early days of blogging—that world of slow-building conversations and lifelong connections. But maybe we can reclaim some of that spirit. To write and share when we’re moved, not just when the algorithm demands it.
Creativity, after all, comes from rest and restoration. The whole purpose of creativity is to surface what inspires us, in hopes of inspiring others, too. That’s where grief and creativity become friends. Because grief doesn’t end creativity—it reshapes it. In a collapsing world, creativity doesn’t have to be grand. It can be a tiny act of witness. A tender truth spoken out loud. A moment of honesty scribbled in a notebook. Lowering the barrier to entry keeps creativity alive through grief, not in spite of it.
So if you’re listening today and you’re burned out—not just from work, but from living in this moment in history—here’s what I want to say: you’re not alone. And maybe the invitation isn’t to write the essay, finish the painting, or launch the project. Maybe it’s just this: what’s the smallest, most possible act of creativity you could allow yourself today? Even fragments matter. Simply your presence matters.
Thank you for listening to episode 206 of Restorative Grief. It’s a short essay…for a reason! These shorter episodes are a gift to the grieving brain that can’t focus for too long. They also serve as validation that our fragments and pithy insights are just as valuable as full on book proposals and groundbreaking interviews. It all matters – it all contributes to our healing and those around us.
So if this is your first time listening, I hope a spark jumped into your life from this little essay. Creating a new sense of the world as we grieve is necessary, foundational work for our healing. Please be sure to subscribe, and leave a review if you feel so inclined. Thank you as always to my patrons, for whom I am so very grateful. And before we go, as always, one last thing. Please remember, the only solution for grief is to do the work of grieving. Thank you for listening. I’ll see you next week.
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