How to Come Back to Your Creative Self
Pianist & creative coach Rebecca Hass on staying connected to your creative self in busy seasons
Welcome to a guest post by fellow Bay Area-based creative, Rebecca Hass!
Rebecca Hass is a pianist, composer, collaborative pianist, educator, and creative coach in the San Francisco Bay Area whose dedicated to creative curiosity and joy. With a deep passion for Brazilian rhythms, Rebecca has been part of the Brazilian music scene in the Bay Area since 2019, and performs solo shows of her own compositions and arrangements, as well as with Som Dela, CWICO (Composing Women’s Improvising Creative Orchestra), and the Bay Area-based Women Composers Collective, which she co-founded.
Rebecca’s debut Brazilian album, Florescer (Bloom), was described as “a delightful 43 minutes of musical sunshine”, and her 2024 album of original piano music, Bright Little Worlds, is an imaginative collection in various styles: Brazilian, jazz, neo-classical, and more. Rebecca has also hosted the podcast Being a Whole Person, full of inspiration, encouragement, and tangible tips to help you self-compassionately grow your creative practice. She is always designing new practices for herself, her students, and her creative coaching clients.
Today, we have the absolute pleasure of featuring Rebecca as a guest contributor! So, I’ll pass it off to Rebecca…
Hello fellow creative people,
I hope that you are surviving the month of May-hem (at least that’s what it feels like to me)!
One of the worst things about being overly busy (whether by choice or not) is not having time to check in with yourself, and connect with your needs and desires. This can also mean feeling disconnected from creativity, especially if your chosen medium isn’t part of your job.
If I don’t play the piano for multiple days in a row (or have only obligatory practice and no time for my own projects), I start to feel crabby, purposeless, a less colorful version of myself, like an old faded photo. Can you relate?
When I look ahead to a more packed schedule, I feel my chest constricting, and unconsciously hold my breath. I know that I don’t have to (and can’t, that’s not how time works!) deal with all of those activities at once, so I tell myself to take a few deep breaths.
A few years ago in this situation, I asked myself why exactly I was feeling this way, and the answer I found: I was afraid I would lose my connection to myself, and thus, my creative self.
So, I opened a note on my phone and began writing, under the heading “How do I come back to myself?”
As I wrote, I also discovered that, when I’m too busy, a big unconscious stressor is the underlying feeling of not being good enough, like I have to prove myself to all of these different people. When I’m able to let go of that feeling and trust that I am indeed good enough and I can do the job, whatever it may be, I feel so much better.
But, if I don’t have the energy to provide that inner support for myself (in the form of creativity and otherwise), it could compound the stress, instead of allowing me to replenish myself. You need to commit to having a strong relationship with yourself in order to have a healthy relationship with your creativity.
But how do you actually DO that?
8 Questions to Come Back to my Creative Self
I strongly believe that, in order to get good answers, we have to ask good questions.
Here are some of the questions I ask myself:
How am I feeling right now? (a simple check-in, without judgment or a need to act on the feeling)
What exactly is making me feel overloaded? (people time, stimuli from scrolling/screen time, too many expectations, etc.)
What do I need to be reminded of during busy times?
What parts of me do I feel like I lose or “put away” when I’m too busy?
How can I infuse each activity with a little bit more of my best self?
Where can I find clarity (even if only briefly) when I’m tired and depleted?
How can I avoid feeling like I can’t relax or do anything pleasurable when there’s an activity coming up that requires me to be “on”?
How can I make it feel 10% easier? (or maybe only start with 1%?)
Asking one or more of these questions is a great self-compassion practice, in multiple ways:
You’re treating yourself like you matter enough to make time for a check-in
The answers bring clarity on how to take care of yourself better
It’s an opportunity to practice talking to yourself kindly, tapping into the wisdom of your best self, who knows you’re doing your best).
Even Simpler Questions
If you’re burned out and the above questions are too much, try even simpler questions:
What’s most important to me right now? Focusing on just one priority (which used to only be a singular word in olden times) is totally reasonable - you might have to be real with yourself that that’s all you can handle for a time.
Is there anything I can stop doing for a little while? (Or permanently?!)
As I prepare to enter a busier season, I first think about where in my schedule I can make space for myself:
Checking filters - What information or activities need to be filtered out right now, in order to give you more energy and time for your priorities?
For my work, right now, that means prioritizing piano practice and coaching client prep, and I will accept that other projects are going to take longer to finish or will get pushed back to summer. I try to…
Set a few simple schedule parameters: Consolidating client calls, lessons, meetings, and other activities that require me to be “on” so that there’s recovery time built into each week; Scheduling piano time on the calendar so it always has a place; Keeping a full weekend day open for me-time and quality time with my partner
Release the need to do things perfectly and fears of not being good enough / letting people down (or at least recognizing when it’s happening - that’s a victory!)
Allow for transition time between activities, especially when coming out of people time and into alone time (#introvertproblems)
It’s always so tempting to cram another task into that 15-30 minutes between things, but better to take a break and mentally get ready for the next activity. Once you’ve subtracted just a little bit, there’s hopefully a tiny bit more room to breathe (literally and figuratively!), and to be proactive rather than only reactive.
Small Rituals
I also have small rituals that can help me stay connected to myself.
I make sure that I have plenty of go-to rituals, self care practices, and plans for these busier times, so I don’t have to think too hard about it. When you’re overwhelmed, you often don’t have the mental space to figure out self care, it’s just hanging on in survival mode, so having an actual list can be a life-saver!
Some of my go-to practices are walks, taking a quiet moment away from screens to breathe (perhaps with a cat), doing a quick meditation using Insight Timer, or pulling a tarot or oracle card and reflecting on it.
Here are some other ritual ideas that I experiment with (because we don’t have to do self care “right”, we always get to experiment!):
Energy sorting - Imagining returning others’ energy to them, and returning mine back to me. You can do this with whatever visual you prefer, like a bubble around you, cutting ropes attached to you, etc.
Washing off negative feelings (like worries about what others are thinking) as you take a shower or wash your hands
Grounding - Imagining myself as a strong pillar or a tree with healthy roots in the earth
Having a chat with my best, wisest self to find out what I need (could be an older version of you giving advice to Current You)
So, if you’re heading into a busier season, being intentional is going to be most important - being proactive, rather than reactive, as much as you’re able to, so you have space for time for yourself, creativity, and whatever is most important to you!
You can also check out my PDF workbook Fuel Your Work With Compassionate Productivity for more help in this area.
I hope that these are helpful prompts for you next time you need to return home to yourself, and I’m wishing you ease and fortitude if this is also a difficult month for you!
What are your must-dos to keep yourself feeling better during a busy season?
-Rebecca
Note from Vanessa: Thank you, Rebecca, for this insightful guide on how to come back to one’s creative self. I am absolutely going to ponder on these in my journal tomorrow morning, and am most excited to recommit to creating a “transition between activities” and also to experiment with different types of energy sorting.
To immerse into Rebecca’s musical and creative world, check out her work here. With that, have a beautiful and creative rest of your month, friends!