Share & receive

That one sentence that opens up your world

Last night (22.7.25) I attended a “Cultivate your Creative Cycle” workshop created and facilitated by the wonderful Lucy Alexandra Harper & Molly Simpson.

Invited by my friend Hannah Lyons-Tsai it was nourishing to see other friends and meet new fellow creative explorers too. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about creativity, how to talk about it, how to support other humans doing it and how to advocate for it, I am putting more and more emphasis on nurturing my own creative practices, and hearing others musings, thoughts & challenges too.

At the workshop Molly & Lucy shared a carefully considered and crafted structure to help us reflect on our own creativity: a creative cycle comprising of 3 main parts, receiving, planting and sharing. Considering these different aspects or phases of my creative practice was useful, in that it identified the different conditions which nurture each phase. I noticed that I currently have the least support in place in the sharing phase, because in reflection that is the phase I shy away from. Putting my creative babies out into the world is hard, whether it is a piece of art I’ve created or a workshop I’m experimenting with. So when Lucy said, “in your sharing, you are feeding someone else’s receiving”, I felt such an aha moment.

Seriously, I felt as if the clouds parted and in streamed the sunshine (insert dramatic music here).

Photo credit: Photo by Ryan Fish on Unsplash

In sharing you are feeding someone else’s receiving

Reminds me of hearing Amie McNee talk at the London Writers' Salon about getting your art out there. Summed up best in the title of her book “The World Needs your Art”. I recall her talking about how she might have said, hey the world already has Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic and Julia Cameron’s The Artists Way, so why bother? No, there is no one else in the world who can do what you do: who has the unique experiences, viewpoints, thoughts, way of communicating all bundled into one. That is powerful. That is what I need to remind myself of more.

Coupled with this thought of feeding or inspiring others, perhaps my creations being the exact nutrient someone else needs or that might spark something for someone else is wonderful. It’s really liberating, instead of coming from a place of ‘oh I don’t want to bother you with this’ to ‘hey heres some stuff, see if some of it might be useful to you’ is a joy.

Photo credit: AMC, photo of my creative cycle collage

So, in conclusion I feel my creative batteries are recharged from my evening of connection, creativity & inspiration. Oh & I got to make a collage with an array of beautiful orange materials (see photo above) so whats not to love?

Thank you Molly & Lucy for sharing, it fed my receiving. Thank you to everyone else in the workshop for sharing and connecting too. May we all share more to receive more in our creative cycles! (Ooh there is some exciting energy in that intention!)

Check out Lucy Alexandra Harper & Molly Simpson’s Creative Cycle & other inspiring work.