The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Welcome to Syncreate, where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. Our goal is to demystify the creative process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative.
Creativity. It’s a word we throw around all the time, but what does it really mean? On the Syncreate Podcast, we share stories of the creative journey. We talk to changemakers, visionaries and everyday creatives working in a wide array of fields and disciplines. Our goal is to explore creativity in all its facets, and to gain a better understanding of the creative process – from imagination to innovation and everything in between.
The Syncreate Podcast is hosted by Melinda Rothouse, PhD. She helps individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life through coaching, consulting, workshops, retreats, and now, this podcast. She's written two books on creativity, including Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities (winner of a Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity and Innovation), with Charlotte Gullick. She's also a musician (singer-songwriter and bass player) and photographer based in Austin, Texas.
The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Episode 61: Creative Spark Series - Isolation vs. Solitude with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we explore how isolation and solitude can show up in our creative process, how to distinguish between the two, and how to work with both. When we feel isolated, it’s important to reach out and connect with our communities. But sometimes we need to cultivate solitude in order to dig deep into our creative work. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, includes insights and prompts from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.
For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to be strategic about solitude. Perhaps plan a retreat or just some concentrated alone time to focus on your current idea or project.
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 31: The Power of Collaboration, Episode 37: Giving Back to the Community, Episode 35: Navigating the Creative Wilderness, and Episode 49: Creativity in Challenging Times.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes.
Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at info@syncreate.org.
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Melinda: Welcome to Syncreate, a show where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. We believe everyone has the capacity to create. Our goal is to demystify the process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative. We talk with visionaries and changemakers and everyday creatives working in a wide range of fields and mediums, from the arts to science, technology and business.
We aim to illuminate the creative process, from imagination to innovation and everything in between. I'm Melinda Rothouse, and I help individuals and organizations bring their dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: Hi, I'm Charlotte Gullick, and I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the coauthors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you are not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world.
We're offering a monthly coaching group starting in January 2025, and we'd love for you to join us!
Melinda: Hey everyone! We're back with another one of our Creative Spark episodes, and today we're going to be talking about the idea of isolation versus solitude in our creative work. So as creatives, as artists or whatever work we might be doing in the world, science, math, engineering, those things are included as well.
We all, you know, express our creativity in different ways. But, you know, sometimes we can feel isolated as artists, particularly if we're working individually. And we've kind of touched on this before and, you know, so, you know, we just did another creative spark episode on sort of connection and community in our creativity. And so check that one out for some tips on how to connect.
And then there are other times when we actually need solitude, when we need times for retreat, or like specifically taking time away, to work on our work, to go deep with our work. You know, we're big proponents of incremental progress and taking steps every day. But there's also really, really helpful, you know, clients often ask me like, well, if I really want to get a good chunk of work done, I recommend taking some kind of retreat.
That doesn't have to be elaborate. You know, it could be applying for a residency or an official retreat that could just be taking a day or two off from work and doing an at home retreat, or renting a cabin in a state park and going and just taking the time to be on your own. Be with your thoughts.
Be with your work. And so sometimes it's a question of recognizing, are we feeling isolated? Are we feeling alone? Is that the time to connect and reach out more? Or maybe we feel like we're so engaged in the activities of our life that we need some time to step back and just focus, which can be hard to do in these busy times.
Charlotte: And there's also research right out in the world that it's harder to have sustained attention, sustained focus, like it's harder and harder. And so I think sometimes retreats, I want to get away from all the stimuli so I can actually connect to my own creative ideas. But then we have the other thing of, I'm going to just be, I'm going to isolate myself from the world. And I'm an artist, and this is, how I am.
Melinda: [laughter] I love the visual.
Charlotte: And maybe what we need is the time to connect to ourselves. And we, I mean, it's really tricky. Like, am I going to retreat as a reaction or am I going to retreat as a strategy to connect to myself.
And I think there's a lot of self-awareness that's required, in the creative process. And again, that's one of our goals is to demystify the creative process. And we see images that kind of, reinforce, the idea of isolation versus solitude. And I think for me, solitude is about the opportunity to connect to my deepest self.
And check in, like, how are you doing in there, little deepest self? Because, and that's also where the wellspring of my creative ideas comes from. And I also believe that creative processes are kind of like alchemy and that we get transformed somehow in the creative process, and that the solitude and the uninterrupted opportunity to connect to that deepest part.
I think for me, that's kind of like the retreat or solitude. Isolation is when I'm just trying to get away from people because I'm afraid.
Melinda: Yeah, yeah. And I just want to add to that. So, you know, a lot of times people are sort of afraid to be alone with themselves and their thoughts. Right? Which is why something like a mindfulness or meditation practice can be helpful so that we can start to become more at home with ourselves.
Right. And extend that self-compassion. And then we can lean into what I kind of think of as that blessed solitude. Like, I remember, over the summer I was traveling and I was in Scotland, and the first part of my trip I was with friends, and then I was kind of on my own, and traveling through the Highlands of Scotland by myself and driving on the other side of the road.
And I felt this deep, like kind of like loneliness or something, isolation set in. And, you know, I kind of sat with that for a few days and was able to move through it. And it was interesting because then I went on to Iceland, where I had booked, you know, basically some time for a retreat for myself in just an Airbnb in the north of Iceland, the middle of nowhere.
And, for some reason, I was able to really sink into that and feel that blessed solitude and take some long walks and eat some good food and just work. And really, so, you know, sometimes it's just a little bit of a mindset shift, a context shift, an environment shift can help us make that switch.
Charlotte: I also think a deep part of this, how many times can I use deep in this episode? And a really essential aspect of this is based on something you just said, is like, we can still be in solitude and connected. Connected to the universe, connected to community, connected to our self. Isolation, I think is about disconnection and really is what they think is the root of like, addiction, is feeling disconnected. And we can be isolated and around other people if we're not connected to ourselves.
Melinda: I mean, it's easy to feel alone in a crowd.
Charlotte: Yeah. Absolutely.
Melinda: Right? But like, this is tangential but I think kind of relate. I once went to an event that was about networking for introverts, and it was basically like, if you're standing at a, you know, in an event, and you're feeling awkward, you don't know what to do, and everyone seems to be chatting, just like go find that one other person that looks like they're feeling really awkward and strike up a conversation.
And people report like, wow, I met the most interesting person in the room actually, I think that way, and we've continued to stay in contact.
Charlotte: just thinking about the word i-so-late.
Melinda: I-so-late, yeah.
Charlotte: And solitude. I'm sure there's root words and all that stuff. But I think in the creative process we have to balance both, right.
We have to balance both. And I think a lot of it is checking in with ourselves and taking a minute, whether that's through meditation or journaling or deep breathing. And like, am I in isolation or am I in solitude? And, recognizing where we are and can I do anything that makes me feel connected?
Melinda: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So what's our pro tip?
Charlotte: Our Pro Tip is to be strategic about solitude. So, this could be plan a retreat, for a lot of artistic people, there are artists retreats that you can apply to. There's some really great opportunities for that. I've done three, and it's pretty amazing. And, but, I think it doesn't have to be huge.
Right? You can plan a retreat in your own home, take the day off, and to say, this is a time for me to connect to my creativity and see what arises and not fill that well with other people's idea. So that means no social media, you know, don't go out and try to get to catch the neighbor’s eye. Like, this is about an idea to connect.
Melinda: Yeah. And I love like what Peter Himmelman said in an earlier episode [Episode 54]. He was like, find the off button on your phone and use it. You know, like, especially if we're trying to stay at home, there's so many distractions. So like turning off the phone, putting everything else aside and like really showing up for ourselves in that way.
Charlotte: And there are folks who will do an Airbnb because being in a different space, you know, you get free of the obligations that you typically feel when you're in your own space. But what I've done a lot is house sit for people. Oh, you got a friend who's going out of town and they may not actually need a house sitter, right.
But you might need that place and that opportunity to cultivate your solitude so that your creative self has the opportunity to arise.
Melinda: Yeah. And that's a really cost effective…
Charlotte: Super cost effective. And if they have pets, they're probably happy. You know, like if you, and I've done it quite a few times, written chunks of books and other people's houses.
Melinda: Love it.
Charlotte: Yeah.
Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate and we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And again, please join us for our and create monthly coaching groups starting in January of 2025. We're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin in person together with Charlotte, which is so wonderful.
And the podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios here in Austin. Thanks so much for being with us. And see you next time.
