If you're busy, you're progressing... right?

Over the next 7 weeks, as we count down to the start of CREATIVE SHIFT on 7th September 2026, I’ll be sharing some of the themes, questions and insights we explore as we develop a deeper understanding of ourselves, our work and our creative practice.

If you’d like to join the waitlist, you’ll find a link at the bottom of this post.

As artists, we’re often encouraged to keep moving - take another course, read another book, visit another exhibition, watch another tutorial, experiment with another material, start another sketchbook…and to be fair, all of those things can be valuable.

I love learning, I love discovering new artists, exploring new materials and filling notebooks with ideas. But over the years, I’ve noticed there comes a point where doing something more doesn’t help - in fact, sometimes it becomes the thing that’s getting in the way. Because all of those experiences, ideas, influences, observations and experiments need somewhere to go. They need time, they need space, and they need a chance to settle - and yet many of us move from one thing to the next without ever giving ourselves that opportunity 💫

We’re so busy gathering information that we rarely stop to ask:

What am I actually noticing here?

What did I learn from that course?

What do I think about all of this?

What’s changing inside me?

It’s a bit like making a cup of tea and immediately taking out the teabag - it hasn’t had time to infuse or deepen. The water is changing colour, but there’s no real flavour yet (I’m a tea lover, and can appreciate it at all stages, but it’s much more enriching when it’s had a chance to percolate for a minute or two) 😊

Creativity works in much the same way - the painting session, the walk, the conversation, the exhibition visit, the book, the workshop, the sketchbook experiment… Individually they all have value - but often the real magic happens afterwards, not while we’re actively doing, but while we’re processing, evaluating and reflecting. While we’re allowing seemingly unrelated things to connect.

I’m sure I’m not alone when recalling the number of times an idea has arrived while walking, showering, driving, gardening or staring out of a window - this isn’t because we’ve been trying really hard to think of something, it’s because we create enough space for something to surface. This is something I’ve become increasingly aware of in my own practice. Whenever I reach a point where things feel slightly off, I rarely find the answer by pushing harder (no matter how much I want that answer!) Instead, I pause, I step back and I begin to ask questions. And more often than not, that’s where the answer appears - or at least the pathway is clear for the answers to begin appearing. It doesn’t always happen instantly, but it’s as though I make space and my brain realises, ‘oh okay - there’s a gap here now, I can start to look at this’. Almost as though it was waiting for me to stop long enough to notice it.

Perhaps that’s why I no longer see pauses as interruptions. I see them as a necessary part of the work.

In fact, I value them so much, that this is one of the themes we explore inside CREATIVE SHIFT. We spend time talking about inspiration, materials, experimentation, play and creative development. But we also spend time looking at what happens in the spaces between those things - because creativity isn’t only built through action - it’s also shaped through awareness, reflection, evaluation, and allowing experiences time to settle.

Some of the most significant shifts don’t happen while we’re making - they happen when we’re paying attention to what the making is teaching us. A walk can be part of the work, journaling can be part of the work, sitting quietly with a cup of tea can be part of the work, looking at a painting and choosing not to touch it for a few days can be part of the work, knowing you need a little time out can be part of the work.

None of those things produce visible results in the moment, but they create the conditions and space that allow meaningful work to emerge. We live in a world that places enormous value on activity, ‘busy’ often looks productive, constant movement can feel reassuring - we ‘feel’ that we must be getting somewhere because we’re always ‘doing’. But creativity doesn’t always work like that, sometimes the most productive thing we can do is stop - not forever(!), and not because we’ve thrown in the towel - but because we need moments of recalibration, we sometimes need to catch up with ourselves. The percolation of ideas, insights and answers is often simmering away beneath the surface. Our minds continue making connections even when we’re not consciously trying to solve anything.

It reminds me of the saying: trust the process ✨

So here’s a question I’d love to leave you with:

When was the last time you gave yourself a genuine pause?

One that you didn’t fill with the shopping list, scrolling on your phone, thoughts of ‘I should’…

A moment where nothing was required of you - except paying attention to the pause.

And if you did create that space...

What might you hear?

It’s one of the many reasons we’ve dedicated an entire week of CREATIVE SHIFT to the idea of the purposeful pause. Because mostly, the next step doesn’t arrive when we’re searching harder, it arrives when we make enough space to notice it.

Enrolment for CREATIVE SHIFT opens next month and we begin on 7th September 2026.

Join the waitlist here 👇🏻