In this conversation, Carolyn Fallert and Anne van Damme discuss breaking free from corporate glasses and the destination mindset to embrace the 3D sphere of creativity in everyday life. Creativity is not a simple equation. It’s a lot more in dept than 1 +1=2. From viewing logo design as "cleaning your brushes" to finding joy in side projects, we explore how stepping away from linear productivity allows us to build our"experimentation muscle, trust the process, and reclaim childlike playfulness.

• Cleaning Your Brushes: Administrative tasks aren't just logistical chores to cross off a list; they are an invitation to practice creativity and infuse meaning into every step.

• Overcoming the Destination Mindset: Fixating solely on getting published or finished means walking past the "gardens" on your left and right

• Building the Experimentation Muscle: Unrelated side projects—like building a physical garden wall out of cement or sewing clothes—train you to try new things without fear and help you become a whole person.

• Creativity as a Pot of Soup: Moving away from the rigid corporate formula (Energy In = Output Out), art is like making soup from scratch—an intuitive, multi-sensory process of intermixing ingredients from a seemingly empty pantry.

• Playfulness through Hermit Crab Essays: Borrowing existing shells—like writing a fine-dining review from a dog's perspective or a restraining order against a bikini wax—taps back into the uninhibited joy of a five-year-old.

• Stopping to Smell the Flowers: Pausing to appreciate small details, like bees and blooms in a newly planted garden, nourishes the creator and feeds back into the main artistic work.

Find Carolyn:
Substack: https://yourpowers.substack.com/

Instagram: @in.our.powers- https://www.instagram.com/in.our.powers/

Podcast: In Our Powers (launching August17, 2026)

YouTube: @inourpowers - https://www.youtube.com/@inourpowers

•
Find out more about our host Anne van Damme (⁠@annevandammesongwriter⁠)
Listen to her music on ⁠Spotify⁠or ⁠anywhere else⁠
•
Learn everything about Amie McNee (⁠@inspiredtowrite⁠)
And ⁠The Inspired Collective⁠

What happens when your nervous system isn't ready for your dreams? In this episode we sit down with Spanish singer-songwriter and poet Gala Gomez to dismantle the toxic hustle culture surrounding the arts.If you have ever felt like pure sabotage took over right as your creative dreams were within reach, you aren't lazy, undisciplined, or lacking grit—your nervous system might just be trying to keep you safe.

Gala opens up about the painful, confusing reality of freezing at the height of her musical career—choosing to walk away from two promising EPs, a major indie label connection, and eventually, a highly successful Substack. Together, Anne and Gala explore why our bodies sometimes hit the emergency brakes on our ambitions, and how true healing requires moving out of our heads and back into our bodies.

In this episode, we explore:

• The Creative Freeze: Gala’s raw story of walking away from a major music breakthrough and a thriving poetry platform, and why society's diagnosis of "lack of discipline" is dead wrong.

• The "Middle-Class Artist" & Reimagining Success: Why we don't all want to be Taylor Swift—and normalizing the desire to simply make a decent living through art without the pressure of fame.

• When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough: Why intellectualizing our trauma doesn't heal a dysregulated nervous system, and the power of somatic, body-focused therapy.

• The Survival Modes of the Past: How fight, flight, freeze, and fawn served as childhood coping mechanisms, and why those same survival instincts eventually drain us as adults.

• Learning to "Notice" and Receive: Anne shares her beautiful breakthrough of finally playing guitar in her garden after a decade of hyper-vigilance, and the micro-practice of telling yourself, "I see you."

Whether you are an artist, a recovering perfectionist, or someone who feels perpetually stuck in survival mode, this episode is a gentle invitation to stop fighting your body and finally allow yourself to simply be.

Find Gala Gomez
on Substack: https://substack.com/@poemsat23
•
Find out more about our host Anne van Damme (⁠@annevandammesongwriter⁠)
Listen to her music on ⁠Spotify⁠or ⁠anywhere else⁠
•
Learn everything about Amie McNee (⁠@inspiredtowrite⁠)
And ⁠The Inspired Collective⁠

In this episode, host Anne van Damme sits down with mixed media artist Gina Parker (Gina Marie Art) to explore the profound connection between creativity, healing, and sobriety. After hitting rock bottom and choosing sobriety in late 2021, Gina experienced an unmistakable call to return to painting. Through her vibrant work with acrylics and spray paint, she discovered that leaning into the process—rather than obsessing over the outcome or trying to force a specific niche—was the key to defeating perfectionism and reconnecting with her inner child. Together, Anne and Gina unpack the realities of living month to month as a creative, the power of allowing yourself to "play," and why simply showing up for yourself with whatever energy you have is the ultimate act of artistic freedom.

In this episode:

• Art as Meditation and Medicine: How Gina used painting to anchor herself in the present moment during early sobriety, helping her navigate past the walls of perfectionism.

• The "Signature" of Presence: Why you don't actually need to "find" your artistic style—it naturally emerges through the unique physical movements and marks you make when you are truly present.

• Permission to Play: Dismantling the societal guilt of spending time and money on creativity, and choosing your mental and spiritual health over the corporate grind.

• Redefining Consistency: Moving away from the pressure to create identical outputs every day and learning to accept rest as a vital part of the creative process.

• The Magic of Budget Creating: Tips on experimenting with low-cost materials, from $3 charcoal to painting on the backs of discarded macaroni boxes and old book pages.

• The Value of Community and "Body Doubling": How external audio prompts and creative collectives can offer the vital support needed to build an abundant practice when you can't find it in you yet to do it alone.

Find Gina Marie Art:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gina_marie_art_ Substack: https://open.substack.com/pub/ginamarieart

Big Cartel: https://ginamarieart.bigcartel.com/
•
Find out more about our host Anne van Damme (⁠@annevandammesongwriter⁠)
Listen to her music on ⁠Spotify⁠or ⁠anywhere else⁠
•
Learn everything about Amie McNee (⁠@inspiredtowrite⁠)
And ⁠The Inspired Collective⁠