Ep #181: Turning Up the Dial on Your Creativity… Literally

“The object is not to make art. The object is to be in that state which makes art inevitable,” American painter Robert Henri. I’ve referenced this quote before. It’s one of my favorites. It is also a wisdom, a truth that was in part my inspiration for the Art School philosophy. And that philosophy is that it is by cultivating an extraordinarily creative way of being that makes our extraordinary results, our art, our life inevitable.

But what are those states that allow us to be open? To be open to flow and the kind of creativity, and also the kind of focus and energy that are necessary to cultivate these ways of being and to make our art, to make all of this; our creative dreams, a creative way of life, an extraordinary way of living and being inevitable.

In last week’s episode, we talked about the states of being that are not conducive to your greatest creative way of being and your greatest art. Specifically, we talked about what happens in your brain and body when you are criticized and judged, by others or by yourself. We talk about how your brain perceives this as a threat and literally puts your entire system into survival mode. Which, as we know, is not creative mode.

In this week’s episode, I want to talk more about the states of mind that are conducive to creativity. I want to talk about brainwaves, neurotransmitters. And because, as Joe Dispenza says, “Knowledge is the precursor to experience,” we’re going to talk a little bit about the basics, the fundamentals of neurotransmitters, what they are, and brain states.

Because in order to have these experiences more intentionally, more adeptly, as a masterful artist who is sculpting her mind, sculpting her spirit, her body, in order to channel his or her own greatest art, then it is useful to have a basic understanding of what is going on in our brain and in our body in these optimal creative and generative states.

If you have ever wondered, “How do I access those optimal creative states? How do I turn off hibition, self-criticism, and censorship, and instead turn up creativity?” Then the knowledge presented in this episode can help be a precursor to you having exactly those experiences.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast. How are you doing? Let me tell you, creating this episode and the last one have been very meta for me. I was thinking, as I was finalizing some notes and doing more research on things like brainwaves and then looking at my creative process for the podcast these last couple of weeks when my kids have had so many breaks, some unexpected things, interruptions have come up, and watching my brain move into more stressed, high-alert, beta states, where there’s more cortisol and adrenaline, definitely not ideal for creating.

And then, watching the process to move back down to waves of alpha or theta – and even as I’m speaking and I used the phrase, “Watching the process,” it’s not even entirely accurate because it’s very much a process I do. And very much a process I’m engaged in, all the time.

And I wanted to make sure I started this episode with that because one of the most frequently asked questions that I receive, particularly from people new to this work, new to my work, is, “But how do I change?” And I can sense an urgency and a confusion.

And often, there is understandable resistance to my answer, which is that it is a cultivation, which is a process, and which is a practice, and which requires a high level of commitment because it requires a high level of energy. And as research shows, having the proper emotion, like emotion helps get the attention of our brain and helps us change. It also helps us stay committed over the long haul.

And in a culture where so much of our education is delivered, or the idea of education is boxed in this paradigm that we’re essentially empty boxes and we put information in the box and then we should know it and then we should be changed, when actually true learning, and I think awakening of the human spirit, evoking human potential is more of a process of sculpture. And truly again, that word cultivation.

And it takes place over a period of time and, again, requires being engaged in it. So, sometimes people will also ask me, when it comes to whatever I’m creating, art, a business, starting a family, should I do my inner work before I do my outer work? And that’s not a question I can answer for anyone.

I can tell you, for me, the process that has been the most rich and yielded the most insight and traction and deepening and discovering has been both simultaneously inner and outer, one informing the other. Case in point, this podcast.

I have mentioned before that there’s something about speaking my ideas, my take on things into the world, it’s been a healing process, a healing journey. It’s another art form for me, this podcast and the coaching and teaching work that I do. And, with any artistic endeavor, there’s always the vision you begin with and then there’s always what you deliver, which is never quite the vision.

But my work has been to remove the layers of armor or interference or self-censorship that stand between what I feel is my original voice and my original creative spirit, my essence, and then what I share with you.

And some weeks, for whatever reason – I mean, I know the reasons at the time – there are times when I feel more choked up and more blocked and more anxious, more nervous. Literally, my face kind of feels tight and frozen and I can’t think And I know I’m not delivering the best of my essence. And at the same time, the practice too is to have a lot of grace and to be committed to the practice and to recenter and refocus on my intention so that I can focus on my attention.

As I’ve said, it’s what we give our attention to that we give life to. And so, I just wanted to begin this podcast with a refresher on what the process actually is. Because I’m going to share some information today that is more along the lines of basic facts, language, vocabulary, building blocks.

Because I can talk to you all day, every day, all year long, for years and years about the process of cultivating an extraordinary way of being, the process of creating extraordinary results in your life. But if I don’t tell you why we’re doing what we do in this process, it is not going to connect with you in the same way.

And part of being able to really internalize and own the why we do what we do in a certain process is understanding the fundamental parts and being able to connect those dots in your brain so that as you engage in a practice, you know what you’re doing, you know why you’re doing it, you can identify discreet parts. You can think, “Oh, here I can tell, I’m probably in beta. What happens? What’s going on with the brain waves and neurotransmitters? What happens to my physiology? How do I tend to think and feel and act when I’m in this state? What’s theta again? What is the stage of moving down from beta, alpha, theta, and then there’s delta?” And then there’s also gamma. We probably won’t talk about that today.

But it is incredibly – I won’t even say empowering. It is. But it’s also essential to empower yourself with these building blocks so that you understand these parts of the why, so that you can really own it, so the how, the process that you engage in becomes so much more meaningful.

Because when there is meaning in a process, you are going to be far more successful, far more powerful, far more effective than if you just feel like you’re trying something, you’re not sure what you’re doing, you’re kind of half in, half out. You’re skeptical. You’re not committed.

Instead, give yourself permission to become adept. Give yourself permission to become a master. Maybe you haven’t allowed yourself to think of yourself in that way before. But this is not something that is beyond any of you.

So many times, things that – like you say neuroscience, or you say creativity even and people shut down and think, “That’s not for me.” Let me tell you a secret. One of the secrets to learning is to start with the building blocks of the language.

Once you have the building blocks of a language, whether it’s music, whether it’s law, whether it’s painting, whether it’s neuroscience, whether it’s finance and money and creating wealth, once you have the basic building blocks, you can be just minimally literate in an area, entire new words open up to you and that is because first those worlds open up to you in your mind when you have fundamental language.

Language is representing concepts and ideas. So, don’t glaze over this part. I’m going to keep it simple so that it’s easy not to glaze over and you can come back to it again and again, maybe draw pictures of how it relates to you. Really go about your own self-study process to internalize these concepts.

And oh my god, we live in the age of information. There are scientific papers available to you. There are also primers that will help you get down basic vocabulary, basic associations. And then, you can build from there.

I think this is beyond self-help. This is beyond success and goals. For me, this really is about finding what’s out there for us that ennobles and empowers us to continue to grow and develop as humans, not only throughout our own life, but yes, throughout our own life.

There’s no reason you should stop learning and challenging yourself and being curious and passionate about learning and growing after you graduate from college or after you master your job or after you go to graduate school. There’s no reason you should stop.

This is also about empowering and ennobling us to evolve as a mass consciousness, as humans. I talked in last week’s podcast about how I tell and remind myself and my clients that when the brain is activated and when our whole physiology is activated and we go into lockdown, we go into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. We go into survival mode. We just can’t seem to get out of our own way and we start beating ourselves up or we engage in self-criticism and we’re like, “Why do I do this to myself when I know better?”

So, instead of engaging in more self-criticism by being hard on ourselves, I remind myself and my clients, this is not something to take personally. This is not some area where you are fundamentally flawed. You are not. This is just how the human brain has evolved. This is just a brain doing as a brain does. This is just neuroscience, neurobiology, physiology. It’s very human. It’s very general.

And then, one of my dear Art School clients, Art School masterminders posted this week on our Slack channel – it was Anna Ryan Drew, more on her in a second. She posted a video from Eckhart Tolle and he was phrasing the same idea using different language and in a more spiritual sense, which also deeply resonates with me.

And he was saying, “You know, when we get pulled back into unconsciousness, when we fall asleep when we forget that we have the tools to be awake and to evolve ourselves and to transcend limiting thoughts, fear, limiting emotions, not to beat ourselves up because it is, again,” he was saying, “Not something to take personally. But it’s simply that that there is this very powerful momentum, for thousands of years, this momentum in this dream of human consciousness, mass consciousness, which is thick, heavy, powerful, loaded with things like fear and self-judgment and self-criticism and self-loathing.”

So, again, to not make those things personal to us, that it is some deep individual flaw, but to instead think of it as not personality but simply a consciousness in transition, a human consciousness that is evolving and is in transition.

So, whether thinking that big picture is helpful for you, whether just remembering it’s nothing to take personally, it’s actually just the science of the body, it’s actually just the nature of the brain, I hope those two orientations help empower you.

And also, if you’re simply in a place where you’re like, “You know what? I just want to feel better and make my art.” Can we please just talk about how to turn down that dial of self-criticism and judgment, how to turn the dial down on hibitions, on self-censorship, on any of these reflexive ways that we hold ourselves back and that something within us hijacks us and stands between our fullest, truest expression – it’s like a guard – and getting that fullest, truest expression out into the world.

And how do I turn up the dial on my capital C Creativity? How do I turn up the dial on that experience of being in the flow of creativity where you have access to a free flow of ideas and you also have the type of energy and the state of mind and the focus that enables you to follow that through, that work through, all the way to completion, all the way through to the inevitable success?

So, if that’s what you want to do, turning the dial down on hibitions, holding yourself back, turn the dial up on creativity, first learning about the mechanism of the brain and the body and how they work together is incredibly empowering. As is, then, applying yourself in the practice and the process.

So, this is all of the work that we do in the Art School. So, while you don’t need to work with me or my group, if you are interested, I would love to have you apply to see if it’s a good fit. And there’s a link in my show notes. Our next cohort starts July 2022, so just a couple months away, and we’re already accepting applications for very limited spaces.

However, the other suggestion I have is to find yourself a container. Because this kind of process and healing doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in community, in the right kind of community with reinforcements for you putting this into practice and reinforcements to keep this new knowledge and keep this new way of being at the forefront of your mind and intention.

Someone will also inevitably ask, “Hey, do I really need to cultivate an extraordinary way of being in order to create?” And my answer is, absolutely not. This isn’t for everyone. And I understand that my approach is not for everyone. This process is really for you if you are like, “I know I’m creating, but I know I’m just tapping a fraction of my potential. And I’m tapping a fraction of my potential to love the process and to really cultivate the kind of personhood, the kind of soul that I want to be from the inside out. If that’s what really speaks to you, then this process will speak to you because my work is really about sculpting a mind, a heart, a body, a way of being so that it serves the greatest work, whether that’s your soul, whether that for you is God, whether that’s the highest good.

Because this process, like I said in the intro, that quote, “The object is not to make art. It’s to be in that state which makes art inevitable.” So, I care about the art. But this isn’t only and ultimately merely about creating a material outcome or object. It is about developing a greater awareness of what it is to be human, a greater awareness of what you want it to mean to be a human and to be your human.

It is about being more and more awake and creative and intentional and not just falling asleep at the wheel and having your life run on programs that you’ve internalized that were written according to other people’s ideas, according to history, the way things have always been done, the status quo.

So, again, it is yes about the art, and then about this state of being which I think is really about conscious creativity. And what are the nitty-gritty elements that we have to work with? What are the tools we have to work with when we are becoming conscious creators?

Clearly our brain plays a central role in this. Contemplatives have long known that the brain, the mind play a central role in shaping human consciousness and shaping a human life. So, why shouldn’t this be for creatives, for artists, for all people? Because all people are creative too.

While we can look throughout history and we can study contemplatives, monks, nuns, people who’ve been meditating for years, and they do, and they’re considered like the Olympic athletes of mind training. But there’s so much we can learn now from these thousands of years of tradition, and then also these insights we get from now being able to see into the brain, whether it’s through EEGs or FMRIs and then also the things we learn from blood.

Why not then use all the tools available to us so that we too can become – I mean, my first program over a decade ago was called Soul Genius or Soul Athletes because that’s what I envisioned, using this kind of mind training and really holistic mind, body, and spirit in order to be like the Olympic athletes of mind training. Maybe just for the fun of it, because it is fun and fascinating, and then also because it seems so central to what is necessary to us as a race.

So, let’s talk about the brain and the brain playing a central role. So, the brain is electrochemical in nature; electrochemical. That means there is electricity and that means there are chemicals, there’s chemistry.

So, if, as an artist, as a human, you want to develop a creative process that includes and is informed by cultivating a new and intentional way of being, it’s so empowering to understand the role that your brain plays. Science, over the last few decades, has shown us that our brain and our body interact and communicate through the exchange of electrochemical signals.

The brain, again, is electrochemical in nature, so this makes sense. So, how do the brain and the body communicate and interact. So, this is a simplified and I think sufficient introductory explanation. But it will give you the language and the footholds to explore more and begin to think about this and begin to build a model of understanding in your own mind.

So, how do the brain and the body communicate? Well, through brainwaves and neurotransmitters. What are brain waves? Brain waves are electrical impulses in your brain. An individuals behavior, emotions, and thoughts are communicated between this exchange of information between neurons and our brains.

Another way of saying this is that brainwaves are your neurons communicating and they communicate, they occur as these rhythmic waves of synchronized electrical activity. And different brain waves and combinations of them correlate to certain physiological processes and states of consciousness.

The major brain wave frequencies are gamma, beta, alpha, theta, and delta. And now, it’s not necessarily the case that there is just, if you’re in delta you’re in delta, if you’re in alpha you’re in alpha, you’re in beta you’re in beta just one at a time. This activity in the brain, this electrical activity, these waves in the brain while not just occurring one at a time, it’s often been compared more to an orchestra, the way this activity works in the brain, the brain is often producing combinations of these waves.

That being said, there is usually one dominant brain wave at any given time. And that brain wave that’s dominant has certain physiological effects. That means any given brainwave that I’ve mentioned, like delta, gamma, beta, alpha, theta, has certain effects on your body, physiological effects which are often referred to as their particular signature.

So, I’ll talk about the particular signatures because there are certain brainwaves that have certain signatures that are highly conducive to creativity or different kinds of creativity.

I say conducive to, also correlated with. There are also conversely other brain waves that are not often correlated with certain kinds of creativity and instead are correlated with feelings of anxiety, stress, threat, which we talked about last week.

So, just a quick refresher. Last week, we talked a lot about threat and how the brain experiences criticism, self-criticism, criticism from others as threat. That is typically correlated with a beta brain wave pattern. That’s correlated, associated with stress, with panic, and also then with the production of stress hormones, like cortisol, like adrenaline, which would be great if you were actually being chased by a lion or a tiger because cortisol and adrenaline, they cause your heart rate and breathing rate to kick into gear, to uptick, and they also insight other fight, flight, or freeze phenomena.

If you ever, however, have experienced panic, anxiety, dread, paralysis, or just total shutdown when trying to meet a deadline, maybe for a book, maybe for a writing project, maybe just thinking about it, or you came to an impasse in a painting and just felt yourself not able to think clearly and in a fog, or like you just wanted to run away, flight, or you had no way forward, freeze, or just highly irritable, like the fight.

Then that was you experiencing, again, that cortisol and adrenaline. Obviously not really helpful for getting in the space you need to tap into solutions and to access like an inner peace or an equanimity in order to just return and finish the project and move on.

So, before we go on and talk about the characteristics of other brain wave patterns, I want to go back to a few definitions. So, we gave the definition for a brain wave, which is the electrical impulse in the brain. We talked about how the brain is electrochemical in nature, so obviously brain waves are the electrical part. But what about the chemical part?

Well, that is comprised – again, this is an abridged explanation – of these things called ligands. Ligands are chemicals in your body that connect to cells and affect cells and it happens in a fraction of a second. There are three different kinds of these chemicals. There are neurotransmitters, neuropeptides, and hormones.

For the purposes of this episode, I really like the definitions that Joe Dispenza offers in his book Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself. He says to, “Think of neurotransmitters as chemical messengers primarily from the brain and the mind. Neuropeptides as chemical signalers that serve as a bridge between the brain and the body to make us feel the way we think.”

So, when he says that neuropeptides are chemical signalers that serve as a bridge between the brain and the body to make us feel the way we think, he’s saying that we think equal to the way we feel and that then we also tend to feel equal to the way that we think. There’s a loop, the thinking-feeling loop he talks about.

And then, he goes on to give this definition for hormones, “That they are the chemicals related to feelings, primarily in the body.” So, let’s go back to the beginning.

Remember, the brain is electrochemical in nature. Brainwaves are the electrical part, and then we also have this chemical part, which we’ll just shorthand call the neurotransmitters. The simplified description of their relationship is that when our brains are functioning in these primary brainwave states, each brain wave is associated with the release, the activation of certain neurotransmitters.

And generally speaking, neurotransmitters can be grouped into two kinds of categories: excitatory and inhibitory. So, excitatory, it not necessarily excites you, but it stimulates. It activates the brain. Inhibitory calms the brain and helps create balance.

So, let’s talk a little bit more about each of the brain wave states. I’ve already mentioned beta, which is this very awake, alert state. And it is necessary for certain kinds of focus and concentration. It is, however, a very reactionary state. We are reacting to our environment, very aware of our environment and reacting to it.

Again, it’s not that you can’t function and produce in this state. But too much beta, which is the result of too much stress, which many of us have, and then we’re living in this reactionary state all the time. And again, I’ve mentioned the cortisol, the adrenaline, and how often in this state we are in a stress response, we are in fight or flight. So, we are living in this reactionary state, which is not a creative state, a lot of the time.

Also, high beta produces very incoherent signals and produces a feeling of being scattered and having very scattered thoughts. Whereas some of the other brain states, particularly alpha and theta, are characterized by orderly, organized, and coherent brain signals and also a feeling of order, organization, and inner coherence.

Joe Dispenza talks about one way of knowing if you’re in a beta state is if you are constantly analyzing, constantly being in the analytical mind. It’s important because, in this state, in beta, when you’re in the analytical mind and in this incoherent brain wave state, you are not able to access the subconscious mind.

That experience of paralysis by analysis happens in beta. And as I said in last week’s podcast, we’re so conditioned to think analysis and also harsh self-criticism and judgment alongside that kind of analysis, is necessary for creativity. But actually – and I love this line from Joe Dispenza, he says that awareness can exist outside of analysis.

So, similar to what I was saying last week, that it’s not about throwing objective, calm, measured evaluation and reflection out the door. It is instead about arriving at an awareness that allows you to observe and allows you to see, allows you to access the subconscious, the unconscious, the imaginal mind, long-term perspective, long-term memory is in these states of high beta.

They’re fueled by cortisol and adrenaline where you can get thigs done, but you’re more apt to do it from experiences that can be characterized as forcing outcomes rather than being in that creative state when things come to you, when you are aligned with maybe a wondering mind that asks questions, ponders things, even comes up against a wall but then also that state in which, again, things come to you.

The next brain wave state I want to talk about is alpha. And this is one often associated with creativity, relaxation, daydreaming. Alpha state produces acetylcholine. So, acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that has both the excitatory and inhibitory functions. So, it can both fire us up and also slow us down and slow down nerve signals.

When we are in alpha, when we are producing acetylcholine, it assists in helping us to learn, to memorize, to access memory, to be stimulated enough to take in new information and retain it. And it is also conducive to neuroplasticity.

The next and third brain wave state I want to talk about is theta. So, in theta, some people have called it that liminal brain wave state, the twilight state where you are half awake, half asleep. Some have said it’s the breakthrough state where all major innovation and discovery and leaps in creativity reside.

Theta has also been associated with heightened states of consciousness, super learning, and again, major creative breakthroughs. So, when our brain is in theta, it produces GABA. GABA is a neurotransmitter that modulates the electrical rhythms of our body and t produces a calming effect.

That is a very simplified explanation. But if you think about how GABA is known for stress-reducing and sleep-enhancing effects and for making the rest of the bran operate in optimal states, and then combine that with what we know about theta being known for breakthroughs, the presence of GABA there I think tells us something, even if we don’t entirely understand the relationship between it and creativity.

If we think about anecdotal stories of the almost trance like state, hypnogogic state in which the unconscious, the subconscious is more readily accessed, the veil there is so thin, this being a place where breakthroughs come to us, ideas come to us.

I’ll talk in future episodes about research done with jazz musicians and the parts of the brain that are inhibited that then allow other parts of the brain that are associated with free-flowing ideas and self-expression to light up.

And as I’m speaking too about parts of the brain, I also want to say this, that the most recent research seems to point to the fact that there’s not just one area of the brain responsible for certain activities, but that again it’s the brain acting more in concert, in coherence in different parts, like an orchestra.

And something about the restorative nature of the theta state, the GABA that’s produced in that state, which then helps modulate our electrical rhythms and is necessary for the optimal performance of the entire brain, I think makes a very good case for why being able to move ourselves into certain periods of theta – not all the time, but certain periods of theta – are not only useful for our creativity, but for the overall smooth functioning of our biology, then therefore of our lives.

The final brain wave state I want to talk about today is delta. So, delta is the state we’re in when we are in a very deep and restful sleep. And delta is usually associated with the production of serotonin. Serotonin is definitely inhibitory and it controls the electrical synchronicity in the brain so that both sides of your brain can talk to one another, tell your body what to do appropriately. It’s the state that lets your brain rest and recover and restore and serotonin also helps us balance out our moods.

When I was doing research for this podcast and I typed things into Google like, “Biological roots of creativity,” I came across an interesting article in Inc that was about the work of Baba Shiv, who is a marketing professor, not a neuroscientist, but a marketing professor at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. And Shiv’s research has focused on the role neural structures play in decision-making in economic behavior.

And then it goes on to say that, “He has long been fascinated by the biological roots of creativity.” This why this article turned up when I Googled biological roots of creativity.

So, according to Shiv, the right neurochemical cocktail for your best creative work is a high level of both serotonin and dopamine. He says that serotonin governs whether you’re operating from a sense of calm and contentment rather than cortisol’s position of anxiety and fear.

On the other pathway, dopamine moves you from boredom or apathy to excitement and engagement. So, he argues that a high level of both serotonin and dopamine help to produce a condition in which you are calm and energized.

So, when I read, “It helps produce a condition in which you are calm and energized,” I’m reading that as, helps to produce a state in which you are calm and energized.

So, finding those brain wave states, finding those neurochemical cocktails that do help you turn down stress, cortisol, adrenaline, high beta, and then help you tap into and turn the volume up on feeling energized, the right amount of arousal, the right amount of engagement, and bliss, and openness. But not too much that you’re distracted. The brain waves that move you into a place where the veil is thin and you can access the subconscious.

These are – whether you want to say they’re hallmarks of the way of being, of an extraordinarily creative way of being, or whether they produce it, whether they’re correlated with it, facilitate it, help create it, either way, having identified these, having an overview helps tremendously because then you know what you’re trying to do exactly when you are meditating, when you are training your mind, when you’re rewiring your mind and reconditioning your body.

As an artist, as a conscious creator, and as a coach and a teacher for other people who want to move into these extraordinary ways of being, who want to be able to summon, master, be familiar with, and more readily at will move their mind and body into these highly coherent, highly organized, highly orderly, highly creative states, that is my core objective.

So, this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me.

So, today’s episode has been a little bit different in that it’s highly informational and there are some basic facts, some fundamental building blocks, which may not be familiar to you yet. So, in order to aid your own process of rewiring your brain and reconditioning your body to be that of an affluent artist, to create within yourself an extraordinarily creative way of being that makes your extraordinary art and results inevitable, one of the practices and training methods for doing that is to get this knowledge so within you that it’s just second nature.

So, I would revisit this episode. Take notes. See if you can make meaning from the language that I’ve given you and see if you can build, as Joe Dispenza says, “A mental model of understanding.” Because if we don’t understand what we’re doing, we don’t understand why we’re doing it.

But when we do, on the other hand, know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, then we make so much more progress and we make progress faster. And just be prepared for your brain rejecting this as, “I’m just going to gloss over that. That was just really boring, I don’t need to know that part.”

So, be prepared for that. And then remind yourself, “No, the reason I’m doing this, why I’m so excited about this is because, what could it mean for us as humans?” We do have the dials for turning down hibition, censorship, criticism, cortisol, adrenaline, high beta, high stress, we have those dials within us. We have the dials within us to turn up creativity.

And I’ve just explained the nature and the structure of those dials so that you can think about it. Because ethe mind changes the brain. And if you learn about your brain, then you can more easily use your mind, use your soul, use your consciousness to shape and sculpt your brain to better serve your mind, your soul, your consciousness so that you can become an affluent artist, one who does know not only where those dials are and that they exist, but you can turn off hibition, censorship. You can turn off the part of you that gets too stressed out, that gets paralyzed, that goes into a trauma response, and that you can learn to turn up those states of being, which put you in a highly creative, highly generative state where you have access to the unconscious, you have access to more than you know.

Thank you for joining me for another episode of The Art School Podcast. Hey, I want to give a shoutout to Andrea Liebross Coaching. She tagged me on Instagram as she was listening to the podcast episode, because I’ve asked. I love it when you guys reach out and tag me on Instagram.

And so, I just wanted to give her a shoutout because I also appreciate that she has a podcast, so she knows the value, just that felt sense of connecting with a real person on the other end. So, thank you for listening, Andrea.

And if you haven’t connected with me yet, you can do so on Instagram. I’m @leahcb1. You can #theartschoolpodcast. And if you like everything you hear on the podcast, I want you to know that what I am able to shar eon the podcast scratches the surface of the work that we do in the Art School Mastermind.

Maybe someday I’ll find a way to take it deeper also on the podcast. But if this work speaks to you at all and you want to immerse yourself in the kind of container that really is about becoming an embodied affluent artist, doing the internal work that I’ve mentioned in this episode, the neuroscience work, the rewiring, the reconditioning, the spiritual work, the actual creative work, creating your goals and dreams, then you want to be in this room.

You can apply to join the next round by going to my website, finding the link to the mastermind. You can also click on the link in the show notes. And as always, email us, support@leahcb.com with any questions.

Also, coming up this June, I have a very special opportunity. As of this recording, I have two spots left to spend four days with me immersed in your deepest creativity. And I promise, there will be not only lots of theta and alpha states and tapping into a part of you that maybe you’ve never met before, there will also be amazing beds, incredible dinners cooked for you.

You will be nurtured and nourished, mind, body, and spirit on every single level. And you will leave this retreat changed forever. One of my favorite things about retreats is that I can definitely look to special ones in my experience and see a before and after. And this definitely qualifies as one of those turning point retreats.

So, if you would love to spend four days with me and four other brilliant, kindred, creative spirits being deeply cared for, nourished, having so much fun in beautiful accommodations on the shores of beautiful, divine Lake Michigan, then email us, support@leahcb.com.

This retreat does not have a sales page. Again, it’s just intimate. It’s meant for there to be ease and flow, and that if this is a yes, then you’ll know. And when you know, let us know. I am excited to see you there.

So, to close today, I actually have a little bit of the catching up that I usually do at the beginning of the podcast. But I am so excited because tomorrow, I leave for a few days for New York City. I’m going for Laura Begray’s mastermind retreat, which is part of her Shrimp Club, which I’m part of. And I’m so excited for that.

It’s a short trip because my husband has work travel on both the front end and the back end, but I am also managing to spend some time with a couple of friends, a couple of clients. I am so excited. Also, my knee is cooperating, to walk in New York City, just take in neighborhoods, eat at amazing restaurants, see the sights, see the people. I’m staying at a beautiful hotel.

The only thing is, I’ve not packed yet, which I’m thinking I may just not pack. I may just see what wants to happen. And I definitely still have COVID closet, so it doesn’t make much sense to shop before I go to New York City of all places. Maybe it will just be the right kind of constraint, the perfect amount of pressure to inspire me to remedy that COVID closet situation.

And speaking of New York City, another very exciting announcement. So, I’ve mentioned in other episodes, I love to share celebrations of Art Schoolers, past and present. And what we have coming up to look forward to in May, oh my goodness.

So, I mentioned Anna Ryan Drew earlier in the podcast. Anna is one of our longstanding members, a pillar of our community, a beloved member. And Anna is going to have an art show in New York City in May during the Frieze Art Fair.

If you don’t know Anna Ryan Drew, she is a contemporary artist, a painter, she is a force of nature and she will be exhibiting her work in West Chelsea New York as part of the West Chelsea Open Studios during Frieze New York 2022.

This will be a tour of the artists behind the scenes of the art world, the sacred studio. During this residence, Anna is going to have several works on display and she’s also going to be painting throughout the exhibition.

The focus of her studio will be a culmination titled The Soul Leads the Brain: A Communion, Art Exposition, And A Live Painting. This is going to be a celebration and an immersion into an artist’s process and paradigm.

This is happening May 20^th. The first viewing is May 20^th with an open reception from 4PM to 7PM. And then on My 21^st from 2PM to 6PM. The address is 526 West 26^th Street, Suite 1001. And again, of course, New York, New York.

So, for those of you Art Schoolers who live in the city and know Anna, here is your chance for a reunion. For those of you in the broader Art School audience who don’t know Anna yet, but maybe have met her via the podcast interview we did, yet another chance to meet her.

And Anna is one of those people, everyone who’s in the Art School knows this. She really is a force of nature. Know her and you will be changed. She’s also one of these people that evokes the art in the artist, and the other evokes the greatest art and artist in the other. It’s like she sees right into the greatness of people, into their potential, into their art and reflects that back to them in the most loving and empowering, incredibly intuitive ways.

And I haven’t even gotten started on her art. I’ve seen the space of the studio and it is beautiful. It is just a classic, beautiful New York studio space. It will be such a perfect setting for Anna’s gorgeous, gorgeous art.

So, if you are going to be in New York, either live there or visiting or traveling for Frieze, make sure you see Anna. We will also have links to all of her information and her Instagram so you can stay updated and be in touch with her.

You’ve got to follow her if you are not already. I mean, if you are looking to be in proximity to an example of somebody who embodies the affluent artist, who embodies art, who embodies capital C creativity in every area of their life, get in Anna’s orbit.

She also has just this generous spirit that she’s one of those people that bring out the best in everyone, and sometimes the best and a wildness and a creativity in the best sort of ways that they didn’t even know was there. So, I hope you will check out her art. And if you are in New York, definitely get to her show.

So, a few thoughts to leave you with today as I close. I mentioned many times how long I’ve been fascinated by this intersection between neuroscience and creativity. And in this episode and in my work, I’m often talking about how allowing our essence, our soul, also that which wants to happen through is, which I think has a soul and a spirit all its own, how healing that is.

And I think this is apart actually of sculpting our consciousness, of evolving our human consciousness. It’s a way that art and creativity can heal, that moving that creativity through us and learning about the human brain, learning about these basic biological roots of the creative process that this can actually help sculpt and shape our brains and therefore our lives and therefore the world.

And to me, it all feels incredibly benevolent. It all feels incredibly healing. I though would love to hear your thoughts on it. So, again, if you haven’t already, I encourage you to reach out and connect with me on Instagram, or always, you can email us, support@leahcb.com.

Think on that for this week. Again, I’d love to hear from you. And as always, have a beautiful week, everyone. And I look forward to talking with you next time.