From Survival Mode to Creative Soul

The joy is in the journey of creating—not the outcome, but the becoming.

Hey LW2 Community! How are you living? Are you living well? Are you living whole?

If you’ve been feeling stuck, numb, or like you’ve lost touch with that spark inside—you’re not alone. This week’s post is an invitation to step out of survival mode and back into the your authentic  flow of creativity and expression. Whether it’s through doodling, dancing, gardening, or journaling, your soul is calling. Let’s answer.

I. Introduction: Creativity as a Vital Life Force

There is a myth that we buy into: that creativity is for the gifted, the elite, the exceptional, or the eccentric. That it’s something you do if you have extra time, extra talent, or extra money. But the truth is this:

Creativity is not a luxury. It is a lifeline. It is our birthright.  It is essential to whole living.

When life demands survival, many of us have learned to shut down the parts of ourselves that aren’t deemed essential. When things get rough or we are conditioned to be adults, we default to shutting off from parts of our inherent selves.  We silence the songs, the stories, the sketches, and scribbles. We abandoned the playful parts of ourselves.  We stop coloring and exploring, painting and molding.  We trade vivid color for safe grayscale, flow for function. But creativity doesn’t disappear—it waits.

It waits beneath the surface of our schedules, under the armor of our achievements, beyond the boundaries of logic. It waits like a sacred ember, ready to glow again at the slightest breath of attention.

Creativity is not performative. It is essential. It is the language of your soul. It is how your spirit speaks when words fall short. It is how your unique blueprint for life, vitality and energy expresses.

To create is to remember yourself.To create is to return to aliveness.To create is to invite flow, not force.

To create we enter a rested state. We shift our focus.  We decrease the worry and the anxiety.   It is here we also find problem solving.  This is your invitation to reclaim the part of you that once danced, dreamed, wrote, built, baked, painted, photographed, or prayed through pages and playlists. That part of you is not gone. It’s  just been waiting for permission.

So let this be your reminder:

“Creativity is not a luxury—it is the soul’s breath.”

You don’t need a degree to be creative.  No fine arts school needed. You don’t need perfection. You don’t need permission.  You just need presence.

So Let’s begin.

II. The Soul-Suppressing Weight of Survival Mode

Survival mode is a shape we take when life demands too much, too fast, with too little support. It is a clenched jaw, a shallow breath, a racing mind. It’s the quiet hum of anxiety that never quite turns off. It’s hyper-productivity masking grief, and numbness mistaken for resilience.

When we live in survival mode, creativity often becomes the first casualty.

Because creativity requires presence—and presence feels dangerous when life has taught us to stay alert.Because creativity requires slowness—and slowness feels indulgent when you’re trying to outrun scarcity, shame, trauma or abandonment.Because creativity requires curiosity—and curiosity is hard to summon when your nervous system is in fight, flight, fawn or freeze.

In this state, we disconnect from imagination, intuition, and inspiration. We trade in wonder for work. We silence the poems, the paintbrushes, the playlists. We become efficient but empty. We may even become paralyzed, flat and lose our joy.

But here’s the truth: we were never meant to live there.

Survival mode may have been necessary once. It may have saved us for a certain time in a specific context. But we are not meant to stay in a place where our soul cannot sing.

Prompt: When did your creative self go quiet?

Let’s listen for her that again.

III. The Creative Soul: A Conduit for Sacred Perspective

Creativity is not something we own—it’s something we carry. Something we steward. Something that flows through us, not from us. We are conduits of the creative. 

We are not the source. We are the instrument.

To create is to translate the unseen and inspired into the seen. To take emotion and give it shape. To take silence and give it sound. To take the intangible and render it into something that can be touched, felt, tasted, remembered, experienced.

Twenty-five people can photograph the same flower, the same skyline, the same hand, and not one image will be identical. Because you are not just capturing a scene—you’re capturing perspective. Essence. Sentiment. Energy.

The same story can be told a thousand times, but only you can tell it the way you live it.

Your creative work carries your signature, your blueprint—not just your style, but your soul.

Journal Prompt: What do you see that others might miss?

Your lens is your legacy. Let it speak.

IV. Creativity as Soul Medicine

Creativity doesn’t just entertain—it heals. It meets us where language ends and lets us speak through color, sound, shape, rhythm, or flow.

When we write, paint, move, sing, cook, plant, build—we soothe our nervous systems. We regulate our breath. We drop from our head into our body, from chaos into calm. Creative expression invites coherence where there once was dissonance.

It restores parts of us that have gone silent from trauma, grief, or disconnection.It brings clarity when the mind is cluttered. It offers release when emotions feel too big for words.

You don’t have to be a professional artist for this to be true.You don’t have to be good—you just have to be honest.

Affirmation: “When I create, I remember who I am.”

This is the medicine we carry within us at all times. Free, infinite, and waiting.

Let yourself return to it.

V. Creativity as a Portal to Flow, Energy & Abundance

Creativity doesn’t just feel good—it opens the floodgates.

When we make space to create, we reconnect to the river of life. Energy begins to flow. Inspiration bubbles up. Possibilities expand. Creativity is not just an outlet—it’s an entryway to vitality.

It cracks us open. It softens what’s hardened. It ignites the spirit.

Whether it’s doodle art, crochet, photography, coloring, singing, dancing, or writing, there is something inside you waiting to be expressed.

You don’t need to monetize it. You don’t need to perfect it. You don’t even need to share it.

You just need to let it live.

Every act of creation is a vote for life, a signal to the universe that you are open to receive—not just ideas, but energy, joy, and abundance.

Creativity recalibrates your frequency. It brings you back into alignment with your truth and reminds you that you are not depleted. You are a wellspring.

Truth Reminder: You are not starting from lack. You are starting from a wellspring.

Prompt: What creative outlet feels joyful, healing, or energizing to you right now?

Let it lead you. Let it lift you.

VI. The Lies That Steal Our Creative Voice

• Common myths: “I’m not creative,” “It’s already been done,” “It’s not good enough.”

• These are inherited wounds—cultural, familial, systemic.

• Reclaiming our voice means rejecting the narrative of inadequacy.

• Affirmation: “I am the only one who can tell my story in my way.”

Midlife Creativity: The Return of Voice & Vision

So many women find their creative power after 40. After caregiving. After loss. After holding up the world.

Midlife isn’t an ending—it’s a becoming.

There is wisdom in your weariness. There is fire in your softness. There is creative power in your second act that the world desperately needs.

Prompt: What did you once love that it’s time to return to?

Let it rise again. No guilt. No shame. Just truth and courage.

Not Everyone Will Get It. That’s Okay.

Your art won’t be for everyone. Your voice won’t land with every ear. That’s not failure. That’s discernment.

You’re not here to be understood by everyone. You’re here to be true to yourself.

What you create will reach those it’s meant for. And for those it doesn’t—let it pass. And if it’s just for you – that’s okay.  If it feels good to you – that’s enough. 

Affirmation: “I honor what flows through me. It’s enough.”

Keep creating. Keep becoming.

Creative Challenge: Reignite Your Flow

This month, choose one thing. One small creative act. Something joyful. Something freeing. Something honest.

Try:

• Junk journaling

• Poetry

• Doodling

• Stitching affirmations into fabric

• Voice memos

• Creating a legacy box

• Upcycling old things into new meaning

• Pottery Class

• Coloring

• Song Writing

• Singing

Challenge Prompt: What will you create or return to this month? Share your spark. Your joy might inspire someone else to begin.

Closing Invitation: Your Creativity Is Calling

You are not broken. You are not empty. You are not behind.

You are a wellspring of expression. You are the art. You are the artist. You are the altar.

Let yourself create. Let yourself be. Let beauty rise. It is infinite within you. 

Final Affirmation: “My creativity is sacred. My voice is needed. My life is art in motion.”

Feeling the spark? What’s one creative act you’ll say yes to this week?Let us know in the comments or tag @LiveWellLiveWhole with your creative moment.We’d love to witness what’s rising in you.