Healing through Creativity with Mary Potter Kenyon

In today’s episode of the “Helping Families be Happy” podcast, host Dr. Carla Marie Manly, a practicing Clinical Psychologist, Wellness Advocate, and Author based in Sonoma County, California talks with Mary Potter Kenyon (A Certified Grief Educator, Public Speaker, and an Author) who talks about her book ‘Called to be Creative - A Guide to Reigniting Your Creativity’. Mary shares how creativity helps you and your families to be happy.

Episode Highlights

• 02:50 – Dr. Carla asks Mary about her former work, and what she has been doing before she moved to this segment of writing a book – ‘Called to be Creative’.
• 05:00 – Mary talks about her book ‘Mary and Me’ which was about a friendship fuelled by 30 years of handwritten letters.
• 06:40 – Mary says even though she grew up in poverty, her mom was the person that she saw was making their poverty-stricken house a home.
• 09:00 – Mary also interviewed various people that she saw as creative, like a yoga teacher, a painter, etc. 
• 12:00 - One of the studies that fascinated Mary was how adulthood takes a creative genius right out of us.
• 13:05 - What would you say is the reason there's that incredible drop-off in creativity? Asks Dr. Carla.
• 15:11 – Dr. Carla asks about a few pointers on how readers can bring creativity into their lives, the lives of their children, and the lives of their partners.
• 16:57 – Mary recommends to start making a list of those things that you love doing, and then making a list of things that you would do if time or money was no hindrance to you.
• 20:00 - One of the things Mary did to reflect the value of learning together was to start a creativity group at her local library, get together, and just try something different every month. She says her book is built to do that.
• 22:00 - Science shows that if you are being creative and using your natural creativity, you are going to the doctor less, there's less anxiety and there is less stress.
• 25:35 - When we find that passion, and you can hear it in other people's voices pointed out that they would love to see you doing this more because you just come alive when you're doing that.
• 27:-35 - Give yourself once a month date to check off the list of those things because if your grand pull yourself into too many directions and think well I started trade is a fair trade, you can feel overwhelmed.

Three Key Points

1. Mary thinks we all have it in us to be creative. What happens to that very creative little child, that we become an adult who can't fit creativity into their lives? So there's a little bit of science in the book - ‘Called to be Creative’ as Mary delved into the research and discovered that science is behind it, that we are designed to be creative.
2. Creativity can be what you are born with the gift, you might not think of as creativity it could be that you have a natural knack for relating to children or you have this empathy that you are a good listener that can be you can use that creatively in your job and life. A lot of people rediscovered their natural creativity during the beginning of the pandemic, doing something that they hadn't done for years like playing games with their children or getting outside and coloring with chalk on the sidewalks.
3. The main point of Mary’s book is to play. Put some play into your life as an adult. Allow yourself the time for creativity. Don't look at it as something that you have to save for leisure time, or you're going to be waiting a long time because there's not a lot of leisure time built into our busy lives. We have to have that in our lives as adults.

Tweetable Quotes

• “It would be a very sad state of affairs if grief was the only source of your creativity.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “So, that very first inkling that I might be writing about creativity was planted in 2011.” - Mary Potter Kenyon
• “I caught on to creativity in the form of writing all those years.” - Mary Potter Kenyon
• “There's a little bit of science in –‘Called to be Creative.” - Mary Potter Kenyon
• “So, with that background, tell me a little bit about some of the science.” – Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “The world is telling us that creativity doesn't make you money.” - Mary Potter Kenyon
• “First of all, we have to stop thinking of creativity as something that is chosen for you.” - Mary Potter Kenyon
• “Another thing that we have to do is look for childhood.” - Mary Potter Kenyon
• “Sometimes we need that energy of a tribe that kind of gets the creativity going energized.” – Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “Passion can ignite so many beautiful parts of the self.” - Dr. Carla Marie Manly
• “I would say make a list and take you out on a date once a month. Give yourself 12 months to try these different things.” - Mary Potter Kenyon

 

Resources Mentioned

• Helping Families be Happy Podcast  Apple
• Dr. Carla Marie Manly  Website  LinkedIn  Twitter  Instagram
• Mary Potter Kenyon Website Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn
• Podcast Editing