The Creative Urge
Healthy walls, midlife artistry, and Slow-Cooked Halibut.
Mother's Day has passed and I'm here to report that...
...it was a completely lovely day.
It brings up two mood-lifting ideas that I'd like to share with you.
First, I got so many kind notes on Instagram with well wishes for my first Mother's Day without my mother. If you sent a note, thank you so much.
It felt very special and reminded me of what I love best about social media.
I have evolved to treat it as a place to learn, be inspired and motivated, cheer on my friends, meet people, and share health information with the people who follow me.
There's a serious downside to social media, of course, and several studies have shown it can negatively affect mental health, body image, confidence, motivation, relationship health, and overall life satisfaction.
How do we reap the benefits and avoid the downsides? Given how much time the average American spends on social media, it's worth pondering and strategizing around.
I myself spend a fair amount of time on Instagram. I share studies, recipes, tips and insights, humor, restaurant recommendations, and whatever is sparking my creativity in the moment. Might be planting flowers, might be deep-diving on color season theory, might be creating a themed dinner party. (More on the magical powers of creativity below.)
In order to not have Instagram completely depress me, I carefully curate what I follow (and don't follow). If you're not doing the same, I recommend that you do, with the knowledge that social media use can inspire action or create anxiety.
Let's aim for inspire action!
The accounts I mention below focus specifically on nutrition (in future newsletters, I'll address physical activity, mental health, habit change, and relationship accounts as well).
There is so much nutrition confusion on Instagram alone, it really is stunning.
It comes up constantly in my coaching practice.
My clients regularly report how bewildering it is to have one account sing the praises of intermittent fasting, while the next preaches three balanced meals per day. Scroll a bit more and there's a rave about how low carb diets improve cardiovascular disease, while the next shares a study about how low carb diets increase heart attack risk.
That constant cognitive dissonance is literally depressing. Can you feel it as you scroll? I sure can.
I know that many of you would love to improve your nutrition and health but feel too confused by competing messages to even begin.
Let me see if I can help a bit.
I myself focus on science, moderation, balance, results, nutrient density, and accounts that promote eating a wide variety of foods.
That means, for me, carnivore accounts are out. Vegan accounts are out. Keto accounts are out. OMAD (one meal per day) accounts are out. Lectin accounts are out.
There's a bit of nutrition truth in each of those eating styles and diets, but not the whole truth.
With apologies to TikTok fans - I spend my time on IG - here are a few of my truth-telling Instagram favorites:
@drnadolsky (obesity doctor, also very funny)
@tednaiman (satiety and protein expert and MD)
@collegenutritionist (satiety expert, simple meal ideas, healthy mindset)
@maxlugavere (nutrition journalist with a focus on food & brain health)
@shredhappens (fun, healthy recipes)
@primal_gourmet (great recipes, serious knife skills)
@biolayne (no BS nutrition science)
@andytherd (nutrition focus on liver health)
@drruscio (gut health, gut health studies)
@fastingmd (nutrition studies, nutrition for women)
@coconutsandkettlebells (nutrition and fitness for women)
@meowmeix (simple nutrition, great visuals, meal prep)
I'll stop there for now, those are all delicious, approachable, nutrition-related follows. And entertaining too! There's nothing wrong with being entertained while you learn!
The other half of curating your feed, of course, is trimming (or at least muting) accounts that confuse you or bring you down.
I myself have chosen to greatly cut back on breaking news accounts. It works better for me to choose a specific time of day to dive into the news, via reputable sources, because being assaulted with bad news every time I check Instagram isn't good for my mood or mental health.
I've also cut back on accounts that promote decadent food or alcohol that doesn't fit my health goals. I want to use Instagram to support and motivate healthy decisions, not set up cravings that take me off track.
You know the Marie Kondo book about the life-changing magic of tidying up? Her process is to hold items and if they don't spark joy, give them away or sell them?
I suggest doing the same with your social media feed and be a bit ruthless about it.
If it causes you distress, or doesn't spark joy (or education or inspiration), or creates cravings, or makes you feel less than, or provokes shame, let it go.
And hey, if you're not on social media, all good!
I have several clients who decided social media was harming their mental health and let the whole shebang go. That's why I spend so much time creating emails, videos, this newsletter, and offer 1:1 coaching to teach about nutrition and health.
Whether you're on the socials or not, I want to leave you with my second mood-lifting rave.
But first, a quick level-set.
In this newsletter, I've been sharing with you my grief process over the last couple of years, as my mom's health became precarious and very complicated, resulting in her death at the end of the year.
I've explored ways of feeling and working through grief (vs. distracting from and running away from it).
I've taken the opportunity - hey, why not? - to work through other unaddressed griefs in my life as well, from miscarriage to empty-nesting to childhood trauma.
I've explored the beauty in grief, from heightened joy, to receiving help, to thinking about grief as a portal to the next stage of my life.
I've learned and shared that it's not possible to write and coach about health and only focus on nutrition.
In effect, I've been hitting you (and myself, we're on this journey together) with double whammies, with reminders of the importance of nutrition and emotional health, and the connection between the two.
That's not by accident.
Vibrancy = nourishment + healthy mindset
That's the formula at the heart of my business, Project Vibrancy, and a healthy mindset includes learning how to handle grief, frustration, disappointment, rejection, fear, and other uncomfortable emotions.
Humans can eat the most nutrient-dense food possible, and work out every day, but if stress, grief, and trauma go unaddressed, health will still be compromised.
The body keeps the score.
I shared in my last newsletter that I was exploring somatic movement as one technique for addressing trauma and grief. (More to come later.)
Today I want to focus on another healing technique, readily available to any of us at any time, and that is...creativity.
I'm naturally a pretty linear and logical person and I'll fully admit I used to think that creativity was something to occasionally dip into if I had time.
Even though I always loved cooking, decorating, fashion, gardening, music, art, writing, and photography, I considered them occasional fun, not vital to my emotional and physical health.
LOL.
Needless to say, I have learned otherwise. I hope we all have! If you've forgotten, or were never convinced, please take the leap of faith that creativity is nothing short of healing magic and start experimenting immediately.
I promise that you'll be blown away by the results.
So, let's quickly define creativity:
Creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work.
That's obviously very broad. For me, it looks like:
Writing this newsletter
Developing a new recipe or cooking of any kind, really
Arranging flowers
Cleaning my home/desk and arranging things beautifully
Setting a table/using my dishes
Cleaning my closet, trying on clothes, creating outfits, giving clothes away, getting ready to go out
Creating videos and social media posts
Landscaping
Photography
Recording a podcast
Collaborating on projects with friends
Teaching
Planning dinner parties
Planning trips
I'm sure there are 20 other things (like cutting my bangs?) that I'm not even thinking of, but you get the idea.
How you create doesn't really matter, it's just that you do. And that you don't make the tragic mistake of thinking creativity is frivolous or luxurious or unnecessary.
The truth is that we don't have that many free, proven, safe, powerful tools for processing grief, improving mood, relieving anxiety and depression, burning off anger, boosting self-esteem, and relieving stress.
Whew!
So consider this your sign to JUMP IN to whatever creative endeavor grabs your brain and makes your heart sing.
Your health depends on it.
Let me continue the conversation about creativity and introduce you to my wildly creative friends Mary Jo and Steve Hoffman.
Actually, they don't really need introducing! It's entirely possible you already follow them on Instagram or perhaps have purchased their new books (more below).
I first met them both around 2015, after enjoying following them on Instagram, and had so much fun getting to know their talented, funny, generous selves - and their legendary puggle Jack.
Sidenote: I dog-sat Jack for them one summer and somehow they've forgiven me for absolutely incinerating a cauliflower crust pizza in their brand new oven. OMG. I forgot that cauliflower crusts are soft and squishy until baked (on a pan, Stephanie, on a pan). I mistakenly slid the pizza directly onto the rack, closed the oven door, walked into the next room, and heard an upsetting thump, thump, thump as the pizza collapsed into chunks on the bottom of the pristine oven. I did my very best to clean it up, but I suspect they caught cruciferous whiffs of burned cheese for quite awhile...and very kindly never mentioned it again. I've certainly never repeated that mistake, ha.
Anyhow! I knew I was writing about the power of creativity for this issue and I could think of no one better to highlight and ask for a quote.
One very unusual and inspiring thing about Mary Jo and Steve is that they're both so talented in right- and left-brain endeavors. If they weren't so awesome, you might want to smack them for their unfair combination of talents. Luckily, they're generous and prolific with their work and we all benefit from their gifts.
Mary Jo studied aeronautical engineering and had a long career at Honeywell before creating her blog, The Still Blog, in 2012. She "posts one image, daily, of gathered natural objects found near" her, and she has indeed posted, every day, since she began.
These are not just random snapshots of objects (as you can see from her book cover). The objects are curated, geometrically arranged, asymmetrically arranged, unbelievably arranged, in ways that make you see what you would never have seen before. My brain does not work this way and so, I am obsessed with what Mary Jo sees, how she photographs it, and how she describes it.
She's also shared her work for many years on Instagram and now...in a book! A gorgeous book called Still: The Art of Noticing. Paging slowly through the book is both inspiring and meditative, which makes Still a beautiful gift for someone you love but also...for yourself.
I asked Mary Jo for a quote about her observation of spring and she wrote back:
"After its typical arrival in fits and starts, spring here in the North is finally filling my senses in all the familiar ways. Crabapple blossoms are lighting the trees on fire, I just caught my first cloud of lilac scent on my walk today, and red winged blackbirds, mallards, geese, and yellowthroats are calling from the cattails. Next up: Sorrel omelet for dinner! It’s May in Minnesota."
Steve is a tax preparer and food writer both. Like his wife, he too has intense powers of presence and observation, but from the angle of food, so you feel like you're right next to him as he sees, smells, feels, and tastes his way around his life - in Minnesota and in France - and as he cooks and shares meals with friends and his beloved family.
As luck and fate would have it, both Mary Jo and Steve's books have become available (almost) at the same time. (Mary Jo's is available to order, Steve's to pre-order.)
Steve's book is a memoir, titled A Season for That: Lost and Found in the Other Southern France, which recounts the Hoffman family's experience of moving part-time to a small village in Southern France, Autignac, and the delicious hilarity that ensues. Nothing goes right, and everything goes right, and I'm not giving anything away by saying the family falls evermore in love with Autignac, and France, and French food and wine. And each other.
Here's a suggestion: take breaks in your busy day to peruse Mary Jo's book, be visually awed, rest your soul, and get your creative juices flowing. In the evening, pour a glass of French wine, curl up with Steve's book, and escape into France, travel adventure, and sharing food with people you love.
When I asked Steve for his thoughts about spring, he wrote:
“I can see spring through the window of my tax office right now. The interrupted ferns are shin-high. The daffodil patch is in full bloom. There are white throated sparrows singing one of my favorite birdsongs and pecking at cracked corn on their way up to the north woods for the summer. The serviceberry tree is a cloud of white blossoms. And the sandhill cranes have just switched off nest-sitting duty in the cattails, so that mama crane can come and eat a lunch of whole kernel corn I threw into the yard a few minutes ago.”
There you go, my friends. It's not a mystery how these two forces of nature found each other and decided to build a creative life together. Isn't it such a good rave?
Your assignment for this week is to borrow a page from them both: slow down. Observe. Imagine. Reflect. Create.
I so hope you enjoy! Let me know how it goes.
I'll leave you with one of my favorite spring recipes.
I have been eating more fish lately and so enjoying the simple preparation as well as the taste of spring. I sleep noticeably better when I keep dinners on the lighter side and this recipe for Slow-Cooked Halibut with Warm & Cold Salad is spring perfection.
The fish is tender, the greens are zingy, and the yogurt dressing is very special. In fact, make extra because you'll want to eat it on everything!
Recipe for Slow-Cooked Halibut
As always, thank you for learning - and creating! - along with me. Write me back if you have questions or comments.
xoxo Stephanie
PS I have a few coaching spaces opening beginning next week. My spaces fill quickly, so if you've been thinking about experiencing a healthful spring and summer, but don't know where to begin, click here and sign up.