Week 6: Snails, Soul Friends & Starting Anyway

This week, we’re talking about emotional exhaustion, rejection, and what helps us keep going anyway—like safe friendships, creative courage, and unexpected symbols (hello, snail 🐌). We explore the nervous system’s role in feeling unsafe to create, how found family supports healing, and why encouragement from the right people can change everything.

Whether you're weary, wobbly, or just looking for your people—you belong here. 🤍

Thank you so much for listening.

If you know someone who needs this kind of gentle nudge, send it their way. The more kind, creative hearts in this space, the better.

And if something in this episode resonates or makes you smile, come say hi on Instagram @theartpeaceexperiment 🤍

Transcript

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Welcome to the Art Piece Experiment. We're your hosts, two artists and friends. I'm Tasha. And I'm Brianna. at the end of 2024 we decided we wanted to cultivate more safety peace love alignment and excitement through our art and our art practices so here we are sharing our journey with you and we're so excited you're here we hope you enjoy our conversations they're honest raw just two friends talking to each other about the realities of life and creativity. We're so excited for you to join us and be along with us for the journey. Week six. Did you get creative this week? I did it. I did the thing. Yay! You did the thing. I did the thing. Did you? I did. Yay! We're amazing. We are. um yeah I tell me tell me about yours okay well so I was dealing with uh you know last episode I talked a little bit about some triggering things coming up yeah and it was it was stuff that affected me and my daughter so this past week has just been like an emotional roller coaster yeah it's been a lot yeah um And when I finally got to my painting time, my painting day of the week, man, was I tired. I was so emotionally drained. Yeah. And I had so been looking forward to sitting down and painting that week. And then it came and I was just like, Oh, do I have to? You know, like it's getting back into the swing of things. And then adding, you know, things on top that were hard, like just– is another level is a whole another like did you experience the same thing after spring break of just like do I have to yeah because we were texting each other beforehand and realized like we were gonna create at the same like paint at the same time and we had it scheduled and we both knew that we were going to it just like worked out that this week that we were gonna do that and then we were both just like hey you're scrolling on social media like we were like sending each other things I was like you're supposed to be painting right now Yeah. Yeah. I got home from dropping my daughter off at school and I sat down to like take my shoes off and then I was going to take my coat off and I just, I sat down and started scrolling instead. It was like, what am I doing? Yep. And then I was like sending you stuff and then you were sending me stuff and then it was like, wait, we're supposed to be painting. What are we doing? Yay for having an accountability buddy. Yeah. Probably would have happened for a lot longer. Probably. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So I ended up– I started a painting. I didn't finish it because I just ran out of steam. Yeah. But, you know, I started, and I got a good portion of it done, and I feel really proud and happy with what I did create. That's great. I think that's, like, something to really recognize. Like, that's important to recognize is to– Creativity, you know, when you're trying to be creative and following that, you have to you have to allow your emotional state to just be part of that, too. You know, it just is. And so not to get down on yourself or feel guilty for not doing all that you set out to do. Right. That's like an important thing. an important thing to be patient and have that grace and, you know, just like self-compassion. Yeah. Yeah. And then I had an interesting experience too because that, I mean, this was yesterday. I, you know, I had been painting during the morning and then I stopped and I had lunch and then after that was when I was like, I don't know, like I painted like two leaves and I was like, This is going so hard. But then my other best friend, I'm very lucky. I have two best friends who are both very creative and wonderful and I am so blessed. But my other friend is an author and she reached out to me yesterday just like, I... And I have permission to talk about this. She told me it was okay, but she got a rejection. She's been burying and sending out pitches to agents and trying to find an agent right now. And she got accepted into this really cool mentorship program that at the end of it has the showcase where the upcoming authors that are selected are their works are like shown to like different agents and the agents can request to have their manuscripts. So she got her first rejection from that. And it was, I mean, it's devastating. It's so, it's like getting rejected is always hard. Yeah. Having your dreams rejected and your, your creativity rejected is, is rough. And so she was just like, you know, she's having, she's having kind of a hard time with that naturally. Yeah. And, And then, you know, the next message she sent was like, okay, time to send out more query letters. Yes. Time to sit down and do more. And I am so proud of her. Yeah. She grew up in a situation where being rejected like that could have put her into complete, like, freeze or flight mode. Yeah. Like, new giving up mode. And I am so proud. proud of her she has come so far and like taking those steps and realizing that she is worthy and her art is worthy yes to to pursue to pursue and I'm so proud like I'm just oh I'm so proud of her And I just, I wanted to talk about that today. I asked her if it was okay. And she was like, yeah, no, if it helps anybody, like, of course, let's talk about it. And I just want to talk about how important it is to have community and people who believe in you. And knowing who your right people are to be able to share with. Because, you know, she grew up in a home where her creative pursuits were not accepted. They were not okay. She went to school for something else and had a different career and was not pursuing writing for a long time. And so the fact that Because it wasn't healthy. It wasn't healthy in her nervous system. It wasn't okay. It wasn't okay to take those steps forward. It wasn't safe. It wasn't safe. Yeah. And so she's come so far and got to this point that now she got rejected. Like her dream got rejected by someone in the industry. And she goes, okay, time to put myself out there for more rejection. She's amazing. Take it to another gear. Yeah. Yeah. Kick it up a notch. Oh, that's so– inspiring and so just amazing that's so uplifting and I'm so excited for her she's great I yeah I think this is this is a topic that's I have been thinking a lot about and I've been hearing you know just different perspectives about rejection and just kind of that whole thing and Right. Right. Yeah. that doesn't mean that there aren't those people out there and you're just sifting through the weeds, right? You're just sifting until you find your wildflower. And I love that. I love that perspective, but it's really hard to get there, you know, to believe that. It is. Well, it's interesting because like our nervous system, one of its main jobs is to keep us connected to

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our

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people, to our community, to our tribe.

UNKNOWN: 9:21

Because that means everything.

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safety and life. Like you have to have a tribe in order, you know, to be able to stay alive, stay alive. Yeah. It's part of being human. It's just how we're wired and what we need. Right. And so for a lot of, a lot of people, I mean, a lot of people I know, like myself, like all people, like, I don't know anybody. Well, it's just creativity is often then wired in our nervous systems to not be safe because not all of us have, that creative mindset community from the get-go growing up in our families. That's true. And in our culture too. Right. Some people do, but it's a few. Yeah. It's not very common. It's not the majority. Right. Right. And so this friend that I was talking about, she started pursuing– her writing again after we like we were high school friends and then we lost touch with she's older than I am and she went to college you know before I did and and moved moved out we lost touch and then we got back together again after having our girls and um just happened to live in the same city and so we reconnected and so this was after my like okay I'm gonna start creating again and so it's something that I just shared with her And talked about, and we just talked about, and it was like, okay, we started building this community of, she's like, okay, I want to start writing again. Like if you're going to, if you're doing it, I'm going to do it. Like I'm going to pursue my thing and I'm going to start going for it. And it was, it was that moment of finally having somebody that we could share and connect. And, and, and those like little steps of telling our nervous system, Hey, look, doing this thing connects me to tribe. Yeah. Because it was that safe person. Now, if I went and shared my art with a family member, certain family members, I would lose that sense of safety and tribe. Because it's like, oh, I'm not accepted. I'm like, this isn't okay. This isn't safe. And it's that rejection that makes it feel like, oh, I can't keep going on. So if you've ever experienced that... Don't get too hard on yourself because this is just how we're wired as human beings. You know, I wonder if that's why, you know, in stories and books or movies or whatever, the kind of theme of found family. I love found family. It's so good. And everybody loves found family. Yeah. Everyone wants that. Everybody loves that and wants that and, you know, warms their heart, right? Yeah. Feeling so accepted. And it's because of that. Most people are not born into a family that, you know, like, I don't know, everybody has their own issues, right? Every, every, everything, everyone has ways that they were raised or beliefs that they were raised with that. when they grow, they want to, you know, go a different way or, or grow out of, or, you know, things like that with whatever it may be. Right. And, and so that sense of finding, finding your people, right. Finding your, your community of like-minded people. And, and that's a healthy and normal thing too, you know, as we grow and, and get older, we're supposed to kind of detach from our, from our, our, core family, right? And find our own life and our own people. And it's a normal, healthy thing to do. And so we find our found family with our interests and things like that. Anyway, so it's a powerful thing. It's a powerful thing. And I think it's very universal. Yeah. Yeah. So that moment of connecting with her was really powerful for her and it was really powerful for me. Yeah. And then a few years after that, I ended up moving again and moving near you. Yeah. Which was awesome. Yeah. Same thing once again. It strengthened that. Oh, I have tribe in this. And I didn't think about this back then. I didn't know about the nervous system. I didn't make those connections. But just looking back and realizing how profound those connections were in my journey. Yeah, how impactful. How impactful and gave me such– that boost and confidence and ability to keep going even when things were hard because life at the time felt impossible in so many other parts of my life and yet I was still able to grow in those ways and I credit that a lot to you and my other friend who were my support and were there for me and for like the first time in my life I felt really safe finally starting to share my art because it was championed it was cheered on like I was cheered on I felt like for other people around me, I was worthy. And in a society that is so like, You have to be independent and strong by yourself. And it's like, okay, we're not made that way. Yeah. We need community. We need other people. Yeah. Like-minded people. Right. And like, yes, I need to find my own self-worth and have that within me. But having other people that also see that is only going to help. Yeah. It makes such a huge difference. And I mean, when, you know, we got– lived together and– and started getting it into art together, you know, at the same time, that was super helpful for me too. You know, like went both ways. It was, it's, it was so helpful to have like be in an environment with another person where art was, um, and creativity was loved and accepted and wanted and valued you know it made a huge difference because then it helped me break down some of those blocks and walls of and start to be feeling, you know, start to feel like, okay, maybe, maybe it is okay. Maybe, you know, maybe it's not weird that I value this or, you know, and, and open up more to that and take those baby steps. Those are the baby stages of this podcast. Exactly. Cause we had, I mean, these are the kinds of conversations we had, you know, even then several years ago. Yeah. So it's huge. It really does make a huge difference. And coupled with the self-worth, that is so powerful, right? Right. Because you have to have both. You do. And I feel like they grow together. Yeah. As your self-worth grows, I feel like you're able to– be more present in that community in a community and really show up more and then that strengthens and as your community strengthens it helps you feel like you can be yourself more and it's just like this you know as you're serving and loving you know another person especially someone who has like similar goals right to you and you're like both working you know parallel to each other working on those things and yeah it does it helps it helps build that resilience and that confidence and And, you know, that self-worth. Yeah, that strength. Yeah, because another person sees it in you and you see it in them. And if you can value it in them and believe that so fully, you know, it does help. It does help you start. turning that in on yourself and be like oh okay I'm worthy of yeah I'm worthy of these things these things too like sometimes I have that too yeah sometimes it's easier to love another person you know and like see their worth and their value yeah and like fully like believe it like deep down and then start harnessing that kind of energy for yourself and and believe it definitely you know It just helps all around. Yeah. And having the consistency and the repetition of somebody, you know, pointing those things out in you, you know, and believing in you and talking about your strengths like that, that helps in the belief, you know, when you can't quite see it in yourself. Yeah. It's really helpful to have that. Super helpful. Yeah. So my painting this week was a snail. Which is just my symbol right now. I love it. I'm going to go and I'm going to do my little research on the symbolism of what I was painting this week. That's what I've been doing in my journaling and all of that. This one has a snail reaching up for a raspberry. It's got this raspberry plant that's part of it. It doesn't have the raspberry yet. It's looking at it and reaching for it. raspberries are symbols of love and kindness. And so I was looking at this and the snail is like this representation of persistency and tenacity and coming back to yourself and believing in yourself, going at your own pace, all of those things. And so this combination of the snail that is reaching for this love and this kindness and in connection with like, hey, I've just dedicated this to my friend even though I don't know what this painting means. It's like, you know, the kindest, most loving thing you can do for yourself is to go after your dreams, to do what matters to you, to like take those creative steps forward. Like there's no other thing you can do for yourself that is as impactful and loving. I love that so much. Wow. Mic drop. Boom. Boom. So good. How cool is that? That you, you, you know, didn't even know and then made that for her and it just correlated so perfectly. So powerfully. And like, we were just like very energetically connected. Yeah. She, she texted me this morning right before we started recording and was like, I sent out 10 new queries yesterday and I'm going to do more today. She's like, I'm, I'm being the snail. Oh, I love that. That makes me really happy. Yeah. And it's just, it's beautiful because you know, she's able to inspire me and I'm able to inspire her. I was just going to say, how inspiring is that? When we see people going for their dreams, it's so inspiring, right? It's so inspiring. So yeah, that means that we can turn around and do that too. Our reaching for our dreams is also inspiring and worthy and good, just like anybody else's is worthy and good.

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Yeah.

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Right? Yeah. Yeah. So start looking at your community and who could potentially be your safe person. It's worth it. And who isn't. Yes. Oh, that's also. In terms of creativity, because you might have really good people in your life, but they don't get the creative side. Right. That's part of it is recognizing who's safe to share with and who isn't. And that doesn't mean that you don't love them or that you're rejecting the person or anything negative about that person. It just may not be the right person to share with. You might just need another person who really understands to help you in that phase, in that way. They might not be your– your creative healing and growing buddy. Right. And that's okay. But you need to find, you need to find creative healing buddies. Yeah. Growing buddies. We have, we have different people and, and they in different areas of our lives. Right. Yeah. And, and, So it's important to know that not one person is going to meet every single need that we have. And that's okay. Yeah, that's perfectly fine. But it's also important to know how our bodies and our systems work and what we need to be successful in our goals. And this is one of the things that we found is so majorly impactful. Like either... kind of make or break. Yeah, really. Like moving forward or letting yourself get left behind. You know, it's like, it's important. It's a need. Yeah, it's a need. It's a need. It's not just like something that's really nice to have, which it is, but it's kind of imperative to moving forward. I mean, there's that whole thing about you become the, like the five people that you spend the most time with, right? Yep. And there's a reason it's because they're nervous. Yeah, exactly. And so finding people that are reaching for or living the kind of, you know, creativity and the life that you want is going to help you in that journey. Yeah. A hundred percent. That's it for today, friend. Thanks for spending this time with us. We hope you're leaving with a little more light, a little more peace, and maybe even a nudge to go be creative just because it brings a little more joy to your life. If anything in this episode spoke to your heart, sparked a thought, or made you smile, we'd love it if you'd follow the show, leave a quick five-star review, or share it with someone who might need a little creative encouragement too. And remember, your creativity matters. Your voice matters. You matter. We're cheering you on Always until next time, keep making, keep softening and keep showing up as your whole beautiful self.