If you’ve landed on this page, it’s probably because, on some level, your creative life feels fragmented.
You’ve been living as two separate people: one respected for being reliable and accomplished and the other who feels most alive when creating. You don’t know how to reconcile these separate parts of yourself. You have powerful things to express but feel shut down and frustrated. Maybe you even feel some shame because, despite this strong yearning to create, you avoid starting.
This newsletter is for you if:
you’ve been creating in secret for longer than you care to admit, whether in old journals, sketches you’ve shoved in a drawer, a half-finished book or an abandoned business venture
you’re exhausted from wearing a mask of professional competence and keeping your creativity hidden for so long
you’re ready to harness the courage to face your deepest fears about your creativity, but you’ve no idea where to start
you want to build a life where finally you can inhabit yourself fully, without the constant low-level discontent—or grief, even—of being an un-lived version of yourself.
If you recognise any of this, know that I’m here for you. I’ve definitely also been there (some days, I feel like I’m still there) and I’m writing this newsletter for you.
What you’ll receive when you subscribe
Creative Courage offers perspective shifts that start from the inside out, encouraging you to gently remove the obstacles holding you back in your creative life.
You’ll receive a weekly letter (and the occasional bonus essay) that offers reflections on, and practical support for:
the inner work required to address the fears and patterns that keep your creativity closed down—so you can better understand where they came from, what they’re protecting and what’s possible when you face them
your Creative Essence and how it’s transmitted through voice, your connection to your truth and the unique way you see the world. Through this, you can start to feel the difference between performing your creativity and really living it
creating in company: how co-creation and being witnessed inside a community can transform not just your work, but you as a maker.
I also host Stories of Creative Courage, a live conversation series in which guests talk honestly about their relationship with creativity, what gets in the way and what it’s taken for them to integrate their divided selves.
Who am I? And why do I write?
I’m Rachel and I write for people like us who crave expression—to share a perspective and inner truth as a powerful connector to other humans—but are held back by avoidance and doubt.
I’ve spent over three decades on the journey of trying to free myself from that doubt, a journey that involved getting a PhD in writing, a successful career as a university professor and as a published author. Yet, there were aspects of myself that I held back along the way. I realised those doubts were rooted in core fears that solidified over time into protective behaviours that continued, despite my outward professional success, to keep me small.
I’m based in the UK and adore beautiful interiors, innovative design and food that’s been deeply thought about (the British TV shows Interior Design Masters and Masterchef are a bit of an addiction!)
If you want to understand more about my own journey with this work, you can read my manifesto for creative courage, which maps some of the moments where I’ve moved from fragmentation to integration in my own life.
This process is ongoing, daily work but, these days, I’m grateful for the greater ease and freedom that’s come from exploring my own inner saboteurs and understanding their impact on my creativity. It’s transformed my relationship with my writing and my understanding of what creativity is, not what it ‘should’ be.
Today, my aim is to guide you to recognise and gently integrate your fears about your own creativity, so you can experience more wholeness and aliveness in all the ways you live your life.
My hope for you is that you find the courage to open to the insights about what holds you back,
to explore those things with gentleness, generosity and self-compassion,
to take action to move towards what your heart longs for and the expression of the quiet wisdom held in your soul,
to heal, to free yourself and experience yourself as more whole and more fully alive.
Here are a few articles to get you started
This is where you can find out more about the work I do and who it’s for
If you sense a creative life waiting underneath, start here
If you’re exhausted by performing competence, start here
If you're at a creative crossroads, start here
If you suspect you’re not alone in this, start here
I'm currently in the process of writing this one! Sign up to know when it lands.
Sending love and creative courage,
Rachel
p.s. If what you need is space to talk things through, I’m also a coach and offer breakthrough conversations so you can identify changes you can make to your creativity now. Book a time, fill in this very short form and let’s have a chat about it.
