Coming Out of Your Shell

Cheers! Celebrate our one-year anniversary of BVHL by opening season two with an episode on the medicine of creativity and imagination. Dr. Minter reflects on her personal journey of retreat and re-emergence, exploring the importance of creativity for healing and self-discovery. She shares insights into creativity as a tool for processing life's challenges and traumas. The episode includes a thoughtful shell meditation exercise designed to inspire listeners to embrace their creative side and find new perspectives. Drawing on the poetry of David Whyte and inspiration from mentors like Kelly Carlin McCall, Dr. Minter discusses how creativity connects us to the world and to ourselves. She encourages listeners to find joy and inspiration in nature and to use creativity as a form of rebellion and healing in today's complex world. 

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Podcast Website: BeachVibesHealingLives
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Transcript

 Hello everybody and welcome back to Beach Vibes Healing Lives. I am your host, Dr. Stephanie Minter, and in this podcast we like to blend a little bit of eastern philosophy with Western medical knowledge and see what kind of magic we can stir up as far as our approach to living, and wellness, and seeking happiness and joy in this life.

Today, I wanted to remind everybody that our podcast is about a year old. That's right. Last year, July 4th weekend, we launched our first episode. So join me in Wishing Beach Vibes, Healing Lives podcast, a very merry first Happy Birthday. Today we're going to begin season two, and our first episode is going to be called Coming Out of Your Shell.

It's exciting, it's about creativity, so let's dive in!

Hey everybody. Welcome back. I am gonna do a little bit of podcast improv today. I wanted to name today's episode coming out of your shell because I have been in a space of protection and safety and security. I have withdrawn into my shell for the past several months and I wanted to talk about that process for myself and potentially how that shows up for other people in my life, you guys, the listeners or some of my patients, and just understanding sort of this ebb and flow of life, this going out in the world and withdrawing from the world and, and how important it is to take that time inside the shell, but also how important it is to come out of that shell.

And so today, mostly unscripted, I want to talk about this concept of awareness, like sitting in awareness and understanding, you know, your shadow, your dark side, your unmet needs, maybe childhood trauma, maybe health scares, maybe this existential crisis, a realization of your mortality, financial insecurity, whatever you might be faced with in challenge to your safety, security, stability...all the things that we think we need to have in place in order to find creativity, joy, and happiness. And I want to present today's episode as a challenge to that, especially in today's political climate and today's sort of human experience and what's happening. 

I want to talk about creativity and the medicine that creativity really is, talk about the meaning of creativity, how it shows up in our lives, how it's important to science, what you can do in using creativity as a form of healing, as a form of rebellion, as a form of moving forward and truly breaking out of this shell and coming back out into the world. It's so necessary. It's so needed.

And now is the time. More important now than ever. I want to start with a poem. I have a great mentor, her name is Kelly Carlin McCall, and I'm gonna link to her episode that inspired the use of this particular poem.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/kellys-ponderama-the-deep-imagination/id1792946911?i=1000715400978

She and I have worked together now for a little over a year and a half. She is my coach, my mentor.

She uses foundations of Buddhism and Jungian psychology, depth psychology, imagination, dream work (tending). It's led me down this beautiful rabbit hole of  inquiry and study in ecotherapy, in the healing powers of the ocean, in imagination as a form of medicine, our connectedness with nature and, and ultimately, you know, creativity as a form of existence.

So, in her most recent episode and in a lot of our workshops together, we use poetry and David Whyte is an extraordinary poet and he has so many messages within his writings about creativity and how this creative process is a process of self-discovery. It's a way of engaging with the world, with different media and different contexts and ways that you wouldn't normally be out in the world existing and interacting.

So, creativity in his art, is expressed as like a ladder, something to use as a journey for moving upwards and guiding you to your true self. It's a way of engaging with grief and darkness. You know, not all of life is about joy. So we can use creativity to process through those sort of darker and more challenging times.

It's a way of connecting the inner you with the outer world, this inner self and outer self, and having a way to reconcile the tension of those two, the dichotomy that might exist. It's a way of having conversation, it's a way of speaking without using words. It really is a gift. It's a gift that you give the world.

It's a gift that you give yourself. It's so important. So this particular poem that she has read, I think a couple times that, that I've known her, but in this particular episode of her podcast, she invites us to really dive deep into this sweet, sweet darkness. So again, this poem is by David Whyte. It's called Sweet Darkness:

"When your eyes are tired, the world is tired also. When your vision is gone, no part of the world can find you. Time to go into the dark where the night has eyes to recognize its own. There you can be sure you are not beyond love. The dark will be your home tonight. The night will give you a horizon further than you can see.

You must learn one thing. The world was made to be free in. Give up all the other worlds except the one to which you belong. Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you."

And I think this is such a great poem. Sometimes it takes the darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness to learn that anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you. So coming out of your shell, coming out of this confinement, this restriction, whatever's keeping you small, whatever's keeping you still, we need to break free from, we need to move on from, and Kelly does a great job about breaking this down, stanza by stanza.

And I encourage you, please go link, go listen to her episode, follow her podcast (Humans On The Verge). It's great stuff. It's the medicine that I use on a regular basis, so I'll share that with you. 

To oppose the darkness. David Whyte writes another poem, but it's called Blessings for the Light. So we talk a little bit about dark, and then now we're gonna talk about Blessings for the Light:

"I thank you light again for helping me to find the outline of my daughter's face. I thank you light for the subtle way, your nearest touch. It gives shapes to such things I could only learn to love through your delicate instruction. And I thank you this morning waking again most intimately and secretly for your visible invisibility, the way you make me look at the face of the world so that everything becomes an eye to everything else. And so that strangely, I also see myself being seen. So that I can be born again in that site so that I can have this one other way along with every other way to know that I am here."

And that's in the book, the Bell and the Blackbird by David Whyte, the Blessings for the Light , and I am just so thankful for this light. This light that this creative project, my podcast brings to me. I have been missing it. It's been a while since I've been here on the microphone, but I think that time for me was necessary.

You know, creativity itself is imagination, original ideas, this innovation and expression. And it really means letting go of perfection. And so I think that's where I'm at. You know, if I was going to disclose anything personal or make this a very vulnerable episode, I would say I am in the process of really trying to let go of the perfect version of me and the necessity to continue to show up in a perfect way.

So here I am, as messy and lovely as I can be to talk about creativity for you guys because creation and imagination are indeed medicine. So let me talk a little bit about the sciencey side because that's what we do in this space. We, you guys remember school, middle school, high school? I don't know how far back, but science experiments, you guys had to do science experiments.

You had to come up with a hypothesis and test it and do all those things. That is creativity in science, where we're using our imagination to come up with original ideas and we're gonna put them to some sort of process so that we can test them and study them. And really it's this formation of hypothesis and experimentation that leads to this key component of problem solving and coming together with critical thinking skills and really that resource. The irony is we homogenize the crap out of these studies. We suffocate the creativity from them, because inherently we want them to be reproducible, right? If we're gonna hang our hat and call it standard of care, then we need it to be statistically relevant and have some power and some backing to it.

For us to say, yes, this is a scientific "truth". This is something that we know we can believe in and depend on, but that means we can't or it can't have any existing creativity anymore. That once it becomes something that we need as science and as evidence, then it needs to be reproducible, it needs to have less variability, it needs to have less creativity.

So that's kind of the irony of creativity and science. But the role of creativity in life is so much different. It's a difference between having a passion for life (breathing existing) and a passion for living. How do you experience your yourself in the world? Are you engaged in art? You listen to music?

What are you doing with personal expression? Is it in your fashion? Is it in the language you use? Is it in, you know, the projects that you choose to engage in? Is it in the career that you've chosen? You know, what is your creative energy in your current existence?

You know, creativity is one of those things that is part of the human experience. And I would say now more than ever, we really need some source of hope and happiness, right? How, if you're challenged by things that are currently happening in the world around you, and whether that's political or with family and health and finances and anything that might be challenging you... people, your humanness needs hope and happiness and joy. How do we get that when we feel such struggle, such strife, such grief?

Well, creativity, and follow me with this one... It's about understanding how to make or see something differently, right? I'm gonna throw this out there and because this is a, you know, it's beach vibes, healing lives, I'm always gonna go back to nature. I'm gonna, especially because of the things that I've been reading. 

Nature itself, it doesn't just inspire creativity. It is creativity. If you think about the variability and the things that are out there, the colors, the shapes. Why do we need 8,000 different shapes of leaves and types of bark and grasses and birds? Why does nature seek to create such variety and such variability?

And yet as humans, we seek to belong, to fit in, to be part of the same, to find places to belong. It's such an interesting experience because as people, as humans, we are mammals, we are not separate from nature itself. We are a part of it. We are a part of this ecosystem. We're going to experience these tidal ebbs and flows.

We're going to have seasons in our life. We're going to have cycles. We're gonna repeat patterns and spiral through learning and expanding and learning and expanding. And that's kind of where I just wanna sit there for a minute and really sort of marinate in that thought process. I have oftentimes walked on the beach and picked up shells. I am usually drawn to things that are swirly and spiraly and things that have bright colors and bright patterns.

And so, you know, I'm going to kind of lead you guys, I think, into really looking at shells as a form of meditation. Shells often have spirals, and people tend to think that spiraling is a sign of stagnation or a limitation in your growth. But I would, I would beg to differ, look at the spiral. Think about a spiral staircase.

Yes, when you go up the staircase, you're making a circle and you might come around to that same viewpoint. Because you're on a staircase, you're on a ladder, you're continually moving up. So while you might circle around to that same spot, you're seeing it from a different viewpoint, from a different vantage point.

And that's kind of how I want you to see this spiral pattern, sometimes repeating the pattern is the purpose. It is the purpose. To come back around continuously to see if you've grown, if you've noticed anything, if you've gained new knowledge, new insight, new tools, new ways of being in this world. And so if you're coming back around in this season and you're reaching this return point in this spiral of life, and you're feeling like you haven't gone anywhere, you're not still in the same spot.

Let's use creativity. Let's use this way of imagination and changing the way we see things, viewing from different perspectives. Really using that self-expression as a means for healing, because healing isn't linear. Creativity, as far as a human experience goes, is actually more important, more valuable than wrote intelligence, right? You can think about all the smart people that you want to, but let's think about the creative people. Sometimes you have the blending of intelligence and creativity, and I would say that with your right hemisphere and your left hemisphere, your analytical and your creative brains, that yes, these things do exist simultaneously within every human.

It's just how much have you really tapped into it? How much have you really found your source of innovation, your source of finding a different way forward. That's what I'm talking about, using creativity and imagination as a way to find and pioneer a new way forward in your life. By using creativity, you can create your own meaning in an inherently meaningless world.

I'm gonna say that again... by using creativity, you can create your own meaning in an inherently meaningless world. Because what is the purpose of life? What is the meaning of being here? What is our existence really about? It's about experiencing the sights, the sounds, the smells, the colors, all of the feelings, right?

Our life is about artistic expression. It's not about sitting inside your house. It's not about punishing yourself for bad decisions. It's not about keeping yourself small. It's not about staying inside this protective shell. It's about getting out. It's about getting out of your shell. It's about using your imagination.

It's about finding your inspiration. It's about finding a new way forward. How do we heal the world? Renaissance...every single time, the dreamers, the painters, the sculptors, the knitters, the builders, the writers. This is how we heal and repair and move forward. This is how you create a life you love.

You guys, if you want to pause now, you can, but I'm gonna invite you to join me on a mindfulness exercise, a little bit of sea shell meditation, if you will. I want you to pause if you're driving, if you're walking, if you're doing something, you can pause here and come back. But if you're with me and you've got the freedom to do so, let's get started.

I'm gonna lead you on a little bit of a seashell meditation. Let's start by choosing a shell. If you have a collection from a glass jar or a bowl or a little bag you have, or find one on the internet. Just find a shell that really inspires you. You have a piece of paper, maybe some colored pencils, a pen, whatever you like to write with, and once you've got those things, let's get started.

Once you've chosen your shell, I want you to think about it. What does the shell want to teach you today? Let's let it shape and size spark a metaphor for your current season of life.

I want you to hold the shell in your hand. Maybe it's a scallop shell or a conch. Whatever shape and size it is, I want you to hold it in your palm and I want you to trace its shape. Trace the spiral with your eyes or your finger. 

What part of your life is currently spiraling inward for reflection or maybe out ward for expression? Where in your life is something coming full circle?

Good. Now let's examine the shell's texture. It's ridges the cracks. Does it have softness or smoothness? Where in your life have you been shaped by time, experience, weather like this? Shell has look at its flaws. Let it inspire you what imperfect part of you holds the most creative potential.

Let's look next at the shell's  colors, patterns.
What color are you most drawn to right now, and why do you think that is? Maybe let the shells patterns and colors inspire the feeling, and energy and emotion. Maybe it's got a enough inspiration to stir up a poem or an affirmation or maybe a piece of art.

Imagine the shell arriving from distant waters far, far away.
Maybe ask the shell in contemplation, what have you carried with you from distant places? What past versions of yourself? What old dreams, what message might the ocean have sent to you with this shell?

Maybe you can put the shell next to your ear. Are there any sounds? What do you hear? Ocean sounds, silence?  Really listen . What memory, dream or idea is  speaking through now in this moment of quiet. Maybe write or sketch a scene from the story the shell might tell if it had a voice.

Sit in silence now with the shell. Breathing deeply in through your nose, out through your mouth. Notice your breath ebbing and flowing like waves. Like the rhythms of the tide. How is your body, how is your physical experience mirroring this ebb and flow, this movement of the ocean? And from this stillness, from your breath, what new ideas or inspiration might be coming up for you?

Shell is a vessel. It's a container. Look at the shell as this container. What emotions or intentions could this shell hold for you? What could you put in this container? What would you like to release back to the sea? What would you like to call from it? What would you like to call in from the abundance of the ocean?

Look closely at the layers and the growth lines. What layers of your identity are asking to be expressed, peeled back, or celebrated? What wisdom do you hold from each season of growth? What can you share with the others around you?

And from sea to self. Look at this shell's long, long journey. The bottom of the ocean, and a small creature building and creating a shelter. It's journey through the waters from deep to shallow. It's a journey from there to being here in your hand. What has had to wash away from your life and what have you had to let go to be where you are today?

Maybe take this time to write a little note in a bottle, a little love letter from the sea to your current self about the journey that you've been on.

See if you can use this shell, this moment, this time, your call to action, if you will, draw, write, paint, sculpt, knit, crochet, build. Whatever it is, really embrace your imagination. Really tap into original ideas and changes and perspectives, and create. Create something from the beauty, from the darkness, from the light.

Just create from your heart, because that's how we innovate. That's how we find a different way forward.

That's my message for you this day. My friends on the one year anniversary of Beach Vibes Healing lives on this the beginning of season two. I promise it's gonna be full of fun resources, full of inspiration, full of joy, and my gosh, we're just gonna find a way to make life fun again. So join me. I know I need it, and I'm sure if I do, you do.

So thanks for joining me again, you guys. This has been such a healing session for me, just about a half an hour, so that gives you plenty of time to work on some of those prompts. Go back and play them again. They'll be in the transcripts. Uh, that's it guys. I I love you. I miss you. And it's summer. It's summertime, you guys, it's it's Prime Beach time.

It is the time to go out and splash in the water, get that beach vibe going on. There's a book that I'm reading right now called Blue Mind. Maybe you wanna pick that up and read that on the beach. It talks about how being in near close to looking at underwater, how it helps us be more joyful, live better in this world.

It's just really an inspiring space that's moved me to embrace a second season and bring this to you because there are things that I have to say that I think people in the world need to hear. So I'm gonna do my best and always, I'm open to suggestions. If you want to hear about anything in particular, if you're struggling with something, there's a space in the show notes to send me a direct message through Buzzsprout, that's where I host the podcast. 

So guys, pack up a beach bag, put some fun stuff in it, put some, I don't know, bowls and forks and an old utensils, and go find a spot and make some sandcastles. Build something, be creative, decorate it with shells.

Enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. Just go create. My friends, thanks for listening. Have a great day. Make every day a beach day!