the act of creating and living artfully
when resistance becomes a mirror
It’s been challenging lately to show up for the act of creating when the work I do outside of writing and the demands of daily life have taken up so much space. However, I keep returning to this idea that life, at least in my experience, is a constant juggling act, a balancing of all these moving parts while trying to stay connected to the people, places, and practices that make us feel most alive.
And while every season of our lives invites us to get curious about the ways we want to show up, I often find that my own challenges around creating a more harmonious balance between work and play tend to wrestle with each other. The truth is, I want to play harder than I work, yet I often find myself doing the opposite.
As I prepare to release my upcoming book, Living Artfully: A Guide for Creating Without Conditions, I’ve been sitting with the exhaustion that comes from overwork and how it’s impacted my creative rhythm. It dawned on me during my morning walk that I’m getting clearer about how to allocate more time and energy toward what truly nourishes me, which is the act of creating and what I’ve come to know as living artfully.
Alongside that clarity, I’ve also been noticing resistance, the kind that moves like a cat in the dark. Silent, deliberate, waiting for the perfect moment to pounce. It creates just enough tension in the body and mind to hold us back from taking the next step, from creating freely, making art, and living artfully.
I can’t help but wonder how many other creatives feel this same pull: the resistance, the limiting beliefs, the narratives that keep us stuck. The patterns that convince us that only certain people get to live a creative life, when the truth is, creativity belongs to all of us. It’s woven into the fabric of who we are. Everything we do in life is a creative act, whether we are consciously making art or simply choosing how we live.
Maybe that’s the heart of it—learning to meet resistance with curiosity instead of judgment. To remember that the act of creating and living artfully isn’t about perfection or constant output, but about the very thing I’ve been trying to practice for over two decades… presence. Showing up, even when it feels messy or uncertain, and trusting that every small gesture and step taken toward the life we want to live not only counts, but is an act of imagination and creativity.
I truly believe we’re all learning how to stay connected to the creative pulse in the midst of life’s demands, to pause long enough to remember that creating isn’t something reserved for when time allows. It’s something we return to, again and again, because it brings us home to ourselves.
Creative Cue
Notice where resistance shows up this week. Instead of fighting it, how can you get more curious? What is it asking of you? What might it be protecting you from, or preparing you for?
Question to Carry
How might you honor your creative rhythm, not by doing more, but by showing up more fully to what’s already here?
© Alana Foy 2025
