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If your creative energy feels fragile right now, ask yourself not how to push harder or where to recruit more willpower. Instead, ask yourself what kind of container it's been asked to survive in.

This episode draws your attention away from motivation and willpower, and towards creating containers where your creativity can grow and expand.

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There is enormous variety in the universe of visual art—and in this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, we explore why that matters so deeply to the human brain and nervous system.

Inspired by research from the field of neuroaesthetics, this conversation bridges cognitive science, art therapy, and lived experience to help you understand how beauty, art, and the spaces we inhabit can genuinely support healing and well-being. From moments of awe and wonder to the calming effects of viewing art, we explore how aesthetic experiences influence mood, regulation, perspective, and even physiology.

You’ll hear reflections on:

• Why beauty can create feelings of awe and meaning
• How viewing art supports emotional regulation and mental health
• What neuroaesthetics teaches us about architecture, space, and wellness
• Why art museums, sacred spaces, and expansive environments feel so soothing
• How your personal aesthetic preferences matter more than you think
• Simple ways to bring more beauty and creative intention into daily life

In a time when so much feels uncertain, this episode is an invitation to stay connected to art—not as escape, but as a powerful source of healing, reflection, and restoration. Beauty is not frivolous. Creativity is not optional. They are essential to how we care for ourselves and one another.

And as always, the question remains: now that you know, what will you create?

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In this episode, I’m welcoming 2026 with a reflection on creativity as a fundamental human force—the energy behind civilization, healing, meaning, and change. As I begin the early, tender labor of writing my next book, I wanted to share some of what has been stirring in my mind and heart during this season of intention-setting and renewal.

We explore creativity not as something reserved for “artists,” but as an essential way of thinking, making, and knowing. From the objects in our homes to the systems that shape our societies, creativity is the invisible thread that connects ideas, innovation, and emotional healing. I reflect on art as both an intellectual process—integrating disparate ideas—and a deeply human, embodied act of making with our hands.

Drawing on art therapy, psychology, and thinkers like de Botton, Armstrong, and Pat Allen, this episode invites you to reconsider your relationship with art and creativity. We talk about why so many adults stop creating, what we lose when we do, and how returning to simple acts of making can support nervous-system regulation, clarity, insight, and emotional well-being.

If you’re seeking inspiration, grounding, or a gentle reminder that creativity belongs to you—no art degree required—this episode is an invitation to open your eyes to the creative world already surrounding you and to ask yourself: Now that you know, what will you create?

I also share details about the upcoming Paris art therapy retreat and a special bonus for podcast listeners.

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"Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women." -Maya Angelou

As we cross the threshold from 2025 into 2026, this episode invites you to pause, reflect, and choose a different way forward—one rooted in values rather than willpower. Opening with Maya Angelou’s reminder that when one woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women, we explore how values guide our decisions, actions, and sense of meaning across every area of life.

Instead of setting resolutions that often fade within weeks, this conversation reframes the New Year as an opportunity to reconnect with what truly matters to you. Values—freely chosen, deeply personal, and ever-evolving—become a compass for how you want to live, relate, create, and care for yourself. We unpack the critical difference between goals and values, and how values provide the fuel that goals alone often lack.

You’ll be guided through four powerful value domains to consider for the year ahead: self-talk, mental health, inner boundaries, and outer boundaries. Through personal stories, psychological research, and practical examples, this episode explores how kindness toward yourself, value-based self-talk, and clear boundaries—both internal and external—create consistency, self-trust, and sustainable change.

This episode is an invitation to reflect on who you want to be, how you want to show up, and what you want to move toward in 2026. By choosing a value—or a word—to guide your year, you begin living in alignment with what matters most, one small, meaningful action at a time.

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“Self-care is how you take your power back.”
— Lila Delia

🧠 In This Episode

• Why purpose = values + committed action (from an ACT perspective)
• How values differ from goals — and why that matters for long-term wellbeing
• What happens in your brain after 50–90 minutes of focused work
• Why breaks improve productivity, creativity, learning, and memory
• What doesn’t count as a break (hint: scrolling your phone)
• How micro-breaks support your prefrontal cortex
• Signs your nervous system is asking for a pause
• Why art-making and flow activities are especially powerful forms of rest
• How mindful breathing differs from guided breathing
• How to identify what felt heavy in 2025 — and what you may be ready to let go of

🔑 Key Takeaways

• Alignment creates happiness. When what you think, say, and do are in harmony, your nervous system feels safer and more regulated.
• Breaks are biologically necessary. They restore focus, consolidate memory, reduce stress, and support creative problem-solving.
• Values need protection. Like something precious, they require boundaries and conscious choices.
• Elimination creates space. Letting go of what drains you allows more room for what matters most.
• Presence is a practice. Asking “What is most important and valuable right now?” brings you back into the moment.

✍️ Reflective Prompts from the Episode

1. What is most important and valuable right now?
   (Pause. Ask yourself again. Let the answer deepen.)
2. What felt heavy in 2025?
   What slowed you down or created unnecessary stress?
3. What are you ready to eliminate?
   What can you let go of to create more space for value-based living?

🎨 Restorative Breaks (That Actually Work)

• A 5–20 minute walk (especially after learning something new)
• Stretching, dancing, or intentional movement
• Art-making without pressure (doodling, scribbling, painting)
• Flow hobbies (knitting, running, repetitive creative tasks)
• Mindful breathing (simply observing your breath)
• Brief solitude or time in nature
• Shifting tasks (writing → editing, thinking → organizing)

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In this episode of The Modern Creative Woman, Dr. Amy Backos continues the conversation on creating more chill holidays by exploring the neuropsychology of choice, habit, and tradition. She weaves personal reflection with brain science to offer listeners both compassion and practical insight into why the holidays can feel so overwhelming—and how meaningful change is actually possible.

Dr. Backos begins by normalizing the gap between intention and reality during the holidays. Drawing from her own experience of scaling back perfectionism, she reminds us that time is not the goal—well-being is. Gifts can arrive late, traditions can shift, and self-kindness matters more than meeting imaginary deadlines.

The heart of the episode focuses on the neuroscience of decision-making. Dr. Backos explains how four key brain areas—the prefrontal cortex, limbic system, anterior cingulate cortex, and striatum—work together to shape our choices. Importantly, she highlights how emotion, habit, and reward often override logic, helping explain why we revert to old patterns (especially around family and holidays), even when we “know better.”

She then unpacks research showing that the brain initiates action before we’re consciously aware of deciding, underscoring why habits are so powerful—and why change requires patience. This insight offers deep empathy for ourselves and others, reframing impulsive or regressive behaviors as efficiency strategies of the brain, not personal failures.

From there, Dr. Bakos turns toward hope and neuroplasticity. Our brains can change, learn new routes, form new traditions, and create new emotional associations. Traditions, while comforting and efficient, are not fixed—and we are free to keep, modify, or release them.

The episode closes with a gentle, experiential art therapy practice: slowing down, noticing the urge to move before acting, and using artmaking as a way to interrupt automatic patterns. This mindful pause becomes a lived experience of neuroplasticity and choice—one that can extend beyond the art table and into how we navigate the holidays.

Key takeaway: When we slow down and understand how our brains truly work, we can meet ourselves with compassion, experiment with small changes, and create holidays—and lives—that feel more intentional, creative, and calm.

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The Process Is the Way: How to Actually Enjoy Your Holiday Season

In this episode, Amy shares the surprising truth about the exact right moment to pause, relax, and return to yourself: when you feel way too busy to do it.

If you’ve ever sprinted through December—overspending, overcommitting, overperforming, and quietly drowning in guilt, stress, or “holiday hustle”—this conversation is your invitation to stop treating the holidays like a finish line and start experiencing them as a process.

Amy opens up about her own decades-long pattern of holiday bad habits: frantic gift-making, stressful travel, trying to recreate childhood magic single-handedly, and pushing herself far outside her values. Then she shares the shift that changed everything: embracing the process, not just the product.

You’ll explore:

• Why rushing to “get through the holidays” never works
• How mindfulness, ACT, and Zen-inspired practices can bring you back to yourself anywhere—even in traffic
• What art therapy teaches us about staying present and dropping perfection
• The psychological and emotional benefits of valuing the journey rather than the outcome
• How to release traditions you secretly hate and consciously build a season that feels aligned
• Amy’s personal holiday transformations (no more frantic knitting, no more December flights, yes to pajamas + museums!)

This episode will help you create a holiday season rooted in presence, pleasure, values, and genuine connection—not pressure or performance.

If you want December to feel calmer, cozier, more intentional, and actually joyful, this is your guide.

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In this episode, Dr. Amy Backos takes you inside a moment every creative woman knows too well—the quiet drift away from our creativity and, in many ways, from ourselves. What begins as a blank page or stalled idea can quickly snowball into self-doubt, overwhelm, or a nervous system stuck in self-protection. But this isn’t a personal failure—it’s biology, psychology, and lived experience converging.

For 20 grounding minutes, Amy unpacks why we stop creating and how to gently navigate our way back. You’ll learn:

• Why the brain interprets vulnerability, visibility, and uncertainty as “threats,” and how that shuts down creative impulses
• The four psychological patterns that disconnect us from our art: avoidance, emotional overwhelm, perfectionism, and the freeze response
• How childhood experiences—from classroom critiques to the pressure to perform—shape our adult creative identity
• Why creativity is not a luxury, but a biological form of expression that reconnects us to our sense of self
• How art-making supports self-regulation, identity repair, and the reclaiming of your own perspective
• A simple, soothing creative practice you can do today: the Rainbow Photo Series, designed to ground you in presence and rekindle your creative spark

Amy also shares personal stories about knitting failures, adolescent art shame, the psychology of “too muchness,” and the surprising perfectionism behind choosing the “right tomato.”

You’ll walk away with practical ways to re-enter your inner world, slow your nervous system, and create not for the product—but for the reconnection.

The Modern Creative Woman is a weekly podcast for women who want to live, create, and heal with intention. If this episode resonates, please share it with a friend and leave a 5-star review—your support helps bring this work to more women.

To learn about the upcoming Modern Creative Woman x Girlboss Paris Retreat—a transformative week of art therapy, self-expression, and deep reflection—connect with Amy through the link in the show notes or on Instagram @dramybackos.

Support the show

Explore the Modern Creative Woman Community
https://moderncreativewoman.com

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