Aug 12, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 13 segments
Somewhere around midlife, the roles that used to fit us start to feel like pants that won't button — and creativity, it turns out, is how we find our way back to who's underneath them. In this Play…
Minette RiordanGuest
Anne-Marie BoyleHost
Tell me a little bit about what that looks like in practice, that using creativity as a mirror.
So most specifically, I would say traditionally, that looks like art therapy.
So that might be intuitive painting on a canvas where we use color, stroke, and movement to get feelings and emotions up out of our body and onto a canvas or a piece of paper where we can see it.
One of my most favorite ways to introduce people to this type of creative expression is collage, right? Uh, just grabbing a magazine and just tearing out some images, tearing, not cutting because as soon as we start cutting, we go into perfectionism mode, and gluing them down on a piece of paper, and then looking at it and go, "What's the story that's here?" And we can do that very abstractly, and we can do it with intentionality and prompts, but, you know, who doesn't love to rip images out and glue them on a piece of paper? Like, talk about taking us right back to kindergarten delight and fun.
You know, so collage is such an easy entry point to expressive arts where we're creating for meaning, not art-making.
It makes perfect sense, and I love the idea of creating for meaning and not art-making.
I'm gonna just say that again because it is so powerful to do something like that.
I also love the idea of going through a magazine, pulling things out, or, you know, wherever you're doing it.
Yeah, me too, and I think that's actually a great way to use a recycled book.
But then the piece that a lot of people aren't doing is they're not going back and asking themselves, "What is the story? Why did that flower attract me? Why did those words attract me?" And it can be very insightful to be like, "Oh.
Tell me a little bit about what that looks like in practice, that using creativity as a mirror.
So most specifically, I would say traditionally, that looks like art therapy.
So that might be intuitive painting on a canvas where we use color, stroke, and movement to get feelings and emotions up out of our body and onto a canvas or a piece of paper where we can see it.
One of my most favorite ways to introduce people to this type of creative expression is collage, right? Uh, just grabbing a magazine and just tearing out some images, tearing, not cutting because as soon as we start cutting, we go into perfectionism mode, and gluing them down on a piece of paper, and then looking at it and go, "What's the story that's here?" And we can do that very abstractly, and we can do it with intentionality and prompts, but, you know, who doesn't love to rip images out and glue them on a piece of paper? Like, talk about taking us right back to kindergarten delight and fun.
You know, so collage is such an easy entry point to expressive arts where we're creating for meaning, not art-making.
It makes perfect sense, and I love the idea of creating for meaning and not art-making.
I'm gonna just say that again because it is so powerful to do something like that.
I also love the idea of going through a magazine, pulling things out, or, you know, wherever you're doing it.
Yeah, me too, and I think that's actually a great way to use a recycled book.
But then the piece that a lot of people aren't doing is they're not going back and asking themselves, "What is the story? Why did that flower attract me? Why did those words attract me?" And it can be very insightful to be like, "Oh.
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