Not Everything Needs to Be Shared
“Creating a safe, private space for our creativity can actually help it flourish more freely.”
These days, it can feel like everything is meant for social media. Almost like, "if you didn't post it, did it even happen?" With this in mind, I want to share something I hope feels freeing and liberating, and that is: Some of your most meaningful creative work might be the pieces you never show anyone.
There's something precious about creating just for yourself - writing words no one else will read, making art that lives in private sketchbooks, exploring creative practices that are purely for your own joy and discovery. This private creativity often holds a different quality from the rest - it's more honest, more experimental, more deeply personal.
In my upcoming book, I explore how creating a safe, private space for our creativity can actually help it flourish more freely. When we remove the pressure of an audience, even an imagined one, we often find ourselves creating more authentically, more courageously.
I like to think of it like having a secret garden - a creative space that's just for you, where you can experiment without judgment, explore without explanation, and create without concern for others' opinions. This private space becomes a place where your creative roots to grow strong before anything is ready to be shared.
In our Creative Hearts Community, members often share their relief at discovering they don't have to share everything they create. Some keep special sketchbooks just for private exploration. Others have creative practices they never post about. Some write only for themselves. I love all of these choices.
When we give ourselves permission to create privately, we often discover:
More freedom to experiment
Deeper connection with our authentic voice
Less self-judgment in our creative process
Greater joy in creating for its own sake
Today, I invite you to consider: What might you create if you knew no one else would ever see it? What forms of expression have you been holding back, waiting until they're "good enough" to share? What if they're not meant to be shared at all?
Your creativity doesn't need an audience to be valid. Sometimes the most precious creative acts are the ones we keep close to our hearts.
Be kind to yourself and nurture your creativity.
With my warmest wishes,
~ Nicola
P.S. In our Creative Hearts Community, we understand the value of both private and shared creativity. We create supportive spaces for both - where you can choose what to share and what to keep sacred and private. And in my upcoming book, I offer more guidance on creating these private spaces for your creativity to grow strong. I warmly invite you to join us in the community and discover how supported your creative journey can feel when you have permission to create in whatever way serves you best.
P.P.S. I hope the start of the year is treating you well! I celebrate my birthday this week, so I'm looking forward to being another year older (and hopefully wiser!) I'm wishing you a beautiful start to the year. Let's carve out some space that's purely for our own private self-expression. In my experience, it's always worth it.
Here's a photo I wanted to share... My husband and I finished putting up our new Colorbond fence around the garden. It's transformed how we feel in the space now. It's so private and lovely! Secluded...
About Nicola Newman
I'm a Creative Business Coach, Award-Winning Artist & Mentor for Creative Hearts who want to flourish, flow & prosper.
My passion is inspiring and supporting Creative Hearts to trust their inner wisdom and carve out a life that’s personally meaningful and fulfilling to them.
I share practical, evidence-based tools for Creative Hearts seeking to improve their lives or businesses. My work draws from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based techniques, body-based practices, and neuroscience -- and my own creative living adventures -- among other approaches.
My mission is to support Creative Hearts to:
Dissolve creative blocks, develop a loving relationship with themselves, nurture their creativity and reframe the beliefs and patterns that keep them from following their heart and making the creative contribution they would love to make in the world.
My approach is to embrace gentleness, playfulness and self-care to navigate self-doubt and instead cultivate deep self-trust so you can truly enjoy the creative process, bring together your body of work, make money doing what you love and leave a creative legacy you’re proud of.
Let’s pour a cuppa and get to know one another, shall we? :) Read more about my story here.
