Unbreakable Mind & Body

Awaken Your Creative Potential

• Tiana Gonzalez • Episode 33

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Creativity isn't reserved for the naturally gifted—it's a muscle we can all strengthen through strategic practice. After spending decades believing I lacked creative ability, I recently had a revelation while buzzing around my apartment on an early Saturday morning. My studio was filled with creative stations: painting supplies, podcast equipment, a vision board, and even a puzzle corner. How did someone who once believed she had "no creative bones" in her body develop so many creative pursuits?

The answer lies in applying the same three-part framework I've used throughout my fitness career: information, implementation, and integration. We often get trapped collecting knowledge without ever putting it into practice. The real transformation happens when we implement what we've learned and then integrate the practices that work for us personally. 

Even without innate creative gifts, you can cultivate creativity through intentional practice.

I challenge you to explore those curiosities you've been ignoring—the ones that keep you up at night or spark excitement when you imagine pursuing them. 

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Disclaimer: This show is for education and entertainment purposes only. This is not intended as a replacement for therapy. Please seek out the help of a professional to assist you with your specific situation.


Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Unbreakable Mind and Body podcast. I am your host, tiana Gonzalez, a multi-passionate, creative storyteller and entrepreneur with a fierce love for movement. This is our space for powerful stories and actionable strategies to help you build mental resilience and elevate your self-care practice. Together, we will unlock the tools that you need to create an unbreakable mind and body. What's going on? Welcome back to the show. I am your host, tiana, and on this episode, we're going to tap into a conversation around creativity and how, with some strategy, you could actually foster more creativity and become more creative in your life.

Speaker 1:

Now, as a kid, I did not think I was creative. I was definitely more of a math and science loving student. I enjoyed English, I enjoyed learning Spanish in school, was not a fan of history and it just didn't click for me. And looking back, I remember many times where, in art class, the things that I put together or created I wasn't pleased with, I had very high expectations and I think a lot of it came down to just being really hard on myself that I had expectations of perfection or of something very much advanced when I was more of a beginner. Now, as an adult, of course, now I understand and know that you can refine your craft in any endeavor to become moderately good, very good master, maybe even excellent. It truly depends on how much time you're willing to invest and pour into said activity. So yesterday I was cleaning my apartment up a little bit in the morning, getting ready for the day, getting ready to go to the gym, and some of you may know that I get up pretty early. Most days I'm up around 5, 5.30 AM. Even on the weekends, when I don't need to be up that early, that's when my body wants to wake up. So I'm up early.

Speaker 1:

I typically, on a Saturday, will make my coffee. I drink it nice and slow will make my coffee. I drink it nice and slow. I write down. I wouldn't say it's a journal entry, but I write down the thoughts that flow in and out while I'm having my coffee. Sometimes I put on some sound waves or some spa music. Other times I'll listen to one of the Spanish podcasts. Remember I mentioned it in a previous episode that I am recommitting to immersing myself in the Spanish language. I have done good so far. I have listened every single day. In fact, today was the most I did about 90 minutes of immersion, super proud of myself for that.

Speaker 1:

So, as I'm preparing for the day, getting ready to go to the gym to work out for myself and I typically do that early Saturday mornings side note much earlier than I used to only because the gym gets really crowded and it's very frustrating when you can't get on the equipment that you want when you want it. So what do I do? I said, well, I'm already up super early, what's the big deal? I'll just have a bigger meal first and I will go to the gym and I will fill my cup. And it has been game changing. So I'm buzzing around the apartment. I probably have some coffee in me, but not all of it. I had done my writing for the morning.

Speaker 1:

I'm immersed in Spanish and I realized that I had several areas within my studio apartment dedicated to creative pursuits. In one area I have my paintings, all of my painting supplies and a large easel my paintings, all of my painting supplies and a large easel. In another area, I have my podcast equipment, blankets and pillows that I use. I put them around me while I'm recording to muffle any excessive sounds from outside or people in the hallway. It's not perfect, I know. Sometimes there is a little bit of background noise that you can hear in these recordings, but I try my best. And then I also have a vision board behind my desk that has multiple images, in a collage type of fashion, of things I want to manifest into my life. And yes, wait, there's more.

Speaker 1:

I bought a puzzle and so I decided to get cracking and create this puzzle. I bought it on Friday, started on Friday, did a little bit on Saturday and I had to pause and say to myself wait a minute. For somebody who, as a kid, thought that I had no creative bones in my body. I have quite a number of creative things going on right now. In addition to all of these things that I mentioned, I also create content. I create this show for you to listen to.

Speaker 1:

I've created several offers over the last 13 years that I've been an entrepreneur, or at least in the fitness industry, as a trainer, coach, mentor, and I've created tons and tons of things, and I will tell you that, especially with the digital offers and with putting something out into the universe, it's so fucking scary and it's really the only way to see what you got going on is to just put it together and put it out there, see if you get any bites, then go back to the drawing board. And I think that now, at this point in life, it's not so much that I see myself as a very creative, like a naturally creative person. Maybe perhaps there's some of that there but I've applied the same principles that I used for more than half of my life in fitness more than half of my life in fitness, in health, in nutrition, in being my own advocate when it came to health conditions, having blood work done, getting tests performed, seeing doctors putting the best quality things that I could find into my body meaning like my food, where my food comes from, sourcing it, the supplements I use I'm pretty particular about what I put into my body and all of that has helped me with my creative endeavors, because it's the same type of thing. The same type of thing, you're applying the same energy, you are taking a step forward, you are implementing things, you're trying them, you see what works for you and you keep readjusting. And, quite frankly, it's very challenging for me and sometimes frustrating, because I see a huge disconnect with many people that I talk to, particularly when we're doing a discovery session or a consultation, because they're potentially interested in working with me to help them reach a health and wellness goal. They're looking for information, but what frustrates me is we don't need more information. But what frustrates me is we don't need more information. We don't need more information, we have enough information. What we need is to take the information we have, implement it into our current lifestyle, see what works, see what doesn't, and then you can take a step forward. So that's the integration part. So you have information, implementation and integration, and these are all very different and they are interconnected.

Speaker 1:

I'm starting to notice a theme among all of my episodes how I can take different words and concepts and make them fit together like puzzle pieces. How funny, because I was just talking about a puzzle. Side note, the puzzle that I got is so adorable. It's actually a picture, it's a painting of different plants in pots and then it has the name of the plant and then, in smaller font, under the name of the plant, it tells you how to take care of it. I am a bad plant mommy. I have always killed my plants. Even I had a small succulent and I killed it. I really don't know what it is. Maybe it's the apartment. Yeah, we're just going to blame it on the apartment. But anyway, the puzzle is so adorable and I thought to myself this would be a really fun challenge. So that's my side note on the puzzle.

Speaker 1:

But going back to information, implementation and integration, to information, implementation and integration, it's the same as a creative pursuit, because information you get the information that you're going to learn in order to create. Let's say it's a painting, or let's say it's a clay sculpture right. Then you're going to implement it. You're going to take what you've learned and you're going to take a stab at it. You're going to try. Then you're going to see what works well. And when it comes to a piece of art and it's the integration part I believe that there's more flexibility there, unless you're creating something and you have specific guidelines. For example, if you're a content creator or a marketing specialist and you're working for someone, they're going to give you the blueprint, the non-negotiables, the confines or the things that they want to see happen within the content or the artwork that you're creating. And so you take those pieces of information and you create your thing, whatever it is piece of content, a story, a sales page, a blog post, a draft of a website or a landing page whatever it is, it's the same thing. It's the same thing in fitness you work with the trainer, you get the information and you get a workout. So now we're starting to implement things. Then you are going to go and work out on your own and see what works for you, what truly can stick, and that's the integration part.

Speaker 1:

This also falls in line with some of the things I've talked about in previous episodes on this show, about healing yourself and, instead of abandoning the old versions of you, you learn how to integrate. You learn how to make peace with your old self. You find yourself a more cohesive and robust individual because, yeah, maybe you made mistakes in the past, but you did the best you could with the things you had at your disposal at that time, and that's all you can ask of yourself. You know you did that and so now you know better. And now that you know better, you won't make that mistake again. You'll make a new mistake, and it's literally the same thing, whether it's a piece of art you're creating, whether it's something you want to accomplish in the gym or with your nutrition, where you would learn habits and then start implementing them into your existing lifestyle so that it could be sustainable. That's the integration part.

Speaker 1:

I don't know if this makes sense to you and I'm hoping that it does, because I'm trying to make this simple but what I'm getting at here is that, whether you consider yourself creative or not, you can cultivate that creativity. You can learn how to become more creative. Are some people more naturally inclined to be better at certain things than others? Yes, of course you have folks who are genetically gifted in athletics, in sports. You have others who have a refined ear for music or for dancing or for singing. Yes, that's raw talent. And then when you apply the discipline aspect, the hard work with the talent, that's how you get the beautiful masterpiece. So what I want you to do is walk away from this episode and think of yourself as a potential masterpiece. You are going to put in the work with the talents and the gifts and the skills that you already have, and you're going to implement the new information that you are learning as you are traversing through life, day in, day out, and you're going to start integrating the things that work. I hope that this makes sense.

Speaker 1:

Today's a short episode because, quite frankly, I think I've made my point. I don't need to ramble for 30 minutes to make my point. The point here is I want to encourage you to explore the things that you are craving to explore, to tap into those curiosities that you are just ignoring and the thing that pokes at you or that keeps you up at night or that you cannot stop thinking about because it's something on your heart. You need to honor the inner child, the person who initially saw that thing or had that curiosity or felt that itch, and go for it. Before I sign off, I want to remind you that I do have a free little five-minute pre-workout ritual that you can download.

Speaker 1:

There's a link in the show notes. It's called Lift. Like you Mean it. It's a quick five-minute pre-workout ritual for you to get your mind right before you get into the gym so that you can accomplish your goals. The ritual includes taking a breath, setting an intention for the day, coming up with the top three exercises that you want to hit and walking into the gym completely confident, knowing what you're there to do, getting it done and getting out of there, so that you're not in the gym spinning your wheels for days, weeks, months at a time, feeling like you're still not really sure if what you're doing is effective. So you can go to the notes and download that link. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time and attention more than you will ever know. As always, I'll catch you on the next one.