How to Overcome Creative Block: Spells for Creativity

You know that feeling when you ‘should’ be sitting down to write and create on that project that’s so near and dear to your heart… but then your brain acts like it's on crack, you start procrasti-cleaning, end up in a scroll-hole on socials and just like that your time window passed…?!?!

 If this feels like it has become waaaay too established in your daily routine you’ll definitely want to listen to this week's Creative Magic Club episode where I interview Lorena Martinez on the magic of understanding how to get your creative flow back.

 With 10 years of acting experience, Lorena found herself in a pinch when she was under a lot of pressure to succeed creatively in order to get a visa to stay in the US. She shares how this led her to discover what DOESN’T work to access creative flow, and how she learned what’s truly important to nurturing our creative genius.

 She shares the importance of play and having time away from technology, along with how she creates rituals to connect to divine inspiration and nourish her feminine creative energy.

 You’re going to love it!

Lorena Martinez is an actor, writer, speaker, and coach who is all in on the magic of Creative Joy. She launched her company, Bien Creative with a mission to raise joy, inspire courage, and ignite creativity.  A professional actor for over 10 years, Lorena has performed on

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Chapters

• 1:44 Unleashing Creativity
• 15:47 Embracing Creative Process and Flow
• 27:41 Nurturing Creativity Through Nature and Play

Transcript

Speaker 2: 1:44

What's up, this is Sarah Mack, and welcome to Creative Magic Club. Together, we'll discover inspirational stories of creative entrepreneurs living out their dreams, doing the work they are most passionate about and building wealth in magical and fun ways, while building a six-figure income. As a writer and coach, helping other women to launch their dream businesses, I've connected with so many incredible people and seen it proven again and again that you can thrive financially doing whatever it is you are passionate about. I am here to share life-changing strategies for mindset, making money and reaching more people with your work in a business and life filled with creativity are passionate about. I'm here to share life-changing strategies for mindset, making money and reaching more people with your work in a business and life filled with creativity, freedom and fun. Hi, everyone, welcome. I'm so excited to introduce my guest today.

Speaker 2: 2:34

We have with us Lorena Martinez, who is an actor, writer, speaker and coach who is all in on the magic of creative joy. She launched her company BM Creative with a mission to raise joy, inspire courage and ignite creativity. A professional actor for over 10 years, lorena has performed on Hollywood sets, tony Award winning stages and legendary comedy houses. She created and wrote a sitcom based on her immigration woes and recently signed a shopping deal with a major production company. As a speaker, lorena developed a program called hey Genius, unlock your Creative Power, designed to help corporations and organizations ignite a culture of creative genius and effortlessly stay at the forefront of innovation. Hi Lorena, so great to have you.

Speaker 1: 3:18

It's so great hearing your bio and knowing your face is like it's like okay.

Speaker 2: 3:24

Yeah, it's a good bio well done. So okay, before we dive in to talking about creative flow, tell us a little bit about your story, like how did you land and end up doing this kind of work?

Speaker 1: 3:39

yes, well, as, as you said, I'm an actor, I'm from Mexico, and so for a long chunk I studied in the US and for a chunk of my acting career I knew that I had one year to get famous or I was going to be deported, and I knew that. Honestly, going into going into studying in the U S, I knew that was how things worked and so and I say this because that mindset of like having to be great or leave shaped everything that I am and it made me just have to dream big because there's I actually don't have another option. Now I have a green card and I'm kind of grateful for that. But in that process of like figuring things out, I was pushed to my limit and I had to write for myself because no one believed that I was Latina. I was missing out on roles because I didn't look Mexican and I was Latina. I was missing out on roles because I didn't look Mexican and I was like I have three bugs. So that sort of pressure led me to write my own thing when I had never sort of even thought I could do it, and that process unleashed.

Speaker 1: 4:50

I learned so much about creativity, and the lesson that I learned was if I'm in my creative power, I'm happy, my life is great. If I'm not, I'm miserable. And so the lack of auditions was leading me to be miserable, and writing this show like returned me to my joy and I developed like my own process to to be in my creative flow, and it's like impacted everything in my life. And once I had like actual like, tested ways to work with creativity, I started helping other people casually, and then I started coaching actors, and then I started realizing where my magic lies, and it really is in like helping you take the lid off your own creative process, and so I created a business out of it, because I wanted something that aligned with my passion and love for acting, that still gave me like power and creative joy and like not have to be desperate for a role, and so everything now is like a little better, less pressure amazing.

Speaker 2: 6:01

So, first of all, if anyone hasn't checked out Lorena's TEDx talk, you should go and watch it, because she tells this story in like a really amazing way. And for anyone who's not familiar you when you say you had to get famous within a year, you needed to get the o visa, that's what you were going.

Speaker 1: 6:17

Yes, right, yes, I needed the extraordinary visa right, which is like crazy, where you have to prove you're famous, like you have to like have press and reviews and like awards, like.

Speaker 2: 6:30

So, yeah, so how did you end up getting a green card in the end? I'm curious.

Speaker 1: 6:36

Oh my God, the whole process, but short, short answer. I got the O-1 later than I needed it, but I got it. And then during that process I was Trump had just won. So it was very complicated because immigration took a hit, but I was they. I was accepted for a green card and then that process took like four years to get a provisional one and I literally just got my actual green card like last month, and I've been in the states 18 years holy shit, congratulations, amazing.

Speaker 2: 7:08

Yeah, I know that feeling, so, yeah, I love.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Yeah, people's green how long have you been in the US?

Speaker 2: 7:14

um, on and off since 2015. I was like trying to figure it out and then I yeah, my green card process also took four years because of the pandemic and all the consulates closing, and I finally got it in end of 2021, so officially American since then do you have the provisional or the permanent? No, I have the permanent green card because I got married to my partner. I was like yeah, I was like if you want us to live in the same country, we need to get married. So that's how I got it.

Speaker 1: 7:47

Hi, I thought about it, but I love. No, I was not in love, so I was like this is not one of my options yeah, better to put pressure on your creative career than a relationship yes, yes, yes, thank you. I love that I feel validated so, um, okay, so yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:07

So obviously during that year of pressure you really felt, because obviously creativity doesn't respond well under pressure. So presumably you got a lot of lessons on what doesn't work for getting to extraordinary levels of creativity. So what were some of your main takeaways from that time?

Speaker 1: 8:25

I mean, this is my whole life agenda but and this is what the TED talk really gets to but what I started doing that freed me up was playing. The way I used to play when I was alone in my room, like when I was a little kid and I loved painting. And I started doing that freed me up was playing the way I used to play when I was alone in my room, like when I was a little kid and I loved painting. And I started painting and experimenting with different techniques that I didn't know right before working. And this has revolutionized my entire life because it sort of was the. It's a one-way ticket into the flow zone, because playing gets you into like only enthusiasm, focused only gut, and if you feel like dancing, you dance, like that sort of play is how the creative process needs to feel in order to get the goal.

Speaker 1: 9:13

And so it took years of therapy and understanding like this concept at its core, but I was accidentally playing more and going to nature and exploring and that really, once I sat down to write, I was having a time of my life selling the show and pitching it. That was a nightmare, but like the actual creating of it was exciting. And then when it was really well received because I sort of like knew it was good, and then when people were like you can write, and I was like right, like I don't know either, you know like, but it all happened because it was very fun and playful and I mean it's sort of my life story, so like it was a really fun journey. But the outside, the hustle felt very tense, but playing allowed me to disconnect from that for like a minute or two to go do what I was put on this earth to do yeah, I just want to underscore that because it I made a similar discovery and now it's like it's a it's a habit on my to-do list.

Speaker 2: 10:17

It's literally like capital letters play, even if it's for 10 minutes, like I'll just sit down and play my guitar and just do whatever the fuck I want for like 10 minutes and whenever I consistently commit to that habit, like I'm way more productive, I make way more money, like everything's more fun, I have more energy, like it's just the magic source it actually is the magic source exactly.

Speaker 1: 10:42

It's like where, where you believe that you can play with a cauldron and throw berries in it and actually make thunder happen, like it's the real magic. And I in the past few months I've like ritualized it because I also really believe in the power of ritual, and now I put I'll show you, I'll put whatever I just worked on up on my little altar so that while I work cause I've never, I don't think I'm good at painting and then I see what I do and I'm like I can paint, I can do things I didn't know how to do. And to have that reminder as I work is so spiritual and so powerful and I love I want everyone to play.

Speaker 2: 11:24

I love that and, yeah, I think when you unpack this as to why it works you just articulated that perfectly it's like so often, when we're stretching ourselves or we're doing something scary, or we're doing something new or we're like learning a new skill, it brings up our insecuritiesurities and we have those feelings of not feeling super confident. Or, you know, imposter syndrome comes up, or when we have to sell ourselves or put ourselves out there or become visible and all those insecurities creep up. So when we have that time every day, like when you create something from nothing, it creates confidence.

Speaker 1: 11:56

You're like, oh exactly like I'm a magical in love with yourself.

Speaker 2: 11:57

Human, yeah, like look what I just did, and I, I'm the, exactly like I'm a magical in love with yourself, human, yeah like look what I just did and I I'm the same, like I just started painting again after not painting for years, and that there's nothing like that feeling of looking at some even a half finished painting. I'm like the colors are so beautiful and like I made that and it's so fun to just look at it, so I love that. Okay, I want to hear more about your rituals. Like how have they evolved? Like what do you do? Like what? When you say ritual? Like what do you mean by that?

Speaker 1: 12:26

um, yes, I love this question. To me, a ritual, um, just brings sacredness and intention to whatever you're doing. So it could be your morning ritual, it could be before you eat, but to me it's about connecting to me. Creativity is a collaboration with the divine. However you relate, it's with that source of creation, and so it is a sacred, it is the most sacred process for me, because it's when I am actually in direct communication with God or goddess, like.

Speaker 1: 13:02

So I make the entering very intentional and purposeful and I pray and I paint and I put the four elements so like wind, water, fire and earth on my altar and it just what it does is it elicit, it like creates emotions that make you feel powerful and ready, and then something magical happens and you're like we're here, we have arrived, and then from then you can be there for hours. But like finding a ritual to intention. It doesn't I go all the right. Now I'm on a retreat, so like I go for a hike in the morning. It's like the whole retreat is a ritual. But on the day-to-day, even if you just put, like, an image that sparks joy and you play and you pray and set an intention, you're like intentionizing your work in a very powerful way, and the most exciting thing about the creative process is that you don't know what's going to happen. But that is also the most exciting thing about the creative process is that you don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 2: 14:02

But that is also the most terrifying thing, and I think this ritual sort of helps you trust that you're doing your part you know right, and I think having those anchors that feel really good also help to overcome creative resistance, because you look, it's something to look forward to. You're like, oh, I guess, light my candle, like do that, play that song or do those things I know are gonna feel really good. So it's a way of like, whenever you do feel resistance and like you, you know you're like, oh, I want to get sit down today, I want to be consistent, and then, yes, it's almost like an anchor that kind of helps you get into the zone.

Speaker 1: 14:40

It's huge and then there's no set, tell me no, no, carry on. No. I was just gonna say um, I have, like I right now I'm writing a movie that I consider like my life's work and I don't think I'm capable of it and at the same time, I'm like it has be me. So a lot of the time when I don't think I'm capable, I sort of see the grandness of it and I have no idea what to do next. That's when I like like call in reinforcement and go on a retreat.

Speaker 1: 15:12

And two days ago I was stuck and I was. I went to a lake and I like had to get back to write, but I was so happy looking at these ducks and I was like, actually I'm just going to stay, I'm going to stay for as long as I want to stay and I'm going to enjoy it for as long as I want to enjoy. And that decision unlocked the next wave of ideas you know. So, like, when you are really stuck, it's when you need to play the most, when you have no time, that's when you really need space to get lost, which I love yeah, I love that, so I'm.

Speaker 2: 17:39

One thing I'm curious about is what are some of the ways that you bring the four elements into your uh ritual altar?

Speaker 1: 17:44

I'm gonna show you guys okay, so I have the crystals, and the crystals are the earth, and then the incense just flew out. But incense is the wind, and then, obviously, the fire, and the diffuser is the water, and then that's what I was painting right before I sat down with you.

Speaker 2: 18:02

That's so beautiful it's so sweet right and like you're traveling right now. So you literally packed all of these things and you brought them.

Speaker 1: 18:14

It's my least heavy crystals, it's my travel crystals and that is like my, my watercolor journal. So I don't bring like my oils into my acrylics, which like I want to, but. But I have my travel ways, but also I'm here on a retreat to be creative. I don't take it with me everywhere I go, but I at least have a little oil and a little crystal.

Speaker 2: 18:40

I love that. So what are your? Some of your current lessons that you're moving through in your own creative process oh, what a good question.

Speaker 1: 18:50

Um, a big one is once you learn the lesson, you don't have to learn it again. And the lesson that I keep being like is I'm doing enough. Because I grew up kind of like rebellious and lazy and so my way of and I'm a cancer and so my way of like I don't know being me was, which is watching tv, eating, binging and playing candy crush, like I have these habits that have hurt me in the past and so any waste of time I feel really guilty about. And I'm here to write and I had a very like intense writing schedule and at times I was like no, I want to be in the mountain for an extra hour. And so the lesson is like you are doing enough being here and saying, yes, you're not being lazy.

Speaker 1: 19:43

I'm also like very honest with myself about and when I'm tired, I'm tired and I just stop working, and sometimes I record myself like looking at the stars and I'm like, hey, we don't need to work right now, we can just chill. But if you want to tell me ideas, I'm open, you know. But taking the pressure off of like doing enough, because the creative process is so hard, it just if it's not light and fun. It's not going to happen and you have to be in a. Really, I think the work that you have to do is everything outside of that, so that you can jump into this space, which is where healing comes in yeah, so good.

Speaker 2: 20:24

And I'm curious because you know, obviously you've got your business, you're an actor, you're writing a movie, like a lot of creative projects in the cauldron right now. Yeah, how do you, um, yeah, like, how do you kind of structure your productivity and your schedule around managing progress around all of these things?

Speaker 1: 20:46

I love that question. It's an ongoing experiment. Um, I used to think like during the morning I'll work on the business stuff and in the evening I'll drop into flow, like the things that don't need my genius in the morning and then my genius. But that doesn't always work, because then some days you can't what I, sometimes a part of my career, calls to me. So, like last month, I was offered to teach a workshop at a corporation and I had two weeks and I was like, well, focus, like that's the only thing I focused on.

Speaker 1: 21:21

And then for me, this, these retreat, these retreats, these like sprints really, really, really work, because I'm just all in on one thing, and then it's the discipline of trusting that the other stuff that you've put energy and creativity into is boiling up and it's still active while I give something else my focus. But it is, it's still an experiment. Like we, you just have to like it's like toddlers, where they're like they can sit up, but you still gotta like are you okay? We're good, okay, okay, yes, yes, let's go play. Yes, okay, you know, um, but I'm also in a stage of my life where I know this is, this is the creative epitome like I'm single, it's me and my dog and like the only focus right now is growing and creating the assets that hopefully later I'll have people help me and I'll have a team, and you know it's just right now. This is what we're doing.

Speaker 2: 22:22

Yeah, I think it's so important to frame it as an experiment and know that, like, it's always going to evolve. It evolve because, as women right, it's like well, every single week, our hormones are different. So, like it's not, you can get into this. This is the thing that works for me and then this will always work for me. And I feel like I'm going through, or I'm trying to go through, a bit of a shift in my own process.

Speaker 2: 22:42

I've definitely been that person, like I have a lot of fixed energy in my astrology chart, and so I'm like, when I get a daily habit, I'm like a dog with a bone, like I'm like I'll do it every day and I'll be really consistent, and it works well for me to do a little bit of like most things every day. And I don't know, I think as someone, especially as a recovering ADD person, it's like if I'm touching it every day, then I feel more of a sense of self-trust that I'm not abandoning the project, you know. But I'm starting to realize now like, oh, actually what I want is longer periods to do deeper work, and so that is going to require me letting things sit over there for a little bit while I go deep on this thing and it's yeah, it's like a huge reconditioning process and it's scary, it's so scary, I suck at it.

Speaker 1: 23:34

No, but one thing that's really helped me and I don't know how you relate to your projects, but to me, you know, each one has a name, a soul, a personality, and I think we come from a similar background. So but I talk to it like my best friend and I'm like, hey, I love you and I just this is the work that we're here to do, and I'm not gonna like say anything to you today, but like you've got this and I cast a little spell so that, like whatever needs to, like that miracles happen without me, you know, because I'm not gonna make everything happen and the whole thing is that I'm collaborating with divinity. So, like I love you, I'll be back, and like just tell it that you'll be back.

Speaker 1: 24:18

I love that and it just releases a guilt somewhere in our body.

Speaker 2: 24:23

I definitely need to try that more, because I know that's true and I've seen that, like when I'll go away and work on something and then I'll, you know, have something else in life that I'm focused on, and suddenly, when I'm in that other thing, things are like popping off with that project that I just walked away from.

Speaker 2: 24:37

It's like always, it's like the rule of life, yeah yeah, and I can't remember who put it this way to me, but it really resonated. It was like don't be a helicopter parent to your business or your project. You know, it's like when you're smothering it all the time, it can't grow and it can't flourish and kind of like take on a life of its own. I love like yeah, you have to you know be there to water it like continuing to nourish it what you said about hormones.

Speaker 1: 25:03

Like our cycle, if we know how to work with it and this is a whole other podcast but, like, if you can work with your cycle, it, it, it's nature, it's, it's its own like process, it will transform your life and our cycle teaches us that we're not supposed to be at a hundred all the time. And learning about it and working with those hormones and accepting them into your creative process. It's so powerful because it's like you're inviting the feminine, you know, and oh, the feminine is so. It's the creator.

Speaker 2: 25:39

Oh, obsessed, okay right and I think you know, recognizing that it's a deconditioning process. Like throughout our education and our upbringing, we have been very much conditioned to work in a certain way that like doesn't fucking work for us and yeah, most, most teachers, male teachers, or like screenwriting books, they sort of need you to have answers in order to go right.

Speaker 1: 26:05

Like you need answers to write. And the biggest revolution of my life is that you need questions, you need thousands of questions and just keep asking and just keep listening for the answer. But like you can write with a head full of questions, you know you don't need answers, you don't need to know your log line before you start. Like the discovery process was never process, has never been given its due, like it's where it all is, you know. And so especially women like I have a lot of women friends. They're like I want to write a movie, I'm gonna go to a class and I was like, but first find what it is from you. Like you can, you can find the how-to from your own intuition first, and then tools and structure and of course.

Speaker 2: 26:54

But it's a revolutionary thing to like, listen to your gut and let that move your process forward yeah, and I think that connects back to what you were saying about really rooting into the enoughness of like I am, like what I can do today is enough, what I'm capable of producing today is enough, my ideas are enough, which again is, like you know, deconditioning the misogynistic programming that women must, we must, yeah and it's like yeah, it's like the fertile ground of creativity is knowing that everything that I need I have available to me today, right now in this moment.

Speaker 1: 27:35

Yeah, all of it, yes, and it's not just like a cool idea, it's like a fact you know, and I think the first. That's why I come to the mountain like the furthest you can get away from patriarchal conditioning and the more into nature yes, oh, that's interesting because one of my friends.

Speaker 2: 27:53

She's writing her book at the moment. She's like I cannot write when I'm in LA, so she's every time I speak to her she's like in another country or like, yeah, in the forest, like on a run.

Speaker 1: 28:04

Yeah, you know that meme where, like, we prefer a bear over a man if we're in the mountain alone. I think that's true for the create creative process too. For women, like, and not, I mean, there's amazing men, supportive men, creative men, but they they're. They function differently, their process is different and they're going to want to give you solutions and you don't want solutions for a while, like, and if you know that, you free yourself up and to me, like coming to nature, getting lost in the mountain and talking to trees, like any and any answers I'm looking for, I always find and I think that that says a lot you know, in LA.

Speaker 2: 28:47

That's hard yeah, you just made me realize. I wrote my book when I was living in the Bronx and I moved to like right next to Pelham Bay, like really far away from Manhattan and everything, and I was literally like my desk, looked over the bay and all I could see was water and it just like this whole other level of creativity and I wrote a whole book and it just came out of me.

Speaker 1: 29:11

Oh, my god, of course, oh, oh, I love that it's of course. I'm planning my next retreat to finish this okay, great yes, yes, I wrote 62 pages and when I'm home I can't, I write two and I'm like enough, like I am exhausted, you know, yeah, interesting nature, guys, nature okay.

Speaker 2: 29:32

So what would your message be to anyone who's like? I'm feeling kind of stuck in my process right now. Also, maybe just booking a retreat to another country in the forest doesn't feel like an option for me, right?

Speaker 1: 29:43

now like what are some things that are going?

Speaker 1: 29:45

to help me to have that breakthrough um, a big habit that I've that has changed my life is I've created space every day. So space means disconnected from screens, absolutely no phone, no Apple. Let yourself be for 10 minutes with no agenda. Your brain can go anywhere and let it, and what I do is I watch the sunset from my balcony every day, from like pink to orange to red. Tonight it's about 20 minutes and, oh, it is the best thing you can do, like find space. You can even and it's not, I know people have kids and husbands and maybe it means like an evening 10 minute shower, like wherever you can find just which is.

Speaker 1: 30:44

I don't know if you agree, but like we get great ideas in the shower for a reason you know there's like no electronics. We're by ourselves in our brain with no agenda other than to like get clean. Um, so I think creating space, disconnecting from any social media, that perturbs you, because our, our nervous system is like not designed to know everything that's happening at all times. So I think it's powerful to choose when you are open to receive information and when you are not, and you should not be pressured to know what's happening at all times or feel like you have to answer texts immediately. So I think what I'm saying is like a release from devices. Intentionally, is is going to unlock things for you and, of course, play yeah, and it's.

Speaker 2: 31:41

It's kind of crazy. It's very simple advice, but we all know how challenging it is to be like, oh, 10 minutes with no device and no screens and like to sit.

Speaker 1: 31:51

That's why play could work like playing is space, because you just focus. You can't care about the results. That is the rule about playing. Um, that's the only one, but it could also. It doesn't have to be a creative play. It could be like legos, it could be playing with rocks, it could be a water balloon. Fight like play, more like experience. That deep joy that you used to experience when you were a kid and you will see your creativity soar Like play is the most powerful way to connect to that part of yourself.

Speaker 2: 32:27

I love it. So where? What have you got going on right now? Where can people find you and learn more about your work?

Speaker 1: 32:34

Yes, thank you. Right now I'm writing a script and I am so excited because I am now offering my keynote and my workshop, k-genius, which is designed to help people unleash their creative potential. I've already been teaching it and I feel so privileged to get to do this work because I get to see the best side of people and I see the spark that lights up when someone does something they're proud of. It's my favorite. So, hey, genius, it's a program that I'm teaching and, yeah, my Instagram is L-O-R-E-M-T-Z and you know like I really get to. It was a creative joy building and structuring this talk and I I'm so pleased of how it's impacting people, you know and I hope that you hurry up and finish your screenplay because I know about the project and I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 1: 33:57

It's so good, but it also is like I really believe, sarah, with my whole soul, that this is like the work that I was put on this earth to do, the core of it all, and so the the like, it's just so big. But also, I'm here. We wrote 60 pages this week. It's gonna happen one day.

Speaker 2: 34:16

So even if it takes five years, even if it takes 10 years, I'll be buying my ticket once it's yes, yes, oh my gosh, it's gonna be a good day.

Speaker 1: 34:26

It's gonna be a good day yeah, keep at it.

Speaker 2: 34:28

I'm cheering you on. Thank you for sharing all of your creative genius with us today, and thank you to everybody who's watching. I would love for you to keep in touch with us on Instagram. Share your takeaways. Please share this episode with anyone else you know would benefit, and I'll see you next week. Thank you, bye, guys. Thank you For more inspirational content, head over to my website withsarahmackcom and.