Casual Temple

TRANSCRIPT

(Transcript is auto-generated; errors are unintentional.)

00:00:06 Merrily

Welcome to Casual Temple podcast episode 58, and I'm your host Merrily Duffy at Casual Temple. Our mission is to discover our connection with the unseen world of spirit and how.

00:00:14 Merrily

That empowers us to know our true.

00:00:16 Merrily

Selves will to support our journey, subscribe to me to start review on your favorite podcast platform, journey us today is the brilliant idea. Now, Pia Mailhot-Leichter writer, creative director and.

00:00:26 Merrily

Author of the inspiring book. Welcome to the creative club. Make your life your big.

00:00:29 Merrily

Art project. In this conversation, we explore how to reclaim our creative power, rewrite our personal narratives, and consciously direct the next scene of our lives. Whether you're an artist, a scientist, an accountant, or just feeling step, this episode will remind you that you are already creative, so stay tuned to the Casual Temple podcast for the mundane.

00:00:46 Pia

Meets in this call.

00:00:55 Merrily

Welcome back to the casual temple. We're so excited to welcome Pia Mailhot-Leichter to the temple today. Pia is the author of welcome to the Creative Club. Nick life, your biggest art project. A book that challenges the notion that creativity is reserved for the chosen few and instead invites.

00:01:14 Merrily

Everyone to embrace life as their own creative masterpiece.

00:01:17 Merrily

Beyond her writing, beer helps individuals bring their creative ideas, brands, and businesses to life. Her journey from navigating pivotal life moments to crafting your career that feels inspiration is exactly what all of us need in our lives today. Yeah, it's so wonderful to have you here on the capital temples.

00:01:36 Pia

Thank you for such a warm welcome.

00:01:38 Pia

Charlie, I'm so happy to be here.

00:01:40 Merrily

Absolutely yes. I love you know, I love talking about creativity. You know, some of my listeners might be like, why are we talking about creativity on your, like, spiritual podcasts? But you guys, it is all the same thing to me. It is all the same thing. Why we're talking about.

00:01:57 Merrily

And and I've had other artists and musicians, and we talked about TV on this channel. So you guys like this is definitely within the realm of what we like to hear.

00:02:08 Pia

So very excited. We got connected and I really agree with you that I mean there's nothing life is a creative process.

00:02:18 Pia

I mean it, it is so close to spirit and we're Co creating with life all the time. So I think it's very.

00:02:22 Merrily

Absolutely.

00:02:26 Pia

Connected as well. I mean, creativity is also connected to sexuality, to many things, but definitely as well spirituality. It's like we're emulating the original God or universal energy or whatever you want to call it.

00:02:42 Merrily

So that's exactly that's exactly my perspective. So I'm, you know, I'm glad we like some protocol on.

00:02:47 Merrily

That.

00:02:49 Merrily

Yeah. So we kind of just start wherever you consider the beginning of your your.

00:02:55 Merrily

Journey your creative journey.

00:02:58 Pia

Sure. Beginning of my creative year. Well, what's interesting is I grew up, my dad's an abstract artist. He's a painter. So he I grew up in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

00:03:12 Pia

On the Bowery.

00:03:13 Pia

Before it became what it is today, when he my father, is one of, like, the artists who gentrified helped gentrify the neighborhood and really spearheaded that whole kind of artist movement there. And so I grew up in a world of color and shape and form and creativity was just like a natural part of life. It's just.

00:03:33 Pia

From, especially as a kid watching my dad, you know, paint splattered jeans, listening to music, he'd be painting. I'd be like writing. And it's just kind of what we did. And I didn't realize what a gift that was until I got older. And then I heard stories of, you know, some of my clients or even friends talking about creativity.

00:03:52 Pia

Is something that's for, you know, the the special few or it's dangerous or you know they're, you know, maybe they didn't get that kind of support growing up or something. Oh, it's not serious. Let's get serious. What are you talking about here? And I think so. I I'm fortunate because I think my creative journey really started there.

00:03:57 Merrily

Right.

00:04:14 Pia

The flip side of that, because there's always a flip side, yeah.

00:04:17 Pia

That I also saw.

00:04:19 Pia

You know how challenging financially challenging it can be?

00:04:23 Pia

At the time, from what I saw was when you color outside societies prescriptive lines you can pay like a rebellion tax. And so that always scared me away from really owning creativity is what I did to make a living. Like when I say creativity I mean just like.

00:04:43 Pia

My father, like, oh, I'm just going to become an author and hope that works out. And so that was what else that gave me. And then I realized as I grew.

00:04:52 Pia

Older that my dad is a gifted, brilliant, amazing artist and my hero in so many ways because he did whatever he needed to do to keep painting and which is what he loved. He often told me that he didn't choose art, art chose him. And I remember thinking I didn't want.

00:05:01 Merrily

Hmm.

00:05:09 Pia

To be picked.

00:05:12 Pia

And so I chose commercial creativity. You know, I went a different route because it felt like, OK, I can create and.

00:05:20 Pia

Do what I love, but also have some security. Oh, that's what I was about to say. So I realized that, you know, so my dad is my biggest hero in many ways, but he might.

00:05:28 Pia

Not.

00:05:28 Pia

Have always been the best businessman, so the stories we pick up when we're younger from our parents, we see them through the eyes of little us, right. And so it took a while to unwind that.

00:05:30 Merrily

Right.

00:05:40 Pia

And get the courage to.

00:05:43 Pia

Also, just make stuff you know and and trust that that it will unfold and the way what in whatever way it's meant to unfold that's back to trust and spirituality.

00:05:55 Merrily

Yeah, for sure. Oh, gosh. Yeah. Well, yeah. What a blessing to have that that in your life just from a a really young age. And and I like that you were saying that, you know, it's just kind of like we all have that creative peace in us, all of us, even though we get messages that that's not the case.

00:06:16 Merrily

And one is maybe more valuable the other than the other, right? Like the the arty art and maybe not the commercial art art is you know that there's like some sort of more value for that.

00:06:28 Merrily

And something I've been thinking about a lot lately. This is so goofy, but like.

00:06:34 Merrily

You know, like in Jane Austen books. OK, stay with me. Stay with me. You kind of read about how like they'll go and have, like, a little like gathering and, like a sitting room or something. But they'll have somebody who sings. Somebody believe, drawing, like, all of them. They all did some type of creativity. And it wasn't like, weird.

00:06:54 Merrily

Or like oh, this was a special person. They all just had something that they were doing constantly and like, why aren't we doing?

00:07:00 Pia

That, yeah, absolutely. And I think, you know, it's important. The creativity has become.

00:07:09

OK.

00:07:09 Pia

Synonymous with artistic expression, right? And artistic expression is of course, one huge facet of creativity, but it's not the only one. I mean, creativity is how we solve. You know how we approach or solve everyday problems in novel, useful, original and unexpected ways. And that could look like.

00:07:17 Merrily

Right.

00:07:29 Pia

Open in the fridge and be like I have four ingredients.

00:07:34 Pia

What am I gonna make for dinner? I could look like so many different things. It could. It could be. Scientists are immensely creative. And I remember reading an academic journal for my book doing research. And in the journal the the writer, the researcher posited that crime is intent, really creative. And I thought, oh, yeah, that's true.

00:07:36 Merrily

Yes.

00:07:52

Ohh.

00:07:54 Merrily

Yes.

00:07:55 Pia

It just is really funny. The contrast I'd.

00:07:56 Pia

Expect to read it.

00:07:57 Pia

In the academic journal. But you know, there's so many ways.

00:08:02 Pia

I think everything we do is creative. The how we show up in the world when we do it from our kind of unique signature, who we are when.

00:08:10 Pia

Yeah, reading.

00:08:11 Pia

From that sort of anchored place of our unique identity or our unique expression, our unique energy signature, then by default we of course were creative.

00:08:23 Pia

Because there's no one else like Merrilee Duffy, so you know, so no one else can create in that way, and that's what creativity is. It's not parroting, it's not copying, it's not repeating. It's finding your own way of connecting dots of.

00:08:26 Merrily

Right.

00:08:40 Pia

You know, strutting into a room of composing an e-mail, of writing a poem, if that's your thing of doing so many different things. It's really how we live. It's a way of being in the world. It's not just something that we do just to expand, just to like crack it open if they think what stops us.

00:08:58 Merrily

Yeah.

00:09:00 Pia

From being creative is the idea that I'm not creative, right? So that was why it was so important to, for me, at least in the book, like Smash the myth, like this is of course you're creative. If you're a human, you're an artist that play.

00:09:14 Pia

Our biology, our biology, our brain function, I mean we, it's it's inherent in who we are, it's inherent in how we think. We all have a control mode network and a default mode network. The default mode network is often known as the imagination, Work, Imagination Network and this is where it's what we're thinking about when we're not thinking.

00:09:35 Pia

It's in the subconscious when dots connect. When we're daydreaming, when we're in the shower, it's those like beautiful moments of pause, and when we're not consciously trying to solve or ideate or create something where we have those moments and that's.

00:09:48 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:09:51 Pia

At least one of the influences of, or at least correlated, the default mode network, and we all come with that. We're all equipped with that. So yeah, it's it's to me, it's just really important to not only redefine creativity, but, you know, to redefine who's creative. That's everybody. That's what enabled our survival as a species.

00:10:09 Merrily

Yeah.

00:10:13 Merrily

I agree. That's why we're here, yeah.

00:10:14 Pia

It's in our birds.

00:10:16 Pia

Yeah, it's in our DNA. It's our birthright.

00:10:21 Merrily

Yeah, I mean, that's how you.

00:10:22 Merrily

Know we got our.

00:10:24 Merrily

Ancient ancestors made tools and figured out society and fire and all those things, yeah.

00:10:30 Pia

All of it. It's how we also started to tell stories that united groups of more than 150 people making them feel a sense of belonging that connected them and enabled their survival. That feeling of community and connection. I mean, it's.

00:10:45 Pia

And it's it's in, it's in every it's in our history. It's in, in who we are today and it's in our future, our ability to creatively solve challenges is going to be key for our continued survival to take it up a notch.

00:11:02 Merrily

Yes.

00:11:04 Merrily

Oh yeah, I love the idea of expanding the idea of creativity instead of which is not great, that it's in this like weird little box that that's been put in.

00:11:16 Merrily

At least in the Western world. So I'm glad you know. Yeah, I love that idea of just, like, make it the biggest circle and everybody's in it. So that's.

00:11:24 Pia

Great. Yeah. And then I'm imagining you're Jane Austen scene. Yeah. Because then people are coming up doing all types of things. Maybe someone has.

00:11:31 Pia

A comedy act.

00:11:32 Merrily

Right, yeah.

00:11:33 Pia

As you know is drawing.

00:11:35 Pia

Maybe. I mean, we're all doing, maybe someone can, you know, play Jenga for two hours. Who?

00:11:40 Merrily

Yes, yeah, whatever you're saying is that's cool.

00:11:40 Pia

Knows what it could be.

00:11:43 Pia

Whatever your thing is, and I think that's the key is to is to getting curious and exploring and experimenting to find out what you're saying.

00:11:53 Pia

And this thing will change because we're changing, but that's where the joy and the play of creativity also comes in. It's like, what's my thing now, you know.

00:12:01

Yeah.

00:12:02 Pia

Yeah.

00:12:03 Merrily

Oh my goodness. Yeah. And I'm thinking about because like, my day job is very analytical. Oddly, I have a very analytical day job, but it's a lot of like process organization and that sort and there's a lot of I'm going to say there's a lot of creativity that has to come with that because.

00:12:17 Merrily

You're looking at chaos.

00:12:17

That's.

00:12:20 Merrily

And like, how do you make it not take?

00:12:23 Pia

Totally.

00:12:24 Merrily

Ah.

00:12:25 Pia

I mean same with accounting. It could be same with being a lawyer. It could be extremely creative, I mean.

00:12:25

7.

00:12:31 Pia

And I I think why again, why is it important?

00:12:35 Pia

To remember this, it's because I think it it's what allows us to be more expansive in our thinking and our identity, you know, which enables us which fuels our our creativity as we move forward.

00:12:49 Pia

It's like, yeah.

00:12:49 Pia

Hell yeah, I'm creative. Look at this. Oh, what am I going to create next? What am I going to do? Like it? It becomes something that empowers.

00:12:56 Pia

And fuels us rather than keeps us small, the thought that.

00:12:59 Pia

I'm not creative. That's reserved for the singers and dancers and and and painters of the world. And yeah, sure, that's one way. But there are many others.

00:13:03

Right.

00:13:08 Pia

Yeah. Yeah. Well.

00:13:12 Merrily

So kind of in addition to your dad, who was obviously like a really great support and guide in your life, did you have any other guides people that supported you to kind of go the route?

00:13:22 Merrily

You were going?

00:13:24 Pia

That's a good question, guides.

00:13:31 Pia

Not to be cheesy, but I think in many ways life was my guide, so I believe life has been teaching me many, I think. OK, so.

00:13:44 Pia

Guides. I think life has been teaching me and I think it took me certain lessons to realize that I wasn't only a creative director at work, because that's what I did for many years. I worked in creative agencies as a creative director, copywriter, creative strategist, and it was great.

00:14:05 Pia

Work exciting did it for well over a decade and then?

00:14:10 Pia

You know, it got. I knew what it was, right. And I and I felt the urge, the calling, to see what I might create. If I channel my creativity into building my own, my own business, my own dream, whatever that might be.

00:14:26 Pia

So.

00:14:30 Pia

That helped me expand my own view of what I did and what creativity meant. But often times it took the school of Hard Knocks to knock me up. Get me into these new unknown spaces. So.

00:14:38 Merrily

That's right.

00:14:44 Pia

There were many we're talking about like guidance, right? So I'm just trying to think. So there were many like there were like when I got fired from my job where I was a one of three partners building a creative studio that I poured everything into the moment it felt like.

00:15:02 Pia

Disaster and destruction. But it gave me a chance to sit back and think about what I wanted really to do and to create next, and the life that I wanted to live.

00:15:14 Pia

And I decided to go in the trans Siberian instead of looking for a job because I had severance pay at a time where I really needed to rediscover myself and to to be reminded that, of course I'm going to be OK. Of course I can do it. The world is big, is beautiful. It's so much more than kind of this.

00:15:34 Pia

The small box I had put myself in, and while I was, here's my point. So while I was on the train.

00:15:43 Pia

I was looking out. I was crossing Siberia. There was a Russian guy in a wife beater drinking vodka in front of me. Another guy with his socks hanging down. I was in the third class rail car because I heard that that's the best way to experience real Russia. I would have gone second.

00:15:59

Class.

00:16:01

We can do second class.

00:16:02 Pia

Is that a problem? Yeah.

00:16:04 Pia

It was there was still mystery and there was magic and I was just in this unknown place. I felt like anything was possible, and I had this epiphany, like this moment where I.

00:16:13 Pia

Thought.

00:16:14 Pia

I created this.

00:16:17 Pia

I creatively directed the scene.

00:16:20 Pia

I took myself out of. I mean, I could have stayed in that situation, licking my wounds after being fired, getting really anxious about what was next, and also on a work visa. So if I didn't find a new job within a certain amount of time, I would get kicked out of the country. I could have stayed in that spiral, but I didn't. I chose to book.

00:16:35 Merrily

Right.

00:16:39 Pia

That ticket to a bucket list, list, desire. And in that moment, looking around, hearing the sound, smelling the sour sweat and fish looking outside the window, seeing Siberia just, you know, passing by.

00:16:53 Pia

I thought to myself, I'm not only a creative director in what I do, I'm creatively directing my life. I I I did this and that something that was a guiding moment, right? That was like a shift that enabled me to see myself and my relationship with life very, very differently.

00:17:13 Pia

And it also shifted my perspective on on creativity in many, many ways. It's not just something I do.

00:17:20

Right.

00:17:21 Pia

Right is a way of being with life, and that was really powerful. So I don't know if that really answers your question, but life has been a guide, so I was trying to find one example that really kind of embodied that.

00:17:33 Merrily

Yeah, I think it's.

00:17:34 Pia

More than anything.

00:17:35 Merrily

Yeah, it's such a beautiful example and something I've been talking about recently with some of my guests is the idea of like you were like you just said, you directed this. You're the director. You directed like, we're going to the action is I'm going to trans Siberian instead of sitting in.

00:17:53 Merrily

Your partner, wherever you are.

00:17:55 Merrily

And just like being sad, which is, you know, understandable. But, but what you're like. But I want to do this, you know, like make it bigger and better because then what is the story you're going to tell or your descendants or, you know, the people in your family, they're going to tell this cool story of, like, pia, you know, doing this awesome thing and look what she built.

00:18:15 Merrily

Afterwards, you know that's the story that you wanna have live on, right?

00:18:19 Pia

Absolutely. And whenever I catch myself in moments where I'm feeling like, I don't know, I always ask myself, OK, well, how would I creatively direct the next scene?

00:18:19

That's so that's so cool.

00:18:26 Merrily

Yeah.

00:18:30 Pia

You know, I think I'm gonna make myself hot. Much macho latte. It's one of my favorite. I'm gonna put on this playlist. I might even dance in the kitchen. You know, a little bit, but I like we're always creatively directing our lives, which is not always doing it consciously.

00:18:46 Merrily

Right.

00:18:46 Merrily

Yes.

00:18:47 Pia

And so just in those small shifts to go.

00:18:49 Pia

Like.

00:18:51 Pia

How do I want the set design to look? How do what do I want the score to be? How? What's what? What is the costume design? What is the script I'm reading from and I think it's so important to be conscious of what are the scripts that we're reading from about life, you know, because that colors and shapes our experience of it change the ship.

00:19:05

Mm-hmm.

00:19:10 Pia

The script or the **** change the script and you change your experience, you know, and to me that is real creative empowerment. That's really stepping into your creative director chair. You know, full awareness, leaning back and going OK, OK.

00:19:25 Pia

OK.

00:19:27 Pia

What's what am I reading from? What would I? Are they serving me or are they harming me? Is there a new script I'd rather write? How do I want to be in a relationship with life with uncertainty and these are huge questions and that's why I like these like small scene.

00:19:42 Pia

Yeah, because it feels so much more manageable just to like, take a moment, take a step back and say, how would I creatively direct my next scene? And then you can go deeper and be like in my wildest imaginings, what are three possible futures I'd love to inhabit in one year? You know, you can just really start.

00:20:00 Pia

To play with.

00:20:01 Pia

With this creative direction of life.

00:20:06 Pia

And that, to me, is making life your biggest art project. That's so much more. I mean, there's nothing wrong, love it. It's an we love writing a song. We love doing things that are also, you know, different expressions of our creativity. But so is this. That's what my point is this. And and this too.

00:20:20 Merrily

Right.

00:20:24 Pia

Because what? What more creative act than designing your one experience of life?

00:20:29 Pia

I can't think of anything more creative.

00:20:30

Yes.

00:20:32 Merrily

No. Yeah, for sure. And yeah. And it's like like you were saying, it's just like a constant thing. And even little moments where you're.

00:20:38 Merrily

Just kind of like by yourself.

00:20:40 Merrily

Wherever you're at like, you know, make this more like, like I'm living like I'm creating at that in that moment. That sounds so cool. Think about.

00:20:48 Pia

I love what you just touched on, so making it more like I'm living like I'm creating less that I am a passive bystander or an extra on set that has to just follow along with what's being presented to me, you know, and that's really the ship.

00:20:52 Merrily

Yeah.

00:21:00

Yeah.

00:21:05 Pia

Left because I get it. I was also in a place where I felt like life was happening to me. You know, it felt very and I think especially in the world we're living in today, it can feel very much like things are just happening to us and yes, and we are also happening to life.

00:21:19 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:21:23 Pia

Yeah. When we get to choose how we see things, we get to choose how we respond.

00:21:28 Pia

We always get to choose.

00:21:30 Merrily

Yeah.

00:21:30 Pia

One way or the other.

00:21:32 Merrily

Yeah, so how would?

00:21:34 Merrily

You. So somebody who has a lot of self doubt.

00:21:40 Merrily

Is that where you would start? Was the like just direct 1 scene of your life or how you know somebody's just like I don't. You know I can't and.

00:21:47 Merrily

I won't and I shouldn't.

00:21:49 Merrily

Like, how would you help that person kind of dig their way into being more creative?

00:21:57 Pia

Well, if someone has self doubt.

00:22:00 Pia

Usually that blocks any kind of action, right? So we're not really creating anything necessarily. There's just a loop like, Oh no, I couldn't do this because and so I think action.

00:22:15 Pia

Helps quiet doubt. I won't say kills it because that's, you know it will pop up now.

00:22:20 Pia

And again, yeah, so.

00:22:22 Pia

I like to. I like to invite people to run a series of experiments because the word experiment is lovely it it. It allows us to feel beautifully because you should. Experiments also need to fail in the sense you know, because then you're like, oh, I'm getting data. OK, cool. Like that didn't really work out. That wasn't really interesting.

00:22:40

Yeah.

00:22:42 Pia

For me, or I don't know how I felt about that or like we just get data as we we do things right.

00:22:50 Pia

And it makes.

00:22:50

Hmm.

00:22:51 Pia

As it shifts the conversation, it shifts us from self doubt to self curiosity or self exploration. So I would invite anyone feeling self doubt about creating anything and be like well OK, first let's invite curiosity in because curiosity kills judgment. You can't be, you can't judge, be judgmental and curious at the same time.

00:23:11 Pia

It's like oil and water. It doesn't work. So just getting curious about, OK, well, what do you really want to create? What are you doubting what you know? Oh, I want to.

00:23:20 Pia

Write a newsletter, but I don't think I can do it or.

00:23:24 Pia

That you know.

00:23:24 Pia

That critic that we all have.

00:23:25 Merrily

Right.

00:23:26 Pia

Yes. Yeah, let's normalize it. It's like, OK, well, what would you get? Curious. Well, what would you write about? Well, I don't know. OK, well, what if you just sat down and gave yourself 30 minutes and give yourself full permission to suck? Just. That's what I do every time I sit down to write, I give myself, like, listen this.

00:23:30

Yeah.

00:23:45 Pia

Is the first draft.

00:23:47 Pia

It doesn't have to be fantastic at all. All you need to do is show up, show up for yourself, show up for for what you're writing, and get it out.

00:23:56 Pia

And that helps me every time the inner credit comes in or doubt comes in.

00:24:01 Pia

Because if the critic gets involved too soon, then it's you're not going to create anything like gonna have this like, what are you using that word for it? No, no, no. You're gonna come later in the in the creative process. It's not. Now this is anything goes space. This is full permission to suck this is just play this is experimentation.

00:24:07 Merrily

Yeah.

00:24:14 Merrily

Yeah.

00:24:20 Merrily

Hmm.

00:24:21 Pia

So.

00:24:22 Pia

Get curious about what it is that you're feeling doubtful about. What's what's pulling you? And then experiment and play. Give yourself a little timer and and allow yourself that space for it not to have to be good just for it to be and then being really proud of yourself that you showed up for it and you did it.

00:24:40 Pia

I don't know action to me in action. Plus curiosity, you know.

00:24:46 Pia

Crosses out doubt often.

00:24:48 Merrily

Yeah.

00:24:49 Pia

Or at least diminishes that.

00:24:51 Merrily

Yeah, I think, yeah, I'm thinking back to points in my life and for sure, it's always action, just like the action because like basically what you do is self doubt is literally just sitting there and letting your mind just like.

00:25:01 Merrily

Stop you from doing things.

00:25:03 Pia

Totally.

00:25:04 Merrily

So I think that's interesting. And then?

00:25:07 Merrily

And then experimentation is so huge and it was making me think of like the idea that, you know, doctors have a practice, lawyers have a practice, you know, should everybody just be in practice? You know, we're always, like, making these things so big and scary. But like, big and scary things like doctors and lawyers have are practicing people.

00:25:27 Merrily

They're experimenting. Yeah, more times.

00:25:28 Pia

I love that. I love that reframe. That's beautiful. I I actually say that often, like I am practicing moving with trust with life.

00:25:37 Pia

Because it removes the idea that there's like a destination or there's like a point in time where I'm just going to be fully trusting and like, you know, it's practice. I'll be some days I'm doing really well. Like I'm like, look, I released anxiety or I'm feeling good or I just went for it. There are other days where, hey, maybe.

00:25:41 Merrily

Right.

00:25:57 Pia

I'm not moving. I'm moving. Fear has shown up and there's a bit more fear than there is trust, and that's OK because I'm practicing. So I find that is using that reframe is freeze us.

00:26:09 Merrily

Yeah, yeah, and that's.

00:26:10 Pia

I think everything's a practice.

00:26:12 Merrily

Yeah, yeah. Everything. We're all practicing our lifes practice.

00:26:14 Pia

Everything. Yeah. I mean, if we're, if we're growing, we're practicing, right? Because if we're stagnating or we're doing the same thing over and over again, I might feel like, oh, I'm an expert. Like, I got this down. Yeah, but isn't it great to also keep learning and being a beginner again and new first times and.

00:26:33 Merrily

Yeah.

00:26:34 Pia

All of that will hopefully, we're continuously practicing, or at least I find that much more exciting.

00:26:40 Merrily

Yeah.

00:26:41 Merrily

I agree. I. Yeah, I definitely think it definitely it kind of opens up everything yourself and the world around you. So yeah, let's let's all practice everybody so kind of on the flip.

00:26:53 Merrily

On on that.

00:26:54 Merrily

So what do you what is your take on like on rest or like doing all this pushing out?

00:27:01 Merrily

All this energy? What about?

00:27:02 Merrily

What's your idea about rest?

00:27:05 Pia

I love that I this epiphany came to me like, what if my creative genius and yours lives on the other?

00:27:14 Pia

Side of rust.

00:27:17 Pia

And that was also through the research that I did about how for neuroscience research about how the brain works. And I was just talking about the default mode network. Well, that's associated with the imagination and creativity that comes online, so to speak, when we are daydreaming, resting, pausing.

00:27:37

Mm-hmm.

00:27:38 Pia

And it's just as important to the creative process as our control mode, no?

00:27:44 Pia

And I just think it's so. I mean, I'm born, I'm raised in New York City, so I'm like a recovering speed queen, you know? Rest rest is definitely a practice for me and rest is closely connected to trust.

00:27:58

Eh.

00:28:00 Pia

Because when I'm able to trust myself in life, I allow myself to rest. I don't feel fear. The fear of well, if I'm not doing all the time.

00:28:09 Pia

If I'm not pedal to the metal, then I'm not going to survive or whatever the stories fear tells, right? And I think it's also a cultural story. Our our value is is connected to what we produce.

00:28:13 Merrily

Yeah.

00:28:15 Merrily

Yeah.

00:28:24

Let's.

00:28:24 Pia

Right. I mean, that's the story that needs to be rewritten. Your value is just by being who you are. Operative word being is being right. You're human beings, not human doings. So.

00:28:38 Pia

But it's hard. It can be really hard to stop and to pause, because I think also this, this, you know, rest or stopping and pausing, we have to feel whatever we're feeling. Yeah. And sometimes it's easier to keep moving through it rather than to stop and to take stock. Or if we've learned.

00:28:57 Pia

Like myself, learn to feel more safe in movement, and I'm teaching myself to feel safe in stillness.

00:29:04 Pia

It's a it's one of those other beautiful practices. So I think rest is super important and I I am building evidence that I can create a fantastic, thriving, profitable creative business with ease.

00:29:18 Pia

Yeah, because I built evidence for the opposite. That's what happens when we like pedal to the metal. It's like, oh, I've done all these things because I'm looking. I'm going. I'm. I'm giving it everything. I have blood, sweat and tears. Yeah, OK. What if I created evidence for another way? Because I can do that too. Right? And so.

00:29:33 Merrily

Yeah.

00:29:34 Pia

That's the practice. That's what I'm practicing. I went to.

00:29:39 Pia

Bali for my birthday for three weeks after writing the book promoting the book, doing all of my my, My wonderful, beautiful business. All these things I've been pretty active for almost 2 years and I really felt like I needed.

00:29:55 Pia

Rest and reset and so I gave myself for my birthday. The gift of three weeks. And it was, you know, I mean it's it. It was amazing it it was what I needed. It was hard in the beginning because that other voice was like, hey, what you doing really going to do nothing, you know? And then I heard my intuition.

00:30:12 Merrily

Right.

00:30:15 Pia

Like, yeah, we're absolutely we're doing nothing. And when I came back, I came back last week. I still have that sense of inner spaciousness.

00:30:24 Merrily

Yeah.

00:30:26 Pia

You know and calm.

00:30:28 Pia

And I'm about to launch my audiobook and the energy of that launch like in a couple of weeks. It feels so different.

00:30:36 Pia

It feels so different within because I've given myself this space and who knows what what it will be. I'm going to show up for it and not just going to expect things to happen, but I'm going to do with a different energy and that's what Russ gave me. Rest gave me that space. So I just want, I want to do more of that.

00:30:55 Merrily

Yeah.

00:30:55 Pia

I think it's. I think it's it's incredibly important to not only our well-being but to our creative, our creativity.

00:31:04 Merrily

Oh yeah, beautifully explained. It's something I I talk about a lot here because for as you know that the intuition or the other, like the new messages, the new communication, you get it, it can't get in there when you're just like active and like, wow, you have to be at rest.

00:31:24 Merrily

And like, let it come to you, because that's what's happening is you're letting all that come to you in those restful moments. So then you can do new things.

00:31:32 Merrily

And yeah.

00:31:32 Pia

Absolutely. I got a download when I was in Bali, I got a download of the universe that just said hey girl.

00:31:40 Pia

Get out the driver's seat. Give me some space. Let me drive. I've got places to show you.

00:31:48 Merrily

Yeah.

00:31:49 Pia

You know, it's like what happens when we stop thinking that.

00:31:53 Pia

We're the sole drivers of our lives like this. Is it like if we don't do it, who else is going to? What if we reconnect to, hey, we're we're Co creating this thing here. And what happens if I lean into trust and, like, release the wheel a little bit knowing when to lean forward, when to lean back?

00:32:05 Merrily

Like that.

00:32:12 Pia

Back and went to like Park.

00:32:16 Merrily

Yes.

00:32:16 Merrily

Right.

00:32:17 Pia

I think it's such yet another practice. Like when do we lean forward? When do we lean back? And then when do we just like still be still pause and it reminds me of the Dow, it said I love this line so much, like how how do we how much effort does it take to achieve a state of effortlessness?

00:32:41 Pia

And I think the answer to that question, that question needs to be asked every day because our energy is different every single day. And that to me, is a beautifully succinct way of saying when do we lean forward? When do we lean back and when do we pause? And for me, I think you know when when I lean back.

00:32:56

Hmm.

00:33:00 Pia

I get really beautifully surprised at what what emerges in the space because when we're, like speeding, we have blinders on. We don't see any of the billboards or any of the things that are zooming by us. And there's just so much available that kind of gets shut.

00:33:18 Pia

Well, so I think that's also a spiritual practice rest.

00:33:23 Merrily

Oh my gosh. Yes, like meditation, right?

00:33:26 Pia

Absolutely, that helped me.

00:33:29 Pia

That helped knock me out of my New York like a type I still wake up without an alarm, but years ago I started meditating is like the first thing I did when I wake up and that's been that's been rewiring me because normally I would get.

00:33:42 Pia

Up and like what I got to do.

00:33:45 Merrily

Yeah.

00:33:47 Pia

No, my husband presses snooze 20 times. I'm not like that, you know, not to say 1 is bad or one is bad. It's just the way it is. And you know, going into a straight into like, a meditation.

00:33:51 Merrily

Right, right.

00:33:53 Merrily

Yeah.

00:33:57 Pia

This is like no, there's.

00:33:59 Pia

Nothing more important than this.

00:34:01 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:34:01 Pia

And it it just grounds me it recentes me it changes the shape of my entire day.

00:34:06 Pia

And so I think creating these rituals or these practices that serve us that rewire are really important.

00:34:15 Merrily

Oh yeah, you explained all that. All of that so beautifully and.

00:34:20 Merrily

Especially like like you said, growing up in New York and if anybody's been to New York, you can feel that hum of energy was 24 hours a day. And so it's like, yeah, the biggest thing is with the.

00:34:31 Merrily

Rest.

00:34:33 Merrily

My.

00:34:33 Pia

Goodness, which is really hard for so many of us, it's pretty crazy, you know, like there's a statistic.

00:34:39 Pia

I don't know if it's a bit old, but at least around half of Americans don't take their full two weeks off a year.

00:34:48 Merrily

Yeah, I believe it, yeah.

00:34:48

And if you, I and I live.

00:34:50 Pia

In Europe now, so two weeks is like nothing.

00:34:52 Merrily

I know they're like 3 months.

00:34:52 Pia

You have.

00:34:53 Pia

4:00 to.

00:34:54 Pia

Yeah. So it's like you're.

00:34:56 Merrily

Come on.

00:34:57 Pia

Not even taking.

00:34:58 Pia

You're 2 weeks.

00:35:00 Pia

So I just thought that fact was like fascinating.

00:35:03 Merrily

Yeah. And I think he's saying like the rest is about trust, because I think like we're being told, like the message is like, well, if you take a break, you're just going to be slothful. You're not going to actually do it. You're just going to keep being at rest. And I'm like, I don't think that's.

00:35:17 Merrily

True at all.

00:35:18 Merrily

I think it it varies the amount of rest.

00:35:21 Merrily

You need for whatever the situation is, but you're gonna get bored. You're gonna be like I need to go do something. You know, at some point.

00:35:27 Merrily

But like yeah, I think it's just like that messaging is just really what's driving like the two are not taking your two two week vacation.

00:35:38 Pia

Yeah. And what's so, what if you don't feel moved to do anything, you're still doing something you're also enjoying and inhabiting your life?

00:35:45 Merrily

Right.

00:35:49 Pia

Should do that. Well, yeah, let's do that. That's pleasurable. I mean, let's do that. We only got one. We don't know how long we have, so we might as well live it, not just speed by it. Like a Japanese bullet train.

00:35:51

Let's do that.

00:35:58 Merrily

Yeah.

00:36:02 Pia

Do you know what I.

00:36:03 Pia

Mean. So to that person who says, well, what if you never do anything? Well, I am doing something. I'm being. I'm in the hammock, I'm daydreaming. My my default mode network is going nuts. I'm going to have creative Eureka moments coming out of.

00:36:16 Pia

To like and.

00:36:17 Pia

Even that's not even we don't even need to explain.

00:36:20 Merrily

Hmm. Yeah. Why do we have to explain that?

00:36:23 Pia

Not at all.

00:36:24 Merrily

Oh my goodness. Well, want to hear about what? Was there a specific moment that inspired you to write your book or is?

00:36:31 Merrily

It just like.

00:36:33 Merrily

The thing happened.

00:36:35 Pia

Well, it's interesting. When I left because after I was fired, I found another wonderful my last agency job. I worked as again Creative director at a purpose driven creative consultancy. So using creativity for good, it was lovely run and owned by two women. Totally different experience.

00:36:54 Pia

And it.

00:36:54 Pia

Was.

00:36:55 Pia

Beautiful for a while, but that voice I was talking about kept poking me at night. Like, come on. You know what this is like? And that's the thing. Sometimes what we're doing is we're successful at and it's good on.

00:37:07 Pia

Paper and it's.

00:37:08 Pia

Comfortable. There was something else urging me and I I wasn't listening because I was afraid.

00:37:14 Pia

It's like, well, what would I do? What's on the other side? I don't even know. I know what this is. I don't know what that is. And this is fine. I'm comfortable. Like, I kept shooting it away, and then my mother passed away suddenly in 2021.

00:37:28 Pia

And one of which was the obviously heart shattering. But one of her passing gifts was a reminder that this life is finite.

00:37:38 Pia

And if not now, when?

00:37:41 Pia

She gave me a shot of courage, you know, to come that close. Such a reminder of, you know, our hidden expiration date. It came out of nowhere, and it just.

00:37:43 Merrily

Yeah.

00:37:50 Merrily

Right.

00:37:51 Pia

Yeah, it just gave me a lot. It gave me a lot of courage.

00:37:55 Pia

And also the time I needed time to just be so all of these things kind of coalesced and gave me kicking the Peach to jump.

00:38:05 Pia

And so I'm getting to my book, so I.

00:38:07 Pia

Yeah. Yeah. And I feel that's also, you know, life creating with me. Not that I feel like that those these events mark us, they shape us and sometimes we need something not. I don't think we always do, but sometimes we need life to shake us by the shoulders. And like, you know, in order.

00:38:28 Pia

For us to move in the in the direction we're meant to go in to actualize, to expand.

00:38:33 Pia

And to whatever. So I did that and that was really scary. And I felt really like I'm going into entrepreneurship, but it was also it's been fantastic because it's been a meta lesson of how I want to be in relationship with life.

00:38:51 Pia

Because with entrepreneurship you come face to face with uncertainty every day.

00:38:55 Pia

Like Ohh what's next? Nope. No. Let's see.

00:38:59 Pia

Like like, whoa, whoa.

00:39:02 Pia

What a wild ride. But that's life. Life is uncertain. It just is. And sometimes when we're salaried, it can feel very certain.

00:39:05 Merrily

Yeah.

00:39:08 Pia

But it's an illusion. Anything can happen. You could lose your job. You could fire anything can happen at any point in time. So.

00:39:16 Pia

I like that practice because that's where trust comes in well.

00:39:19 Pia

If I'm in an uncertain if I'm in uncertainty, I could choose trust instead of fear, and that's how I want to move. I don't want to move with fear. I moved to fear unconsciously from a lot of my life, and that's no longer I want to move with trust with life. Like, OK, let's see. I'm going to keep showing up. I'm actually going to lean back a little bit. I'm going to do what might not. I've been doing more.

00:39:25 Merrily

Yeah.

00:39:39 Pia

And more of that.

00:39:40 Pia

Leaning back and seeing what's coming to me and it's been.

00:39:45 Pia

Delightful. Like, oh God, rather than pushing and forcing and trying to control. But that too is it takes time. So anyway.

00:39:53 Merrily

Yeah.

00:39:55 Pia

There's a good news. So almost two years into my business, I got a hybrid publisher reached out to me of the founder, who is a fantastic man, really good salesman as well. And he's like, hey, have you ever thought of writing a book?

00:40:11 Pia

And I thought, yeah, I have thought of it, but I don't know what I'd write about. And he's like, oh, no problem. We have, like, teams of editors. People can help you with that. And so I he's like, let's jump on a call. So I jumped on a call, and we had a great meeting is like, no, you don't need to know exactly what it's going to be about yet. That's like, you figured out as you create it, which is also what I learned from my business.

00:40:31 Pia

Like you, I figured out what I was going to build by building it right, and I think that's so true of creativity and full stop, like, that's also building a business. Also very creative process.

00:40:35 Merrily

Great.

00:40:41 Pia

Right. I mean.

00:40:42 Pia

At so.

00:40:43 Pia

I remembered that and I also had been building my muscle to jump into leap and to be in uncertainty. So when the next call came.

00:40:52 Pia

I was. It's a big investment on many levels, so.

00:40:54 Pia

I was like.

00:40:55

The right.

00:40:56 Pia

Road it's going to be should I do this? And then I ask myself the question, well, what happens if I don't do it?

00:41:02 Merrily

Yeah.

00:41:03 Pia

If not now, what? What am I waiting for? Nothing's guaranteed.

00:41:04 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:41:08 Pia

So that kind of uncertainty, angst lasted fear lasted maybe 20.

00:41:12 Pia

4 hours like.

00:41:13

I don't know.

00:41:13 Pia

I don't know. And then the next day I was like, yeah, I know. It's now I'm. I'm going to do it. I don't know what it will be, but it's making me feel alive. I'm being pulled toward it. It came my way and I'm. I'm saying. **** yeah, excuse my language, but that's that's what I'm saying. And So what I would just wanted to impart.

00:41:29 Pia

Was the beautiful thing about leaping and jumping and into the unknown into what's calling you, even though you don't know what's on the other side, but you feel really drawn to it and move to it. Is that it? It gets a little easier, doesn't get easy.

00:41:45 Pia

But you're you're building, you're building your muscle for that. And to me, that's freedom.

00:41:45

Right.

00:41:51 Pia

To be able to move in directions and places that you don't know how it's going to be, but it's calling you when you feel really alive as you move in that direction and choosing to do it despite the fear, it's freedom.

00:42:02 Pia

It's expansion.

00:42:05 Pia

So if anyone out there is on the fence thinking about doing something big, whatever it might be, and hearing that fear, which does get really loud, we're on when we're on the precipice of of change, because we don't know what's on the other side.

00:42:16 Merrily

Hmm.

00:42:20 Pia

I'd say build that muscle life will open to you and so many unexpected.

00:42:25 Pia

Case, especially if it's deeply connected to what's like moving you or your intuition, or you're feeling it, you know, and I think most of us know when that happens, you, you you feel it. It's a felt sense, yeah.

00:42:33 Merrily

Mm-hmm.

00:42:39 Merrily

Yeah. And it's definitely more like at least for talked to a lot of women and they we tend to feel it in our bodies like you literally feel that like the either the flow or when something isn't for you, you kind of do feel it in the body. So I like that when you're just like like the image of you, you're just like.

00:42:47 Pia

Yes.

00:43:00 Merrily

Getting back and.

00:43:00 Merrily

Like just like.

00:43:02 Merrily

Letting it all wash over.

00:43:03 Merrily

To you is is totally like something I I I want to impart on all people to kind of let that flow happen. So then you're not constantly just pushing and extending all the energy that you could be using to kind of move with the flow instead.

00:43:23 Pia

Well, that's there's a I can't remember where I heard.

00:43:26 Pia

This.

00:43:26 Pia

Kind of like a I guess a story or I I don't know. I heard this before and it really stayed with me.

00:43:32 Pia

It's like.

00:43:34 Pia

That's kind of a metaphor of life. You know, the current of life. So sometimes it can feel like, you know, we're on. We're in in a river and there's a strong current and we're hanging on to a rock because we we don't want to let go because we don't know where the current is going to take us. And we know what the rock feels like.

00:43:45 Merrily

Yeah.

00:43:49 Merrily

Yeah.

00:43:55 Pia

You know it's, you know, it's a bit slimy. It's like, you know, we have we, we know where it it it it's edgy and sharp and round and soft. And so we just kind of hang on but we feel the current like lapping underneath us. So you feel it.

00:44:07

Hmm.

00:44:09 Merrily

Yeah.

00:44:09 Pia

But it's like.

00:44:10 Pia

I let go. Where? Where am I going to go? And there's just a beauty in releasing into the current and seeing wherever it might take you. And I think like it's OK. Sometimes you release and it goes fast and maybe we might grab onto another rock and feel the lap of the current and then get reminded then released.

00:44:29 Pia

But it's just I would love to get to a beautiful point where I'm just flowing.

00:44:36 Pia

But I'm just allowing the current to take me and trusting that wherever.

00:44:41 Pia

Where it's taking me is where I'm meant to go, not that wherever it takes me is going to be in paradise on Earth because I don't think it's not. It's where it's taking me is something that I need to learn, grow, expand.

00:44:57 Pia

Actualize and some some of those places at first might not be be like what? What am I doing here? And that's where trust comes in. I trust that this is. This is for me.

00:45:10 Merrily

Yes, that big bird trust. Oh, my goodness, yes.

00:45:14 Merrily

UM. Oh gosh, so many beautiful, so inspiring. Talking with you about like your life and then all your perspective on creativity is so great. It just makes you want to jump out of your skin and do all sorts of things or rest, you know.

00:45:27 Merrily

That's good.

00:45:30 Merrily

So either way.

00:45:32 Merrily

But where can folks learn more? Find you and learn more about you and your book.

00:45:37

All of that.

00:45:37 Pia

Sure. I think the best place is collective dot studio.

00:45:40

So.

00:45:41 Pia

That's that's home based. That's where we have more information about the book, about how to partner with me creatively.

00:45:50 Pia

Yeah. And some of the my newsletter, all the little things I'm up to. It's it's, it's all there in that one spot best spot.

00:45:58 Merrily

The best spot, everybody.

00:45:59 Pia

Best Buy too, it's like home.

00:46:01 Merrily

Yes. Oh my life. Hope the home online. Yes. And we'll definitely have it. And all of that in the show notes for people. And so. And I always do this to my poor guests. But you know, you give us so much wisdom. I'm asking for more. So what words of wisdom do you want to?

00:46:02 Pia

How mine.

00:46:18 Merrily

Leave us with today.

00:46:21 Pia

OK, if you were going to creatively direct the next scene?

00:46:30 Pia

In your life.

00:46:32 Pia

What would it look like?

00:46:34 Pia

What would it be? And it could be, it could be a small cutscene at home.

00:46:39 Pia

Or it could be a big.

00:46:43 Pia

A big scene. It's up to you. But like, if you were just going to sit in your directors chair and craft your next scene, what might look like? It's not really wisdom per se. It's an invitation.

00:46:58 Pia

And there's a lot in that because you can get curious about what you're drawn to, but get curious about it. Lights you up. Get curious what a beautiful, wonderful scene that you want to inhabit, looks like.

00:47:12 Pia

And it's a beautiful reminder that you are the creative director of your.

00:47:16 Pia

Life.

00:47:17 Pia

It's action.

00:47:19 Merrily

Perfect. Ohh, I love it. Yeah. Oh, so thank you so much. I'm so happy we got connected.

00:47:24 Pia

Me too. Thank you, marilee.

00:47:26

Thank you.

00:47:28 Merrily

Pia is so enthusiastic about everyone finding their artistic expression. You check out her book and links below to learn more about all the ways you can.

00:47:35 Merrily

Catch your creative flow, do.

00:47:37 Merrily

You remember to like, follow and subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. It really helps us grow. Thank you for listening and be an important part of casual temple.

#CasualTemple #CasualTemplePodcast #MerrilyDuffy #PiaMailhotLeichter #CreativeClub #CreativeLiving #CreativityIsForEveryone #LifeAsArt #YouAreCreative #CreativeMindset #ArtisticExpression #EverydayCreativity #SpiritualGrowth #TrustTheProcess #FlowWithLife #CoCreateWithTheUniverse #ConsciousLiving #SpiritualPractice #CreativeSpirituality #MindsetShift #BreakFreeFromDoubt #PersonalGrowthJourney #EmpoweredLiving #SelfDiscoveryPath #LiveIntentionally #InnerWisdom #CreativeEntrepreneur #PurposeDrivenLife #DesignYourLife #BuildYourDream #SoulLedBusiness

EPISODE 58 - PIA MAILHOT-LEICHTER

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