[[About me|about me]] | [my blog](https://www.soultoworld.com/) | [📰 newsletter](https://www.soultoworld.com/subscribe) | [[contact]] # <span style="font-family: 'Reenie Beanie'; font-size:1.5em">Healing the Creative Soul</span> <!--HTML tags hidden in header to use brand font--> Hello, I'm [[About me|Diane]]. Healing the Creative Soul is a [[What is a digital garden|digital garden]] and book-in-progress about my path to recovering my creativity and designing the work that fits me. I write about following inspiration, clearing the obstacles within that challenge creativity, and creating our own path through life. ### Creativity is not learned, but recovered In 2017, I decided to return to writing and art after turning my back on them for 15 years. Almost as soon as I started, I encountered intense anxieties that made creativity difficult, the same challenges that had stopped me in the past. I knew I would never be truly happy if I gave in again, so I decided to work on healing and understanding their source. It's been my experience that in adults, creativity is not learned but recovered. Children are often wildly creative, but over the course of our upbringing, creativity gets trained out of many of us as a result of social conditioning and academic training. So recovering our innate creativity often involves relearning to embrace our uniqueness, follow our inspirations, and developing internal sources of validation and meaning. This digital garden is a collection of the lessons I've learned on this journey. ## how to use this site - See the [[Map of Contents]] for an organized approach to the content. If you're new here, this is a good place to start. - Click on the drop-down menus on the left navigation bar and click on any notes that interest you. - Click on any tags you see under the title of a note to view other notes on that topic, such as #on/inspiration . - Use the search bar at the top left if you're looking for something specific. ## contact me If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback, please [[Contact|contact me]]. --- Copyright © 2024 Diane Ho Buxton. All Rights Reserved.