Last week I listened to episode #807 of the Rich Roll podcast and it was quite inspirational. Rich interviewed his guest, Suleika Jaquad, who discusses creativity as a way to help us survive. When she was 22 she was diagnosed with leukemia. During her treatment she turned to journaling to cope and eventually that led to a column for the New York Times called Life, Interrupted. Her cancer went into remission until 10 years later when it returned. This time, journaling was not an option, so she turned to painting as her creative outlet. 

There were a few pieces that stood out to me that I’d like to document and possibly use as a catalyst for some of my future decisions:

• In the podcast she mentions how people often say live each day as if it were your last. The sentiment is nice, but it is very unrealistic advice. Suleika decides to take that advice from a different perspective and live every day like it is her first. With this mentality, she approaches each new day with wonder and curiosity. Small moments can be beautiful and big. I feel like this really aligns with my goal for being present and more mindful.
• I also love how a theme throughout the discussion was how creativity improves our lives and helps us digest what life brings. I have recently started journaling each day. I’m not stressing about it, but just jotting down what is on my mind. I like not having pressure for how much I have to write, but just put ideas on paper as I process life. 
• To align with making time for more creativity, I think I need to cut back on something that is inhibiting my creativity…social media scrolling. I waste so much of my life looking on my phone and I want to change that. I’m not ready to get rid of my social media accounts, but I’m going to designate two times during the day that I can briefly look. This is how I often find recipes and keep up with some of my interests, but I can do that in 10 minutes a day rather than an hour or more. I’ve always noticed that my greatest creative moments have come from boredom. I used to make time for creativity and I absolutely love the feeling of being swept away with a creative project. I’m excited to get that back. Not scrolling will provide more opportunities. 
• The other piece of the podcast that I really appreciated was how our lives can be stuck between joy and grief, happiness and dread. During her most recent treatment, her husband, Jon Batiste, is at a time in his life when he is seeing so much success in his musical career and is being praised for his brilliant work. At this same moment Suleika is, once again, in constant suffering and questioning if her life has a future. I’ve experienced this quite a bit lately where one aspect of my life is beautiful and full of life while another is a deep, dark pit. That is life and we learn to navigate through the juxtaposition.

I absolutely love the Rich Roll podcast and would recommend anyone who is interested in gaining new perspectives, learning how to do the work to improve your life, and listening to a good message check it out. Here is a link to the episode I talked about today.