Reclaiming Your Creative Life is the Key to Unlocking Wellness

Have you considered who are you beyond a parent, a partner, or a professional and why that matters? When was the last time you gave yourself permission to reclaim time for you and your creative self?

In a recent WELCOA Pulse Webinar, New York Times bestselling author, Eve Rodsky, provided life-giving lessons from her latest book, Find Your Unicorn Space: Reclaim Your Creative Life in a Too-Busy World. During the event, Rodsky shared insight on leading a more creative and purposeful life, unlocking creativity, the secret formula to making stronger relationships, and new ways to approach happiness. We were challenged with the question, “can you give yourself permission to expand your knowledge within your area of expertise, follow a new curiosity, or develop a new skill?” Rodsky called the space and permission we give ourselves to pursue these things, the ‘Unicorn Space’.

What is the ‘Unicorn Space’?

What is it?

The question behind Rodsky’s idea for Unicorn Space was this, “how can we – even in the bleakest days of working-from-home, remote-schooling, and too-much-togetherness – carve out a little time for ourselves?”

Her idea is that “the Unicorn Space is the mythical, magical time when creativity and ideas come to life, but it doesn’t exist unless we give ourselves permission to create it.” It’s time spent actively tinkering, thinking, and letting our imaginations come to life. It’s all about making our leisure time deeply nourishing for our souls, and putting our values into action.

Why do we need our own Unicorn Spaces now more than ever before?

In the modern world, amidst a pandemic, two big themes that resound in the lives of adults are feelings of overwhelm and boredom and we have a deep need for living more fulfilling lives. Life as we knew it was upended by the pandemic. Our home lives and work lives collided, and as life became difficult and overwhelming, we began to have a greater awareness of our needs and values.

We began to realize the importance of self-care, but now we need to emphasize that self-care and creativity and Unicorn Spaces aren’t optional. They are essential to our mental health.

The Unicorn Space is about leisure time that nourishes mental health and creates greater psychological safety. In Rodsky’s words, “psychological safety is about helping ourselves and others answer the question, ‘how do I make my life a lot better now?’ ” Finding your Unicorn Space does just that.

Burnout can be caused by any number of problems that can come from the workplace or our home lives.

Giving ourselves Unicorn Space allows us to combat burnout by:

• Allowing ourselves to be unavailable from the demands of our roles and responsibilities
• Experiencing things that spark our creativity
• Building resiliency
• Nourishing our mental health
• Creating connection

In Rodsky’s words, “Burnout can’t be cured by a walk around the block or getting a drink with a friend. It’s cured by becoming interested in our own lives again.”

Find Your Unicorn Space.

Finding your Unicorn Space and making it your own requires three things:

• Curiosity — Get curious about the world around you and the things that spark creativity. Maybe it’s a craft, maybe it’s a sport, maybe it’s a skill, maybe it’s an old hobby that you used to enjoy. Take time to think about things you want to do purely because you want to do them.
• Connection — Share what you’re doing with friends, family, coworkers. Reach out and find others who are doing something you want to be a part of. You’ll likely find yourself connecting with people of shared interests or people who can appreciate and support your Unicorn Space.
• Completion — Completing something, finishing a project, taking a trip, graduating from a course means that you have gained an experience that can’t be taken away from you. At the end of the day, you’ve been given a gift that is yours to keep. That can only add to the fullness of life.

The other part of finding and creating Unicorn Space is making sure that you have a dynamic in your relationships that encourages and supports Unicorn Space. In Eve’s book, Fair Play, she guides individuals through creating the boundaries, systems, and communication that are needed to ensure that everyone has time for themselves to create Unicorn Space.

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