37: inviting ease and pleasure into the creative process

Soul Salon with Ayandastood

in this episode we are calling in ease, flow, pleasure, and love in the experience of creating, rather than as a reward. i talk about releasing the tension i've been carrying, the love i am feeling from all of YOU, the magical masterclass experience I had this Sunday with some of you, and end off with reflective questions that can assist us as we create with more pleasure and ease in 2024. <3

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Key quotes from episode:

“The people you make art for don’t want you to suffer”

“We embody the codes that we’ve learned from the systems that made us”

“The invitation for you is knowing that you are worthy of ease, of pleasure, of flow. NOW. Not when the project is done.”

“Pleasure is a measure of our freedom” — adrienne maree brown

Time stamps

(01:31): MasterClass reflections

(05:15): The Love Dimension

(05:56): From perfectionism to ease

(15:00): Your invitation to ease

(20:39) Experimentation

(22:53): Tension & release

(30:44): Pleasure activism by Adrienne Maree Brown

(41:47): Abundant love

(48:44): Pleasure & imagination

(54:27): Reflection questions

(01:00:00): Gratitude & affirmation

Sources mentioned:

Book: ⁠Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good⁠ by adrienne maree brown

Essay: What Plants Are Saying About Us

YouTube Channel: Sadhguru

Show: The Brothers Sun on Netflix

Poem: I Put The Coffin Out To Sea by by Lisa Marie Basile

Offering: My MasterClass experience

Other resources:

YouTube: The Perfect Bedtime Sound bath by Sleeping Vibrations

YouTube: Yoga Nidra

Questions to reflect on:

• What would make me feel more loved right now?
• What pleasure are you denying yourself of in this moment?
• How could it be easier? How can I find the release without taking on the tension?
• How can you EMBODY the wisdom of ease, pleasure, rest?
• How can we be Pleasure Activists for others in our lives?
• If you become your fullest expansion creatively — what could that unlock for the collective?

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visit my website at ⁠www.ayandastood.com⁠⁠

Other quotes from me in this episode:

• “Love can flow through us much more easily if we choose to channel that love through the notion that we are worthy of ease; we are worthy of pleasure. We don’t only get to celebrate ourselves once the job is done. We don’t have to squeeze our creativity into the constrictive structures, rigidity, and hierarchies we’ve been given”
• “If you become your fullest expansion creatively — what could that unlock for the collective? If we all expand, expansion is contagious. Expansion is something we are designed to give and receive from one another. I cannot listen to an expanded person and not expand. That is the nature of art: Art that is expansive will expand. And the Artist that is expansive and expanding will create expansive art. What are we willing to expand into for the sake of collective healing, collective imagination, collective pleasure, and collective ease?”
• “If we want to experience work that feels more free, we also need to become the kind of person who can experience more freedom while working”
• “If we let life surprise us, sometimes the part we fear most is exactly where we experience the most magic”
• “In this moment, what I am really calling in, what I am inviting myself into ease. Pleasure. Flow. The words that came to my heart are: The people you make art for don’t want you to suffer”
• “The thing about toxic perfectionism is it’s a self-worth invitation. We don’t feel WORTHY of imperfect action. We know what the steps that imperfect action would ask us to take, but we don’t feel worthy of taking them.”
• “Love is unfolding for you in this moment”