Accessing Creativity as a Form of Relief and Self-Care: What Feeling Your Feels Can Do for Yourself and the World With Caitlin Metz

Margo is joined by talented artist and writer, Caitlin Metz. Caitlin is an illustrator and designer, cloud-watching feeler, new poetry convert, wayward design professor, and a queer gentle parent. They're also irreverent, silly, and deeply romantic about what art-making and feeling your feelings can do for oneself and the world. From drawing to photography, poetry to collaging, Caitlin explores various mediums to express themself and invites others to do the same. Throughout the conversation, Caitlin shares about the power of the body map and how it can help us understand and navigate pain and other feelings, as well as how it's been a transformative practice for themself. They also share insights into their creative process, including the importance of making space to get bored, engaging in activities that fill them back up, and recognizing the value of small snippets of writing and record-keeping. Caitlin has an amazing new book just out, (their second) called Feel Something Make Something; a guide to collaborating with your emotions. Episode Topics: [00:00] Introduction to Caitlin [06:09] How art-making is a gift as well as a form of relief and self-care [14:39] The concept of the body map and its impact on understanding chronic pain [24:42] Finding resilience in personal practices and the power of returning to them over and over again [29:17] Using curiosity, attention, and storytelling to drive creative practices [36:22] How making space to get bored fuels creativity [41:28] Melding their teaching practice with self-care and how they teach their students [47:18 ] Learning the rhythm of their body and using it to their advantage [58:49] Where to find them online, their amazing new book Feel Something Make Something, social media, Patreon, Etsy, and loads more   Mentioned in this episode: Invisible Things by Andy J. Pizza, Sophie Miller  Atlas of the Heart: Mapping Meaningful Connection and the Language of Human Experience by Brené Brown Allison Kunath Art   Connect with Caitlin: www.caitlinmetz.com  www.patreon.com/caitlinmetz www.instagram.com/caitlinhasfeels    Connect with Margo: www.instagram.com/windowsillchats www.windowsillchats.com www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill