38 | Practical Ways To Get ”Unstuck” In Your Creativity w/Kim Hermanson

Create Out Loud With Jennifer Louden

Creativity psychologist Kim Hermanson almost died in her 20s. After a brutal near-death, head-on collision, Kim was laid-out in the ICU when a nurse whispered for her to "imagine herself floating on a cloud," and she immediately felt the pain and trauma of the horrific ordeal leave her body. This completely shifted Kim's understanding of the power of our brains and completely shifted her path. Since that experience, Kim has become a highly respected thought leader in the world of creativity psychology. Primarily, Kim's research and coaching are centered on METAPHOR, and how considering our work within that paradigm can completely open up our understanding of what we make, and more importantly, why we make it. Kim's work is interesting, provocative, and challenging, but I encourage you to open your mind and your heart, because it may fundamentally shift the way you see your creative life! 2:33 - Accessing another way, shifting into a different way of being 4:20 - How a near death experience pushed Kim towards a creative path 8:23 - Finding metaphor by following what shows up 10:20 - How fascination led Kim to confidently follow her yearnings, even when it was hard 12:38 - Feeling our way through the world with metaphor as a deeper way of knowing 17:10 - How spirituality and a connection to the divine factors into our creative endeavors 19:00 - How science, in a way, backs up what spirituality reveals about creativity 20:45 - The depth, richness, and wisdom of the images and metaphors that speak to us throughout our lives 23:00 - Using metaphor to get unstuck by feeling into it 25:31 - We can only think what we already know, which can be limiting 27:35 - Hallucinogenic drugs and alternative ways of knowing 28:30 - Working with form and structure in the creative 32:10 - How to work with non ordinary intelligence through metaphor 33:00 - The remembrance that you are not stuck because there is a whole other space available to us 33:55 - Practical ways to work through creative blocks by accessing metaphor 42:40 - Using metaphor to tune back into a sense of self and a sense of wholeness 45:00 - The deep agency of creative work 47:00 - Embracing your full self, including your nerdiness Visit jenniferlouden.com/podcastkit to get instant access to a collection of audios that will help you with some of the most common struggles we creatives have to manage including fear of choosing, falling into compare and despair, managing the inner critic (s), and feeling too exposed and vulnerable when you put yourself or your work into the world.