Tending our inner and outer creative landscape with Lauren Barber.
#05 ATELIER, a collaborative interview series exploring our creative spaces, processes and rituals.
Hi everyone
I hope you are doing well and are finding some stillness in April, it can be a whirlwind of a month — fleeting and full in equal measure…
This Sunday evening I am bringing you the fifth instalment in the ATELIER series, an exploration of the places we create in, our processes and rituals — I hope you will have a few moments to read my interview with and that it will provide some seeds of inspiration for your week ahead.
I discovered Lauren’s writing when I started writing here on Substack almost a year ago, yet in some ways it feels like I have known Lauren for much longer than that. Lauren spills her heart onto paper and leaves you feeling moved with every piece. It soon became clear that we had trodden an uncannily similar path, and that we continue to walk side-by-side in our own little corners of the earth — despite the miles between our homes, there is a feeling of deep familiarity, an unspoken knowing and sense of togetherness.
There are so many synchronicities in our stories that we have felt a natural pull to find solace in each other (often via the wonders of the voicenote!), and in our creativity as we merge and meld our work to create a new offering, Holding Stories — a place to gather, nurture stories and foster meaningful connection.
We are so looking forward to sharing more of our plans — we begin with a creative gathering in spring during the morning of Saturday 20th April in London. We would love you to join us in what will be a deeply nourishing morning as we tend to our inner landscape for an embodied creative unfolding in the months ahead.
More details here…
Before we dive in to the interview with Lauren, below is a short update on my own developing creative space and practice…
My atelier update.
Since I last wrote, my writing space has become a home for seed trays filled with hope and nestled by the window which feels apt for right now, I will keep you posted on their progress…
My creative space is very much tied to the seasons, both in terms of the things I surround myself and the materials I am inspired by. As I begin to find rhythm and form in my weeks in spring, I am opening windows but lighting candles, embracing both the fresh and the cosy, the new and the familiar, the back and forth of this time in the calendar…
Whilst I continue to gather inspiration and add to my moodboard for the space, I am collating insights into how and where others create, and the rituals they intentionally adopt to elevate the space for creativity. This gathering of inspiration and ideas led to the idea for the ATELIER series…
ATELIER, noun, [French atuh-lyey].
a workshop or studio, especially of an artist, artisan, or designer.
Tell me about yourself and your creative life.
I am a Mother of two daughters and a multi-dimensional creator.
My forms of expression reach far and wide, shifting between creating soulful branding and websites for others, writing my publication Held. by Lauren Barber here on Substack, speaking words into existence through meditations, poetry and my podcast, allowing my mothering to be a form of art in the way I cook and tend to my children, and creating sacred space in women’s circles, retreats and my one-to-one containers.
It’s a spiral dance and the centre point is always creativity.
It is my life force and without creative outlets woven into every single day I feel less alive somehow.
Where do you write?
Most of my writing, in this season of my life and Motherhood (my daughters are 15 months and 4.5 years), actually begins life as a splurging of thoughts in the Notes on my phone.
This is also where my poetry pours, meditation scripts begin and ideas are stored. It’s a messy kind of virtual journal that is written in snippets, around the edges.
Sometimes that’s while my baby is asleep in a dark room in the dusk evenings, sometimes it’s when I’m walking in nature and a ping of inspiration strikes, sometimes it’s in between cooking pasta for the umpteenth time, or in a parked car snatching a few minutes before pick up time.
When the space finally comes — which can take days to arrive sometimes — I turn these notes into something more cohesively shaped. This might be on my laptop while sitting on the sofa alongside the girls or while my youngest naps and the eldest watches a film, or in the times when I am not looking after the girls (Tuesdays and Thursdays currently, and in the hour I have between when my husband gets home from work in the evening and bedtime begins).
I have a desktop computer in a corner of my bedroom which is surrounded by my sacred objects such as crystals, my drum, oracle cards and candles. This is where my creative client work takes place and this is my closest thing to a creative sanctuary right now.
How do you like to approach a creative workday?
In an ideal world it would begin with a little space after settling the children with their two different childcare providers.
That looks like taking a few moments to clear my space both physically (tidy toys and debris away from my workspace) and energetically with some kind of sacred smoke, a candle, or essential oils. I also like to bring a hot drink in a flask to my desk so that I can sip on it throughout the morning.
I am a naturally organised person when it comes to my creative work (Virgo sun!), I like to spend some time at the weekend looking at all the tasks I need and would like to achieve for the week ahead. Then I write my to-do list for the day the night before so that I can go straight into my projects with clarity when I land at my desk.
This is the sacred structure I bring into my creative work. It gives me a container to work from, which then allows the magic to flow. Having been running my own business for over twenty years now, this is a well practiced system!Â
When it comes to sitting down and beginning, I like to segment my time into little chunks of focus, so I set a timer for 20 or 30 minutes to dive into something before taking a pause. I do this for two reasons. Firstly, it gives me pure focus on one thing which helps me avoid distractions, and secondly it also makes me get up and pause for a few minutes because otherwise I can get deep into something and not move for hours!
The beauty of my multi-faceted business is that no day is the same which feeds my need for variety. However I do find that my focus is highest in the mornings so I do things that need a little more concentration, then it’s a non-negotiable for me to break for lunch and make myself something nourishing, this is creative in itself for me.
The kind of creative tasks I do in my work vary from making soulful mood boards, colour palettes and logos, to building websites, writing my weekly Substack posts, creating marketing graphics to share my own or client’s offerings, writing meditations or journal prompts for my circles.
I am a Manifesting Generator in Human Design… and understanding this gave me the permission to truly embrace the multiple elements of my heart work, and when I am moving between various things I feel my most aligned.
Are your surroundings important to you?
Yes they are, I need to see nature, to be in natural light, I need it to feel spacious and I need it to be as quiet as possible. However these are not always possible!
I recently had to move my desk from our spare bedroom, where it overlooked the fields and trees, into our bedroom where I am facing a wall. It’s not how I want it to be but we needed the room after our second daughter was born. I’ve tried to make it feel as sacred as possible but I find myself craving a view outside.
I focus on what I can change right now, which is lighting, the way my desk is set up, the objects placed on my desk and I take regular pauses to look out the window or step outside.Â
How do you like to feel whilst you are working?
Organised, calm and undisturbed!
I get quite overstimulated with sounds so quiet is important to me, or at the most some instrumental soft music. Â
How do you set the tone and energy of your environment?
In an ideal world, my surrounding environment would be set up exactly as I want, but really the most important thing for me is to set the tone in my inner environment, and that I have more influence over.Â
It comes from me nourishing myself fully in my body and in my soul.
It comes from doing as much as I can to ground myself before I begin any creative work.
It comes from tending to my nervous system and ensuring my heart is in the work that I’m doing.
It comes from ensuring I balance my client work with my own personal work.
It comes from making sure I have moved my body and taken a few moments to check in with myself and my breath.
My outer environment is important, but my inner environment is truly the most impactful.
Where do you source creative inspiration?
I have different inspiration sources for different forms of creativity.
The words always pour into my writing when I have been with myself — in nature, with my journal, after movement or being on my yoga mat, following meditation, sitting in the garden — any time that I am so connected to myself and in a state of presence and being that there is a clear channel for creativity to flow through me.
My children are also a huge source of inspiration for me, they bring my truth to the surface, admittedly not always in the most comfortable ways, and there is an endless supply of things I could write about from the seemingly mundane moments of Motherhood.
When it comes to design work I find Pinterest a brilliant source for ideas, as well as the natural world for creating colour palettes and visual concepts.Â
Do you have any rituals around your work?
I have ‘ideal’ rituals and I have the reality which looks different every day.
On my work days, when I have a quiet house, I love to begin any creative process with ceremonial cacao, or a tea, lighting a candle and pulling an oracle card. If there is time, also a meditation or sometimes a delicious Yoga Nidra.
I also love to get out for a walk in nature either at the beginning or middle of my day, but if that isn’t possible I make sure I spend at least a few moments outside in the garden.
There are other rituals which are not directly related to my work but they all support my creativity, they tend to be infused into my everyday moments as much as possible. Things like opening the window to breathe in the morning air, anointing myself with essential oils, preparing and eating food as mindfully as possible, playing ‘calm music’ as my eldest calls it, in the mornings as we get ready for our days and writing my gratitude list at the close of the day.
When I’m holding space I have different energy preparation rituals at the beginning and end of a session or circle. This varies but always includes lighting a candle at the start, and washing my hands at the end.
What would your dream creative studio space look like?
The dream is to have my own creative studio at the bottom of my garden. It would have big glass doors that let in lots of natural light and provide a view of nature and beauty. It would have a cosy nook to write and journal in, a spacious desk area and also a space to welcome one-to-one clients in for a range of support, as well as enough room to gather small intimate circles of women together in.
There would be yoga mats and candles, a library of inspiring books and oracle decks to pick when called to them.
It would be a place that was a sanctuary for me, but also that my daughters could join me in. And other creatives and other mothers and their little ones too.
I am very much holding the vision for this to happen in the next few years!
Lauren is a Sacred Business Mentor, Heart Centred Coach and Soulful Branding & Website Designer. She works in the realms of Motherhood and Holistic Business to support others in bringing their creative visions to life. A Mother of two daughters, a Sacred Space Holder, Writer, Speaker, Human Design Guide, Yoga & Meditation Teacher and Creator - Lauren is a true multi-passionate human.Â
laurenbarber.co | Held. By Lauren Barber | IG Lauren Barber Writer ~ Space Holder ~ Mother (@laurensarahbarber)
I’d love to hear if today’s interview with Lauren has led you to think about how you tend to your inner creative landscape.
Is your inner or outer environment most important to you and your creativity?
Do you find that they have an effect on each other?
Thank you for reading, I would love to chat about your experiences of creative space and hear your thoughts in the comments.
Lyndsay xx
A warm hello to anyone new here, I’m Lyndsay, mother, creative and storyteller with a background in interiors PR. Story & Thread. is a weekly letter exploring the intersection of creativity, mothering and the living world, with a home and a garden at the heart...
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Inspiring and warm, as always, Lyndsay. I just feel such a softness when I read your words. And I love to hear all about how others create their spaces, rituals, and creative endeavors. I write either in bed on weekend mornings or at my desk in our little studio space in our apartment. And, as you know about me by now, always with a candle or two lit. Often with a cup of coffee beside me as well. xx
I loved reading this: it felt like a warm hug for my soul! My little one is not much younger than Lauren's, so a lot of her experience resonated with me. It's so beautiful to hear the creative rituals and routines that others have woven for themselves: I found myself wanting to step into Lauren's space, she made it sound so nourishing and inviting! Made me think how I can create a similar feeling in my own space (which probably needs to start with shifting the pile of charity shop donations staring at me from the corner...!).