Creative Rituals for Self Care

My creative rituals shift depending on what my body needs and what’s available to me at any given moment. Some days I need nature, so I’ll take my watercolors out on the paddleboard and paint with lake water, surrounded by mountains and birdsong. Other days I crave stillness and warmth, so I’ll light incense, put on a jazz record, and settle into a quiet corner of my home to stitch into old clothing. Sometimes I need to paint with no particular goal and just let my body produce marks, what one of my nephews likes to call “getting the scribbles out.” It’s really simple stuff, but when practiced consistently, it transforms life in a gentle way. It’s a slow kind of alchemy. A way of staying present while honoring change.

Creative ritual, for me, is ultimately about honoring those constant cycles of change. It’s about being fully present with that truth and then responsive to whatever you need in that moment. Do you need solitude? Connection? Movement? Rest? Nature? When you have a personal ritual for tending to those needs, creative or otherwise, life starts to feel a little less chaotic. You know what to do. You know how to care for yourself. And you do it. That’s the real power of creative ritual: it’s a practice of self-attunement and self-trust.

Try this three-minute practice

In my Flow State class at the Denver Art Museum, I invite students to drop into that kind of listening. We begin by sitting in silence with a single artwork in the galleries, setting a timer for three minutes. That short pause helps us tune in to what we’re seeing, feeling, remembering, and sensing. What do you see? What does it make you feel or think about? Where in your body do you feel it? These small acts of attention open the door to intuitive, embodied creativity. They help you become more aware of what you need.

You can do this simple practice anywhere. Set a three-minute timer at the end of your day and give yourself space to notice what’s present. Maybe you already have rituals like this and just didn’t know what to call them. Maybe you have some other rituals, but they aren’t as nourishing as you need. The point is to become aware and just begin.

That same spirit guided me in creating the digital meditations now on view in the museum’s Creative Hub. I made these audio-visual artworks during the early days of the pandemic, when the world was locked down, but my inner life was still moving. Combining layered visuals with sound and memory, they became a way to travel, emotionally, spiritually, somatically, even when I couldn’t leave home. They reminded me that mindfulness isn’t just about stillness. It can also be textured, sensual, alive.

I hope the entire Creative Hub offers you space this winter to slow down, reconnect, and exhale. Let it be a gentle threshold. A place where your body remembers what it needs, and where art helps you meet those needs, naturally, and in your own time.