PODCAST 123: Creativity as a Way Through with Lisa Bardot

I haven’t touched a knitting needle or a skein of yarn since my water broke just over a year ago. The strange thing is that throughout my high risk pregnancy, I knit almost constantly. I knit my way through the weeks I spent in the hospital trying to stop my preterm labor. I knit in the emergency room and as they wheeled me in for ultrasounds to see if there was still a heartbeat. And, knitting kept my hands busy during the months I was on bed rest.

I took up knitting not because that’s what expectant mamas do but because…

I could do it anywhere.
It was easy to stop and start it.
It wasn’t messy.

So, I knit my way through all that trauma. It gave me something outside myself, outside my body and away from grim statistics about premies. During a high stress time, knitting was something with no pressure. If I missed a stitch I could just remove a few stitches and go back. I’m grateful that knitting carried me through all of that.

Maybe your story isn’t about knitting to treat your anxiety during a high risk pregnancy.

Maybe it’s how you baked your way through heartbreak or painted your way through loneliness when you moved to a new town. No matter what the circumstances, I bet you can think of a time when making has rescued you.

On today’s episode of our podcast I’m chatting with artist @lisabardot about creativity as a way through.

Lisa and I talk about how drawing helped her through a difficult time, the importance of expressing yourself through creativity, the effect the pandemic and its trauma had on making, how to get started tapping into your creativity or a daily practice, courage, vulnerability and how she keeps it all together while juggling her art, business and raising three kids.