Inspiring Creative Stories: Terri Connellan - Writing, Wisdom & Creative Anchoring

I’ve been fortunate to know Terri Connellan for many years now. We first connected in the The Gentle Business Mastermind I used to co-host with Naomi Arnold and Amanda Rootsey, then as a guest teacher when Terri invited me to present on her own program, the Sacred Creative Collective for a number of years.

After the pandemic, Terri joined my Creative Hearts Community which led to her embarking on a year-long adventure in Flourish. Perhaps, for me, most exciting of all, we got to meet in-person at my retreat on Lady Elliot Island last year and then again this year on Magnetic Island. We even swam with manta rays together!

Terri holds creativity very dear to her heart - it guides her life in ways unique to her - ways you’ll discover in this inspiring story. I’m always moved by how she anchors her life’s decisions so clearly in her creative process and work.

I am so honoured to know her and am extra excited to share her inspiring story with you. Let’s dive in!

What do you love most about being creative? 

Creativity, being creative, is my most central value in life, the point that everything pivots around. I think creativity can infuse our everyday way of going about the world - how we dress, our home environment, the photographs we take, our online presence, how we travel, our interactions with others. And it manifests in what we wish to bring into being in a physical form - artworks, books, articles, photographs, creative spaces. 

I love the process and act of creativity itself. The drafting when writing, the editing of a longer piece, the playing with paint or light when creating an artwork or photo, the choosing what to wear and how to put it together. Feeling our brain working on the creative act is an energising feeling. 

I also love how creativity can be such a solace and support when times get tough and circumstances suddenly change. It can be an anchor and way of processing what is happening, a way of making sense of things without even consciously knowing that is what you are doing. It has a magic and a power I hold in deep respect and I would be lost without it.

And what are some of the challenges?

There is a contradiction there too in that sometimes we can love the process so much, we don’t push to complete. Or we don’t even start because of the concern about what the finished product will look like. 

Will it be good enough? Will people like it? Does it meet my high standards? Will anyone buy it? Questions like this rattling around our heads might stop us from engaging or feeling that creative work is worthwhile. Our sense of self-worth is often bound up in all of that, and creative work can sadly feel a waste of time sometimes for this reason. When it is anything but. 

With writing, which has been my major creative focus over time, I am always engaged with it, via Morning Pages, for example. It is stitched into my everyday life and something I do firstly for myself as a regular practice, so that is not so challenging.

For writing where there is an intended audience, it can be more challenging. I’ve learnt over time to do what works for your particular personality. For longer works, it helps me to scope the overall structure and then to break it up into parts and approach it in a more bite-size way so it doesn’t feel overwhelming. I can write more intuitively for shorter pieces, but it always helps me to have a sense of overall direction. Everyone is different and it is helpful to understand our preferred ways of writing and creating that help us move through the challenges. 

In recent times, especially through Creative Hearts and Flourish, I’ve learnt to enjoy playing more, especially through painting and sketching, engaging in creativity for what it is, not what I will produce at the end. Taking a learning perspective helps, and I’ve found the online group painting and sketching in Creative Hearts is so valuable for that. Working step by step, alongside others with varying levels of expertise and talking about our experience, is encouraging and fun. 

Can you please describe your creative space? Where do you like to create?

I create mostly in a room in my house that looks over my garden. It is a second-storey window and the trees are huge, taller than the house, so I look out into a canopy of palms, angophoras and other mature trees. I enjoy seeing birds outside my window and tuning into the soundtrack of birdsong and the movement of trees as I create.

Through engaging with Flourish and Creative Hearts, I shaped this space into a creative studio with artworks and books that inspire me, including art that friends and I have created. I have copies of my books, Wholehearted: Self-leadership for women in transition and the Wholehearted Companion Workbook on the shelves. I have a second hand timber baby change table - a recommendation in Flourish - which has been the best thing for storing my creative materials and tarot and oracle cards, and keeping them close by.

I love to create in this space now and just coming in signals a feeling of inspiration and creative adventure. It is ‌quiet and the outside vista helps me to engage inwardly with ideas. It’s also where I connect online with the Creative Hearts community so perfect to have my computer and art materials all in one place. 

I like to write in cafes too and quite enjoy popping on my noise cancelling headphones in a buzzy environment and getting into my own creative space. I wrote quite a lot of the first draft of Wholehearted that way. The change of scenery helps provide new perspectives.

What do you find inspiring? How do you nurture your inspiration?

I find the creativity of others inspiring and like to surround myself with the art and books of those who inspire me. I have books featuring the artwork of Edward Hopper and Edvard Munch around me and recently visited the Munch Museum in Oslo which was a revelation. It was so inspiring to see how Munch worked on the same themes and artworks in different media throughout his life. Reading works in the genre I hope to write in - historical fiction - is inspiring, as well as engaging with non-fiction works that provide insights for writing, creativity, women’s issues and psychological wellbeing.

Having a creative community is important to me. I am fortunate to have creative friends in my local village, where there is a thriving art community and monthly Art Trail, and also to have a supportive and inspiring creative community online. I have found online creative connection is vital in my own creative work such as via Creative Hearts. The journey of writing Wholehearted was enriched by writing early in the morning online with writing buddy, Beth Cregan.

I live in a village surrounded by beach and bush where nature constantly encourages you to pay attention. I swim regularly with encounters with turtles and fish and those moments amaze and delight. I have found travel to be creatively inspiring, especially in recent years. The change of landscape and scenery refreshes my soul and offers the opportunity to be in the moment and hone my eye through photography and writing. I’ve started to sketch and paint more while travelling and hope to do more of that. 

I nurture my inspiration through engaging with these areas and prioritising them in my days: making time for reading, visiting art galleries and exhibitions, perusing art books, being creatively focused while travelling and engaging fully with Creative Hearts and contributing to the community.

What is your creative process like? Do you work in seasons, picking up and putting down your creative projects, or do you have a consistent routine? 

I work more in seasons, though I can also shape a consistent routine to support me when the time and project is right for it. I like and need structure, especially when working through a longer term creative project.

My creative process has changed because of life circumstances and grief in recent times. It has been hard to hold the cognitive space for creativity amid dealing with loss and so many practical life matters, full of heartache. Creatively, I have had to flow more with circumstance and go gently. But I have kept writing for myself as an anchor throughout this time and I don’t know how I would have got through this time without writing. 

My bedrock practice has been Morning Pages, though I write any time of the day, any length that works and on a computer rather than by hand. I prefer that term to journaling, and‌ the practice of showing up to the page regularly is the key thing, whatever you call it. 

I couple this with a daily tarot practice I weave into the writing process. Drawing a card each day, I see where this card has come up before via a digital search of my writing documents. This yields powerful insights of themes over time, tapping into developed wisdom and seeing the progress made. It also helps to reflect on and celebrate the wins and steps, however small. 

I have written about this practice in this piece: Weathering the Storm: Anchoring Yourself with Writing and Tarot in Challenging Times. I am feeling called to write more on this to help others navigate difficult circumstances by tapping into the symbolic patterns of wisdom and insights emerging from what lies just beneath our conscious awareness. It’s a practice I’ve honed deeply for many years now and I feel I have much to share with others.

How was your experience participating in Flourish: The Art of Creative Living with Nicola and the Creative Hearts Community? What did it feel like and how did it support your creative life?

Taking part in Flourish and the Creative Hearts Community has been critical to my creativity and creative connection. As creatives, we can feel alone, and it is important to have a community to keep us connected to living creatively. It is easy to be sidelined by the administrative and busy aspects of life and creativity can simply dissipate. Having a regular dialogue with creative others and a brilliant creative coach like Nicola to hold space for you, keeps the flame alive so that you can continue to play, explore, learn and celebrate creative ways of living. 

Flourish has helped me successfully shape my studio space and confidently self-pace through artistic learning. Creative Hearts enables me to learn new skills and feel connected and supported at a time of personal challenge when I have struggled with my usual creative mojo. And to go on retreat with Nicola and other creatives is a fabulous opportunity. Last year’s Lady Elliot Island retreat was a massive creative reset and learning experience, as well as a chance to form new connections and swim blissfully with turtles and manta rays!

Apart from the camaraderie and guidance, I engaged in Flourish and Creative Hearts because I wanted to expand my experience with creativity‌. I mainly focus on writing and even though I have completed some art programs in the past, it is not my natural creative modality. So it has been wonderful to play with creativity more broadly and see how one area can influence another. Being more playful and experimenting with watercolour, for example, helps me be more playful with words and the symbolism of tarot.

What’s one piece of advice you’d offer to someone wanting to deepen their relationship with their creativity?

Engage with whatever calls you and see it as the most important thing you can do that day or moment, even if it feels like faffing about. You never know what you might create or learn from the experience and the insights that might emerge.

Thank you so much, Terri!

I would like to say thank you to Terri, for sharing her story with such clarity, insight and generosity. Her creative living adventures remind us creativity can be a bedrock during turbulent times, helping us to find a sense of anchoring, joy and direction that holds us and helps us navigate to a life of meaning, adventure and self-knowledge.

If Terri's story has stirred something in you and you're feeling called to explore your own creative path, I'd love to invite you to join my free Art of Creative Living mini-course. You'll discover how to paint a beautiful abstract painting, learn my favourite tool for dissolving creative blocks, and create your own personal Creative Map to guide your unique creative journey.

And if you're ready to dive deeper into a year-long creative adventure surrounded by a supportive community of fellow artists, our new cohort of Flourish: The Art of Creative Living is now open. Just like Vera discovered, having both structure and community can transform not just your art, but how creativity nourishes your entire life.

Your creative spark is waiting — let's help it flourish, together.