The Creative Season You Need Right Now (And How to Know)
“We live in a culture that treats creativity like a faucet—something that should turn on and off at will, producing consistent output regardless of circumstances.”
Imagine sitting down with your journal, determined to finally make progress on that project you've been thinking about for months. But instead of feeling energised, you feel... heavy. Resistant. Like you're trying to push a boulder uphill.
What if the challenge isn't about motivation or discipline? What if we're simply trying to force summer energy when our creative hearts are in winter?
Why Timing Matters in Creativity
We live in a culture that treats creativity like a tap—something that should turn on and off at will, producing consistent output regardless of circumstances. But creativity is more like a garden, moving through natural cycles of planting, growing, harvesting, and rest.
Understanding which creative season we're in—and what it needs—can shift our relationship with creative work from frustration to flow.
Signs You're in Creative Spring
Spring energy feels like gentle stirrings after a period of rest. You might notice:
Fresh ideas emerging, often in unexpected moments
Curiosity about new creative territories you've never explored
Energy for small experiments rather than big commitments
A natural desire to clear away old projects that no longer spark joy
Optimism about creative possibilities, even if you're not sure where they'll lead
What Spring Needs: Permission to play and experiment without pressure to produce finished work. This is the season for planting seeds, not harvesting crops.
Signs You're in Creative Summer
Summer brings confidence and momentum. You might experience:
Projects flowing with surprising ease
Natural desire to share your work with others
Energy for sustained creative effort
Collaborative opportunities appearing organically
A sense of creative abundance rather than scarcity
What Summer Needs: Support for completion and sharing. This is your time to bring projects to fruition and celebrate your creative power.
Signs You're in Creative Autumn
Autumn invites reflection and conscious completion. You might feel:
Drawn to organise, edit, and refine existing work
Gratitude for how far you've come in your creative journey
Ready to let go of projects or approaches that no longer serve
Interested in harvesting the wisdom from your creative experiences
Preparing mentally for a more introspective creative period
What Autumn Needs: Time for completion rituals, celebration of growth, and conscious release of what you're ready to leave behind.
Signs You're in Creative Winter
Winter is the season of fertile rest and inner work. You might notice:
Interest in learning new skills or studying your craft
Rich inner life and vivid dreams
Energy for planning and visioning rather than active creating
Deep satisfaction in solitude and reflection
Trust that this quiet time is preparing you for future growth
What Winter Needs: Permission to rest without guilt, space for research and reflection, and trust that creativity is still happening even when it's not visible.
When Seasons Don't Match Expectations
Sometimes our inner creative season doesn't match what we think it "should" be. Maybe it's spring on the calendar, but our creative heart is in winter. Maybe everyone around us seems to be in productive summer mode, but we're feeling autumn's call to let go and reflect.
This misalignment isn't a problem to solve—it's information that can serve us well when we embrace and honour it.
Our creative seasons are influenced by countless factors: life circumstances, health, relationships, work demands, and natural rhythms that are uniquely yours. Trusting your actual season, rather than fighting for a different one, is where sustainable creativity begins.
Working with Your Season
Once we recognise our current creative season, we can choose practices that support rather than resist its natural energy:
In Spring: Focus on exploration and gathering inspiration rather than finishing projects
In Summer: Ride the wave of momentum and give yourself permission to be productive
In Autumn: Complete what feels ready, celebrate your growth, and release what no longer serves
In Winter: Rest, research, dream, and trust that this inner work is essential preparation
The Gift of Seasonal Awareness
When we stop fighting our natural creative rhythms and start working with them, something remarkable happens: creativity stops feeling forced and starts feeling like the most natural thing in the world.
We give ourselves what we actually need instead of what we think we should need. We trust that every season serves the whole. We discover that there's wisdom in honouring where we are instead of demanding to be somewhere else.
Ready to discover which creative season you're in and learn to work with your natural rhythms? My latest book, "The Seasonal Journal for Creative Hearts" offers gentle prompts and reflections for each season, supporting you to recognise your patterns and honour what your creative heart needs right now. Whether you're in a time of new beginnings, productive flow, grateful harvest, or restorative rest, this seasonal approach meets you exactly where you are.
Be kind to yourself and nurture your creativity.
With my warmest wishes,
~ Nicola
P.S. If you'd love to explore working with your natural cycles instead of against them, our Creative Hearts Community welcomes you. Join us to discover how much easier the creative journey feels when it is shared with people who understand and cheer you on along the way.
About Nicola Newman
I'm a Creative Business Coach, Award-Winning Artist & Mentor for Creative Hearts who want to flourish, flow & prosper.
My passion is inspiring and supporting Creative Hearts to trust their inner wisdom and carve out a life that’s personally meaningful and fulfilling to them.
I share practical, evidence-based tools for Creative Hearts seeking to improve their lives or businesses. My work draws from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), mindfulness-based techniques, body-based practices, and neuroscience -- and my own creative living adventures -- among other approaches.
My mission is to support Creative Hearts to:
Dissolve creative blocks, develop a loving relationship with themselves, nurture their creativity and reframe the beliefs and patterns that keep them from following their heart and making the creative contribution they would love to make in the world.
My approach is to embrace gentleness, playfulness and self-care to navigate self-doubt and instead cultivate deep self-trust so you can truly enjoy the creative process, bring together your body of work, make money doing what you love and leave a creative legacy you’re proud of.
Let’s pour a cuppa and get to know one another, shall we? :) Read more about my story here.
