How to Make Art from Your Heart, Not Your Head (Creative Awakening Challenge Day 1)

Many artists struggle with resistance when sitting down to create. The pressure to make something perfect, doubts about talent, and fear of wasting time keep us stuck in our heads. The Bloom Practice is a 3-step process (Feel, Open, Play) that bypasses mental resistance by helping you create from your heart and intuition instead. By spending just 20 minutes connecting with a feeling, opening to it more deeply, and using art materials that match that feeling, you can create authentic art without pressure, overthinking, or self-doubt. This approach transforms resistance into flow.

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Today marks the beginning of something I’ve been excited about for weeks. It’s Day 1 of the Creative Awakening Challenge, a 25-day journey where thousands of artists are coming together to create for just 20 minutes a day.

If you’re not signed up to join us for this free challenge yet, click here to do so!

 

 

Essential Truth #1: Movement Creates Flow

Over the next 25 days, I’ll be sharing four Essential Truths about art making. These aren’t abstract concepts. They’re practical principles that will transform not just your art, but the way you make it.

The first Essential Truth is this. Movement Creates Flow.

When you get moving, when you overcome resistance and start creating, flow follows naturally. But getting past that initial resistance is the challenge.

The Real Problem Isn’t What You Think

You know what stops most people from making art?

It’s not talent. It’s not time.

It’s resistance.

You sit down to make something and immediately your brain starts its familiar loop. What if it’s not good? What if I don’t know what to do? Am I talented enough? What if I waste materials?

There’s so much pressure built into that moment. Who would want to do that?

And this happens to everyone. Whether you’re a beginner just starting out or someone who’s been making art for decades. The resistance shows up because you don’t know what’s going to happen.

We have this expectation in our heads that we’ve got to make a perfect thing. And we set ourselves up for failure before we even begin.

Where Resistance Lives

Here’s what I’ve learned after spending my whole life coaching artists and making art myself.

All that resistance, all that worry, all those doubting questions live up here in your head.

But we need to get you making art from down here. From your heart. From your soul.

Your intuition, which is the voice of your soul, knows what’s best for you. It’s why you keep coming back to art. It’s why you can’t let it go.

Your soul has a plan for you. And it’s waiting for you to stop thinking long enough to listen.

The Bloom Practice: A Different Way In

I’ve developed a way to bypass all that mental resistance. It’s called the Bloom Practice, and it’s a 5-step process. During this challenge, we’re focusing on the first three steps, which are by far the most important and powerful.

These three steps are simple. Feel. Open. Play.

This isn’t a normal way to make art. This is a different approach, a way in that’s easy and fun.


Step 1: Feel

Close your eyes and take a big breath. Drop your shoulders.

Notice what you’re feeling. Not thinking about feelings, but actually feeling them in your body.

Are you excited? Happy? Melancholy? Nervous? Whatever it is, just notice it.

For example, right now as I’m starting this challenge, I’m feeling nervous and excited at the same time. That’s my feeling.

Take a few breaths to drop into it. Feel where that feeling lives in your body.


Step 2: Open

This is where it gets interesting.

Once you’ve identified the feeling, I want you to open to it even more.

The feeling is down deep in you. Visualize it almost like a door. There’s a door down there with whatever energy you’re feeling behind it.

I want you to reach for that door and open it up. Step into it.

It’s a little vulnerable. But open to the feeling even more. Really feel that energy.

When you open the door, you might get visuals. It might feel like a night sky, expansive and infinite. It’s located down in the body, not up in the head.

Just feel that. Open to it more.


Step 3: Play

Now open your eyes.

You’ve got that feeling. You’ve grounded yourself in it. You’re holding that feeling.

Look at your art materials. Whatever you have available.

What feels like that feeling?

If you have different colors, what color matches the feeling? What kinds of lines would you make that are like that feeling? What shapes or textures?

Your North Star is the feeling. You’re just going for the feeling.

Maybe you collage in an image. Maybe you make big brush strokes. Maybe you draw small dots with a pencil. For some of you, the feeling might call for bold marks. For others, tiny delicate lines.

There’s no right or wrong. You just respond to the feeling.

You’re following the feeling when you play. You’re just trying things, experimenting.

How This Changes Everything

Here’s what makes this practice so powerful.

When you’re holding that feeling, when you’re working from down here in your heart, you cannot think about whether it’s good or not.

You cannot worry if you’re talented enough.

You don’t have to stress about running out of time.

All you have to do is experience the feeling with the art materials.

That’s it.

Set a timer for 20 minutes and just play. Maybe it takes you a minute to drop into those first two steps (Feel and Open). That leaves 19 minutes to play, choosing colors, making marks, going wherever the feeling takes you.

Whatever feels true to you is perfect.

Why This Works When Nothing Else Does

You’ll notice a couple of things about this practice.

First, it’s very easy. There’s no pressure to create something outside of yourself. You’ve already got the operating system inside of you. The feeling is your guide.

Second, you can have music on. You can even talk to people while you’re doing this. Because you’re not trying to figure out what to make. You’re just following what’s already there.

This gets you making art from the felt sense. Not the scared part of you. Not the resistant part. The authentic part that’s been waiting to be expressed.

Your Creative Freedom

You need to start repositioning this little art practice as the only time in your day when you get to be completely free.

You don’t have any responsibilities during these 20 minutes. You don’t have to make art for anybody else. You don’t have to do anything for anybody.

Your soul wants this for you.

Your soul is quietly sitting, waiting for you to notice it. This practice is the doorway.

This part of you that’s so often overlooked is where amazing art comes from. This is where careers are built. This is where joy lives. This is where your high frequency, your creative energy, stems from.

It’s an inside job.

What to Expect

Don’t be surprised if what you make doesn’t look like what you normally make. That’s actually a good sign. It means it’s coming from a more authentic place.

Sometimes you’ll be more on, sometimes more off. That’s okay. You can cover things up, change things around. At the end of 20 minutes, just stop.

You won’t believe what starts to happen. You’ll get better and better at this practice.

This is the unlock. This is how you overcome resistance. This is how you create art that feels alive because it’s coming from the most alive part of you.

Your Turn

If you’re doing the Creative Awakening Challenge with us, today is your Day 1. Watch the video, then do your first 20-minute practice using the Bloom Practice.

If you’re not in the challenge yet, you can still try this practice today. Feel, Open, Play. Just 20 minutes.

What’s the biggest resistance that stops you from making art? Share in the comments below!

Nicholas