Overcoming creative constipation

First post back postpartum and heaven forbid publishing this from my phone

The autumn edition of the Creative Growth Sprint (and the final one if 2026!!) is kicking off September 26th for six weeks online. It’s a group programme for creative one person business owners to reimagine what successful growth means to you today, design your business garden, and map out how you will bring your vision to life.

The waitlist is still open and places will be offered on a first come first served basis once doors open later this month. If you’re a freelancer, strategist, creative, or service business owner questioning what you want to build and how you’ll make it happen, and want to work it out in a room of seven other smart, creative people from aroumd the world, this is for you! Join the waitlist <3

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Hello!

I’m six weeks postpartum after welcoming our baby girl to the fam at the end of May. It’s been b2b heatwaves in London so we’ve spent a lot of time sat by the fan watching TV. Succession, Chernobyl, and The Pitt for the apparent masochist in me. Love Island for #balance.

When I’ve left the sofa life has looked like morning coffees in the park before it gets too hot and taking the baby to the Summer Exhibition at the RA and Tracey Emin at the Tate; a postpartum gut punch of an experience but an amazing one nonetheless.

Collage of recent creative fuel from my camera roll

Tim Leberecht referred to feeling “intellectually constipated” in a recent House of Beautiful Business letter which gave me one of those “omg you’ve described a feeling I couldn’t name” moments. I’ve been feeling creatively constipated.

Caring for a baby means a lot of time for your head to think and not a lot of time for your hands to do. My mind is swirling with inspiration but translating ideas into reality is hard right now.

To jiggle me out of my stasis I signed up for Eimear and isabella ’s Midyear Creative Reset workshop last week. I met both hosts when they took part in my Creative Growth Sprint program in January and knew this would be an inspo packed hour because they are both creative geniuses.

Through one of the group exercises, I realised that my creative constipation when it came to writing was largely due to how I thought about my process. I like to set aside long chunks of time for writing. Typically I write at my studio desk, playlist selected, iced americano in hand. That’s not going to be possible for a while.

So time for a new process aka not really having one but keeping these five things in mind:

The workshop was just the nudge I needed to get out of my head and start writing again. It was a welcome reminder that creative constipation is overcome not by looking endlessly inward but by connecting with the outside world.

Join a workshop, have a call with a friend who inspires you, go to a new class, get a group together to talk through your creative blocks, get outside, get out of your head and out of your notes app! Start small and the motion will build from there. It’s the only way.

I’ve written this on the bus, on a train, in a Pret (bad coffee good accessible toilets), and on my sofa, mostly while breastfeeding which I’d forgotten is a full time job. It’s a win for me to press send and I’m excited for Broken Growth to be in (slow) motion again.

More shockingly for the millennial in me, I’m about to hit publish from my phone not my laptop. What a wild summer. Adios for now, creative constipation 👋.

Hope you’re having a great summer and chat soon 🌀🎨💓

Matilda

Summer in the city with the bebe

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📨 Broken Growth is an almost weekly newsletter questioning what successful growth even means today and helping you to grow your own weird and wonderful one person business ecosystem. Written by freelance strategist Matilda Lucy. If you enjoyed reading, share with a friend who would too 😎.