I was on Threads the other day (a great social media platform if you’re neurodivergent and need positive vibes), and a streamer posted that she was having such a hard time being creative right now due to the state of the world and her growing depression. She couldn’t come up with fun skits for social media, or even wanted to clip her past broadcasts to share, and she was really beating herself up about it. The replies were all very positive, encouraging her to take her time, letting her know that she and her work are appreciated, and the like. I don’t often respond to posts like this, but I thought it would be important to do so.

“It’s hard to be creative when we’re all in survival mode. Give yourself grace, rest, and be open to inspiration when it is ready to find you.”

She wrote back to thank me for the kind words, but I can’t claim them as my own. A good friend of mine told me years ago that it’s difficult to be creative when in survival mode, as I was dealing with anxiety and depression issues, and the concept of being ready for inspiration to find you came from the book, The Creative Act: A Way of Being” by Rick Rubin. That said, I believe both wholeheartedly. We’re in hard times, and the end is nowhere in sight. In my years on this Earth, I’ve never seen political and social turmoil in this country like we’re facing right now, and neither have my parents.

We’re faced with growing authoritarianism, rampant racism, government officials murdering people in the streets, economic turmoil, rising housing costs, an untrustworthy health department, taxation without representation, frayed if not severed ties with our international allies, blatant public corruption, voter suppression, secret police, we’re flooded with AI, bigotry, narcisissm, the loss of rights across the board… and that’s just off the top of my head while I decide what I want for lunch.

And somehow, we’re supposed to continue as if everything is fine?

We were’t built for this. Hell, we weren’t built for the constant influx of information that we get with the 24-hour news cycle and smartphones. But we also weren’t built to live in one of the most capitalist societies in history while the values that many of us believed this country stood for crumble around us. Yet, the bills still need to get paid. The algorithm waits for no one, and you’re only as good as your last release. I can’t imagine how anyone handles things like this in the best of times, and we are not in the best of times. So, it’s no wonder that this streamer couldn’t bring herself to be creative. We’re all just trying to get through the day with as few emotional scars as possible.

If there was one positive thing I saw in this thread, it was how many people could relate. So many of us want to do more. We want to express ourselves, scream to the universe that we’re here, and be seen, but we often work thankless jobs, eat unhealthy food, never get enough sleep, and wake up to do it all again the next day.

So how do we do that? I certainly don’t have all the answers, but here’s what I’m doing:
I have a goal to produce a short film. It’s a goal that I’ve had for a few years, and while I’m closer every day to it being done, it’s taken much longer than I would have liked. It’s made me question my skillset, my worth as an artist, and a bit of my sanity. But I still go out and get footage where I can, even if I never plan on using it. I recently went to the 2026 Lunar New Year Festival in Boston’s Chinatown to see the lion dances. I’ve always been fascinated with Chinatown, but never have I had enough time or motivation to learn more. This was a great opportunity. I got some great footage, saw an old friend, was mistaken for someone working at a studio, and was welcomed by the performers! (They even made sure I had enough room to shoot in order to get the best shots!). I’m going to edit a video of the footage, but here are a few color tests.

I also downloaded the Leica Lux app, and started a series of photos that make me feel like they came from an artsy movie. It helps to get the creative thoughts flowing and open myself up to more inspiration.

Will these little projects fix everything? Absolutely not. But it keeps me going. It keeps the creative door open just enough for me to feel the breeze, even when i’m not ready to fully open it. Sometimes, that’s all that twe can ask for.

So, how do we survive this current day and age as artists?

Find a way to keep the creativity door open.

Surround yourself with people who also want to make art.

And most of all, show yourself some grace.

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Surviving as a Creative in the current United States