What If Your Next Creative Breakthough Comes From Your *Turn-On*...Not Your Trauma?

A note for the hot spiritual creative girls who are tired of creating from only their pain + struggle

﹎

For the longest time, I thought my "best work" had to come from pain so people would genuinely connect with me + feeeeeeeeel me. 

Like if I were too playful or light, nobody would know how deep I am or how much shadow work I've done to get to where I am now.

(tell me you have Scorpio moon without telling me, lol 😂)

Essentially, I was broadcasting how I've "earned" my artistic place in life, in love + in entrepreneurship through all the painful trials + tribulations. 

And honestly, I think a lot of us creatives have been conditioned to buy into these limiting beliefs - that art + struggle MUST go hand-in-hand in order to be impactful.

Just think:

The tortured artist.

The wounded healer.

The girl who turns betrayal into poetry.

The musician who writes their best album after hitting rock bottom or getting dumped.

We've collectively romanticized suffering like it's the necessary + unavoidable price of making meaningful art.

 ﹎

And don't get me wrong...

I've made some beautiful things from my trauma (I'm talking alchemy -  turning literal shit into gold). 

Remember when Beyonce made her album "Lemonade" after Jay-Z stepped out on their marriage?

(sidenote for the astrology girlies: Bey's moon's also in Scorpio...are we shocked? 😂 there's NOTHING casual about our intimate relationships 🦂🖤 suddenly the baseball bat in the video for "Hold Up" makes sense, lol)

I literally built a niche community of 15,000 on YouTube making long-form content about conscious relationships + sacred union after THE worst breakup of my life.

And as grateful as I am for that season - including what it taught me + the thousands of people I had the blessing of connecting with as a result of sharing something so vulnerable - it also started to feel...heavy after awhile.

 ﹎

Lately, I've been playing with a different question. 

What if your greatest creative work doesn't come from your trauma...

...what if it comes from your turn-on?

Not just sexual turn-on (although, YES to that 💦)...

but pleasure.

The things that make you come alive.  

The artists you obsess over.

The aesthetics that make you whisper, holy shit.

The books you can't stop recommending.

The music that alters your brain chemistry because it's THAT good.

The ideas that light your whole brain up.

That feeling where you're making something + completely lose track of time.

I talked about this shift in a recent IG reel here.

Turn-on isn't just erotic. 

But then again...I think life is an erotic experience.

Not in the narrow, sexual sense.

In the sense that we're constantly being invited into deeper intimacy - with beauty, with art, with music, with ideas, with other people and with life itself.

Eros is what wakes us up + reminds us that we're here to be alive + embodied.

(instead of numbed out, just going through the motions)

﹎

Something funny happened recently.

At the start of 2026, I decided to dedicate this entire year to building community on Instagram.

A a few months into my experiment - at the start of this summer - I stopped trying to "find my niche". 

Instead of asking, "what does the algorithm want?", I started asking...

"What am I genuinely obsessed with right now?"

(even if it didn't necessary "make sense" yet as far as business was concerned or had nothing to do with "making money" or "getting reach" or anything else strategic).

And on the final day of a 30-day challenge, where I posted once per day on my IG feed to see what would emerge from the combination of following my joy AND raw creative momentum, I decided to make a playful reel (not optimized or anything fancy, just added in some cute edits) recommending 4 magical books that changed my life: you can watch it here

(in fact, back in 2021 - after MANY house moves - I donated about 98% of my books + kept only a handful - and these 4 made the cut, because they're THAT special)

I posted it about 2 weeks ago + it's already reached over 143,000 people. Thousands shared + saved it + over 1300 women have followed since. 

But what made me happy wasn't the numbers - it was waking up in the morning to the comment section FULL of like-minded spiritual baddies who value eros, pleasure + joy just as much as I do, all coming together to support one another. 🥹🫶🏻

(my account was basically flatlined + I haven't had an engaged community in YEARS, so when I say this influx not only revived it from the dead, but brought tears of joy to my eyes to see everyone happily sharing...I mean it!)

It really hit me that when we tap into our joy, into the sources of our pleasure, create from our turn-on + share from REAL love + goodwill...magic can strike. 🪄

The wildest part? 

I made it last minute in the 11th hour of that challenge + wasn't even sure if I should post it, because it felt kind of random.

Which makes me wonder how many amazing ideas we've all talked ourselves out of because they didn't "make perfect, logical sense" in the moment?

﹎

So, maybe your pain isn't your only informant after all. 

For years, it was definitely my creative compass. 

Heartbroken? Make art.

Financially struggling? Make art.

Lost + Confused? Make art.

But somewhere along the way I realized that my struggles weren't the only thing trying to speak.

In fact, I officially decided that 2026 was the year I needed to lighten the fuck up, lol. 

Maybe in this creative season, instead of feeling obligated to mine your trauma in order to make something meaningful (this is your permission slip to NOT do that, okay?), you should start asking yourself,

"What makes me feel the most alive?

...the most joyful?

...the most lit up + excited?"

﹎

Here's something I don't think we spiritual creatives talk about enough.

Trauma can absolutely be the catalyst for incredible art.

But it can also be exhausting. And unnecessary. 

If the only time you feel inspired to create is when you're suffering...

...part of you starts believing you need suffering in order to be creative.

(ask me how I know 😂😭)

Being happy + having a sense of humor doesn't make you less interesting.

Joy doesn't make your work shallow.

Pleasure certainly doesn't make you less of an artist.

If anything...I've found the opposite.

The more alive I feel + the more I let that aliveness lead me...the more "me" (and MAGNETIC) my work becomes - and the more it resonates with the right people in this particular season of my life (which just so happens to be lighter + more playful than before).

﹎

Turn-on is a guide.

It's pointing you toward the life that gets to both feel good AND serve others with your greatest gifts.

And in a joy-starved + erotically-disconnected society, where the only "pleasure" we're familiar with is typically rooted in guilt, shame or excess...

...I feel we're meant to create a new paradigm, rooted in healthy erotic energy - which means giving ourselves permission to do things in radically different ways than what we've been brainwashed to believe.

It's our responsibility to pay attention to the limitations we set upon ourselves, to be rebellious enough to choose joy when it seems more "acceptable" to be practical or to stay loyal to our pain + most importantly...

...to understand that creating from turn-on +  unconditional love is a RADICAL act of service that doesn't just benefit YOU as a creator - but benefits all beings who come into contact with your art.

﹎

And let's be clear - I'm not saying to ignore your trauma.

Healing is a spiral, not a linear road + everyone's journey is unique - so the less we judge ourselves or anyone else, the better.

As my Tibetan Buddhist teacher says, "you have to practice where you're at", meaning:

Even when your ultimate desire is to help liberate yourself + others from their suffering, you also have to practice self-compassion + do things in a way that honor your current capacity (with the wish in your heart to keep expanding your ability to serve in greater ways, too). 

So, self-care matters.

Basically...put your oxygen mask on first, then tend to others the best you know how in the moment (knowing your strength to be of service CAN grow with patience + devoted effort).

Therapy, healing + shadow work ARE valuable - I've spent many years doing all three.

But there comes a point where constantly digging into your deepest pain can become a trap that keeps you tethered to an old identity that perhapssssss...you've outgrown at this point in your life?

Your next chapter might NOT be about "healing another wound".

It might be about building a life that's so joyful + erotically-alive that your nervous system finally gets a chance to exhale...and ENJOY it.

﹎

This is the experiment I'm running right now.

Less strategizing (a bit of that is important, but too much can be an absolute buzzkill).

Less creating from the feeling of "I should do this...".

And more...

Listening to the creative impulse + following the genuine fascination.

More trusting the turn-on.

Even my daily Buddhist meditation practice recently has been focused on anchoring in this erotically-abundant "future" self - now. 

And, what do you know...

After only 60 days of exploring creativity in this way on Instagram, it's producing some of the most far-reaching + resonant art I've made in years - AND I'm having fun doing it (which is actually what matters the most). 

✨ So, if this message found you + lit a spark, I'd say without a doubt - now it's your turn. 🫶🏻

💌 P.S. If you're a fellow hot spiritual creative girl who wants to build a hotter, happier life...then you're in exactly the right place.

And if you're curious about private 1:1 mentorship, check out the details here.