You are not broken for needing rest.

After years of carrying it all, my body, mind, and spirit called for a forced-pause — a season of cocooning and nesting. Not a breakdown. Not failure. A sacred, natural part of the creative cycle.

In this episode, I invite you into my own quiet season and explore how we can remove the shame around slowing down. Together, we’ll talk about:

• Naming and normalizing cocooning as wisdom, not weakness
• Why nature’s rhythms remind us that nothing blooms all year
• Honoring the invisible labor behind art and artists
• Creating in playful, unfamiliar ways when your usual forms go silent

If you’ve been feeling guilty for stepping back — or afraid your Creativity has left you — may this conversation remind you: the pause is not the end. It’s part of the perpetual continuous becoming.

LISTEN ON APPLE PODCASTS HERE or use the link to Spotify below.

Key Takeaways

1. Rest is not weakness—it’s wisdom. Pausing isn’t a failure; it’s a necessary, sacred part of the creative cycle, just like seasons in nature.
2. The body keeps score. Ignoring stress and overwork eventually takes a toll—listening to your body’s signals is an act of self-respect and creative preservation.
3. Shame keeps us silent. Many of us hide our need to stop because of societal pressure to “keep going,” but naming and normalizing these seasons can help us—and others—heal.
4. Creativity thrives in stillness, too. Even when we’re not “producing,” our creative spirit is alive, evolving, and preparing us for what’s next.
5. Playfulness is medicine. Engaging in joyful, low-pressure making (like Carrie’s physical nest) can restore the soul and reconnect us to our inner child.
6. Honoring others honors ourselves. Celebrating the creative journeys of others deepens our reverence for art and our own creative process.
7. Rewriting the story changes everything. When we see pauses as natural, healthy, and sacred, we reclaim rest as part of living a fully creative, fully human life.

The Guided Visualization

The Nest

In this short, gentle visualization, you’ll be invited to step away from the noise of daily life and enter your own sacred space of renewal. Guided by soothing imagery, you’ll imagine yourself in a cocoon or nest — a place that holds you with safety, softness, and quiet.

Through sensory details and calming prompts, you’ll:

• Release the weight you’ve been carrying
• Feel the ground of rest beneath you
• Let your body and spirit know it’s safe to pause
• Trust the natural rhythm of retreat and return
• Sense the quiet work of transformation happening within

You’ll emerge from this practice reminded that you are not “falling behind” when you rest — you are becoming.

Connect with Carrie Schmitt:

• Instagram: @carrieschmitt
• Join Carrie’s online art class + community HERE.
• Subscribe to the podcast to never miss an episode.

FREEBIES!

• TWO FREE CHAPTERS of my new book, Awakening Creativity: A Sacred Journey to Reclaim Your Inner Artist HERE.
• Take a tour of my NEST I made on my deck HERE.

✨ Share your answers! Use @carrieschmitt on Instagram, leave me a voicemail, or email me here.

Reflection Questions:

1. When you hear the words burnout or breakdown, what feelings or images come to mind? How might those shift if you replaced them with cocooning or nesting?
2. Have you ever experienced a “forced pause” — a time when your body or spirit said stop? How did you respond?
3. In your own creative life, how do you recognize when it’s time to rest?
4. What might change if you saw rest as an essential part of the creative cycle rather than a disruption?
5. How does nature’s rhythm — nothing blooming all year — resonate with your own cycles of work and pause?
6. When someone you care about withdraws or goes quiet, how do you typically interpret it? How might your understanding change if you knew they were “cocooning”?
7. What are some ways you could honor and celebrate the invisible labor behind creative work — both your own and others’?
8. Have you ever tried creating in a completely different way than usual (like Carrie building her nest)? What did you learn from the experience?
9. If you could design your own “nest” or “cocoon space,” what would it look like, feel like, and include?
10. What’s one small way you can give yourself (or someone else) permission to rest this week?