The Joy of Creative Expansion.

How I recharged my creative batteries on a wild, musical adventure.

Photo by Pekour on Depositphotos

Hi there, if you’re new here, welcome to ‘Something More’. I’m Caroline Ferguson, therapist and mindset trainer. If you’d like to see more of my posts, or benefit from monthly mindset group-coaching sessions, please do subscribe.

A core part of my ‘something more’ is about creativity.

Three years ago I decided to consciously invest in doing things that stretch me creatively. At least once a year, I search for an adventure that will either teach me a new skill or further develop my existing creative practice. It’s turned out to be one of the most expansive, heart-filling, pleasurable decisions I’ve ever made.

The first year’s effort was a 10-day writing retreat in rural France, which also happened to include the most incredible food. It was glorious and I came back full of story inspiration.

Last year I learned how to make silver jewellery. I still get a thrill of satisfaction every time I wear one of my creations. Here’s my favourite:

Photo by Caroline: one of my silver pieces.

This year’s experience has topped the lot.

Two weeks ago I joined a diverse group of thirty strangers for a five-day camping and song-writing adventure on a rewilding project in the south-west of England.

This was a momentous choice for me. Let me give you some background for context:

When I was growing up, music and singing were a big part of my life. I was always in a choir, or performing as a chorus member in musicals. I also sang backing vocals on a few demo recordings after I left university.

I never sang solo, though – the thought of standing up there by myself was far too frightening. I convinced myself I didn’t have ‘that kind of voice’, and my place was in the background, where I could add harmony, texture and rhythm without being exposed.

Then, in my early twenties, I decided I couldn’t keep giving significant amounts of time to both writing and singing. “You’re a better writer than a singer,” I told myself. “You’ve more chance of earning a living with your pen.”

And that was it, decision made. I completely stopped singing, unaware that in doing so, I was breaking my own heart.

It would be another 25 years before I sang publicly again.

When I left London in search of a better quality of life, I was determined to get back to music. Almost by accident, I found myself in one of the UK’s leading women’s acapella choruses. This was serious stuff, involving international competitions, sequins and jazz hands choreography. It was entirely the wrong place for me but I felt I’d be letting people down if I walked away.

Though I’m an alto, I was asked to sing bass and the pressure of having to sing loudly in the wrong part of my voice, through multiple throat and respiratory illnesses, caused severe vocal damage. I lost my voice entirely for a while and had to have months of speech therapy.

I walked away from singing again, and this time it wasn’t my choice. That was it for another fifteen years.

But now the hunger to sing is back.

I decided this year’s creative adventure would be a musical one – it’s way past time. While gently Google-stalking a wonderful British folk singer, I came across the song-writing/rewilding course and knew immediately I wanted to be part of it. I signed up, excited but also a little nervous – did I have enough voice to get away with it? After all this time of not singing, I really wasn’t sure.

Luckily the answer was yes, though the pipes were certainly rusty.

The adventure begins.

We had unseasonably cold weather for mid-June. Daytime temperatures didn’t rise much above 11 or 12 degrees centigrade, and nights were a chilly six or seven degrees. We also had torrents of rain for the first half of our five-day stay.

I was immensely grateful I’d hired a small camper van, rather than brave a tent, as 20 hardy souls in our party did. There were so many acts of kindness, with people sharing blankets, clothes, even their tents, with others who were cold and wet. The sun blessed us with occasional presence after the mid-point and it made all the difference.

My charming home for 5 days, a camper van called Sky. Photo: Moira Morris.

The area we were privileged to camp in is being actively rewilded and consists of pine and beech forests, open meadows and ponds. A little over a year ago, several beavers were brought in and although they were too shy to show themselves to us, it was fascinating to see their impact. In a few short months, they transformed a tiny, unreliable trickle of a stream into a wetland that’s attracting multiple new wildlife species. And they built a dam sixty metres long, a metre-and-a-half tall and a metre-and-a-half thick at the base – in just four weeks!

Then there was song-making.

The musicality of the group was stunning. Most people turned up with at least one instrument. I counted three cellos, four ukuleles and 15 guitars. There were more than a dozen different types of drums and other percussion instruments, plus an Indian shruti squeezebox and an autoharp. My contribution was a set of second-hand bongos.

And of course everyone sang, everywhere, all the time.

Each morning we were woken by a different type of music. There’s something otherworldly and magical about emerging from sleep to the sound of a soaring human voice, or a flute, or, on our last morning, bagpipes, echoing through the trees. I wonder what the beavers, deer and other denizens of the forest thought?

I learnt so much.

Being off-grid, there was no electricity and no running water so everything required careful thought. We took turns to prepare meals for the group, cooking delicious vegetarian food in huge pots over a campfire. And in the evening, we sat around that fire and sang and made music long into the night.

I learned that:

💚 Within a short space of time, if you embrace off-grid living and remove modern-world distractions, and if those leading the group create a circle of safety, thirty strangers can become trusted friends and share their highest inspiration and deepest vulnerabilities.

💚 When given a prompt and the opportunity to wander deep in nature, even if I start out with not a single idea in my head, I can come up with words and a tune for a song in an hour. And create something different the next day, and the next.

💚 When needs must, I’m quite capable of getting out of a warm bed in a camper van at 2am, heading outside in a chilly downpour and stumbling 100 metres through the pitch black forest to use a basic compost toilet.

💚 Five people, given a verse and a tune, can turn it into a weaving, shifting, intoxicating river of harmony and rhythm in no time at all.

💚 Being in a wild space, with intent, can connect me to my creativity far more readily than sitting in front of my laptop indoors.

💚 I can go from feeling musically unskilled and full of nerves at the thought of my voice being heard, to performing a song I wrote, accompanied by guitar and cello, with the whole group enthusiastically joining in the choruses and adding beautiful harmonies. And how bloody amazing that feels!

A few of our group singing beneath venerable beech trees. Source: #WildSongs

‘Something more’ is about living a life that matters.

Half the challenge of fully living our ‘something more’ is finding out what matters to each of us. We need to do the work to identify what moves us, expands us and fulfils us, and consciously make space for those activities, events and people in our lives.

That’s what my creative challenges are all about, and one thing’s for sure: music and singing are a non-negotiable part of my ‘something more’ from now on.

To that end, I’ve restrung the guitar I hadn’t picked up for over 30 years and am spending ten minutes a day, getting my tender fingers used to making chords again. I’m practising on my bongo drums and, best of all, in a couple of weeks I’ll be meeting up with the talented guitarist who accompanied me when I sang my song to see what else we can come up with. I can’t wait! Ideas are already filtering through.

What are you doing to explore your creativity?

What creative activities are you involved in? I know many of you are writers; how could you make the process of writing more joyful and inspiring? How else could you play and give free rein to other aspects of your creative imagination?

I’d love if it you’d share your experiences with us in the comments. If you’re reading the email version of this post, I’d be grateful if you could use the Substack app or click through to the article online and leave your comments where everyone can enjoy and benefit from them, rather than simply replying to me by email. Thank you.

Reminder: our postponed live group coaching is this Wednesday

Don’t forget, paying members normally have access to mindset training sessions on the last Wednesday of each month. Due to me being floored by covid last week, our postponed session will take place this Wednesday, 3rd July, at 8pm UK time. Look out for the Zoom link coming to your inbox tomorrow. We’ll be looking at the two cats and a dragon that live in your head, and the impact they have on your life.

If you’re a free subscriber and would like to join these monthly mindset training sessions, click the subscribe button at the top of this email to upgrade.

‘Til next time, get that creative imagination running wild, and take care,

PS - Massive, heartfelt thanks to the leaders and crew of WildSongs, and to every one of my fellow musical adventurers. It was a privilege and a joy to spend time with you.