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On Creativity, Part 1: Lessons from the Tub

Rebecca Bau Gaspar, Copywriter and Content Editor, DMA Partners


Creativity doesn’t wait for that perfect moment. It fashions its own perfect moments out of ordinary ones.” —Bruce Garrabrandt.


I’ve always loved this quote. It makes the mundane seem magnificent and makes creativity feel accessible. But I have never connected with it more than last night.


My parents are visiting me in Madrid, and one of the best perks is exclusive access to the bathtub in their hotel suite. Last night I spent a magical two hours floating. I closed my eyes and breathed in the bath salts swirling and dissolving in the water, no sound but the soft crackle of a candle.


Within minutes, I entered a deep, trancelike state of relaxation and disconnectedness. A complete weightlessness.


I felt entirely out of sync with the world outside and it was wonderful; just me and this timeless, cosmic space.


After many moons lying in this warm, undisturbed place, my mind started exploding… with colour, scenes, melodies, thoughts oscillating and falling on top of each other… I was a film director, composer, writer and strategist - all at once. With hastily dried hands, I reached for my phone to record my ideas and sketch plans for the things they would turn into.


After this almost cathartic outpouring, I felt more connected to my creative self than I have in a long time.


I have the sense that post-pandemic, people are struggling to get back in touch with their light, inspired, energised selves, to truly enter their creative flow.

Inundated with news of turmoil and suffering, we can feel weighed down by the world. A sense of lack of humanity overwhelms us and cleaves us from the parts of ourselves that dream big and live to make change and create beauty.


For me, it turns out the solution was floating dreamily in a spa bath.


Or perhaps it was the freedom to leave the chaos and the pressure, to leave myself. That’s when I felt invigorated - when I found creative flow in the infinite space behind my eyes.


So maybe creativity is at its best when it’s weightless. Maybe people are their most creative in moments and places of freedom and fantasy.


Here are the places where I find creativity; where I experience weightlessness:


On a silk pillowcase in the space between awake and asleep.


In the middle of a thunderstorm, rain battering against the window pane.


In front of a fireplace, flames dancing and glowing.


In the song of a piano.


On a long drive, gazing at the soft hues of sunset.


In the musk of a burnt-out candle.


On an antique writing desk that smells of aged wood.


In the playful colours of stained-glass windows.


Where do you feel weightless?




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