Thursdays evenings from 6:15-8:30pm at Story Parlor
Early Bird pricing through January 10
Regular price effective January 11
Space is LIMITED to ensure an intimate experience. We recommend signing up early!
Refund and other policies can be found here.
“You may run out of energy, but not creativity.” —Rick Rubin
Do you ever feel like a broken clock? Gears stuck, springs unwound, the weight of the world creating too much pressure? As creatives, our relationship with stress is deeply intertwined with our art, influencing our lives in ways that can both move us forward or stop time completely.
Burnout happens when we get stuck in the stress cycle, and no longer have the energy to move through life and the creative process the way we once did. Without the gentle rhythm from our internal creative clock—your unique beat that guides your body to feel and make sense of the world—our vitality begins to fade, we become less heart and more head. We may no longer recognize ourselves, grasping for self-care quick fixes to lives lived without user guides or repair manuals.
How then, we ask, does one begin to mend the harmful effects of living in modern time?
In this 6-week workshop, we will explore the energetic cycles of rest, digest, play, and create that are vital to your well-being as an artist living in the 21st-century.
Through creative questions, journaling, reading, group engagement, and the introduction of somatic practices to ground and soothe your nervous system, you will identify where you get stuck in the parallel cycles of stress and creativity, and as a group we will nourish each other to create the momentum we need to ritualize the winding of our creative clocks and begin to move through our cycles with less stress and more peace.
This workshop draws from the research, wisdom, and inspiration found in literature, including Burnout and The Burnout Workbook both by Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, and many more. In time, and with the support of others, you will once again embody the values most important to you as you begin to be well, create, and thrive on the path of your whole creative life.
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Anyone looking to embark (or re-embark) on the path of living a more balanced, sustainable, and joyful whole creative life
Anyone wanting to discover more about what’s keeping them stuck in their creative lives (or other parts of their lives because they are all connected)
Anyone hoping to learn more about the energetic cycles of stress and creativity
Anyone wishing to repair their relationship with creativity, stress, anxiety, or burnout
Anyone looking to explore the intersection of creativity and stress
Anyone interested in taking part in a creative community in which to rest, digest, play, and create
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J. Faye D’Avanza is a writer-editor, holistic librarian, creative guide, and the founder of Library of Care—a 21st-century resource hub dedicated to curating and sharing the knowledge, stories, and tools needed for creative recovery, healing, and thriving in the modern age.
Known as an information professional for creative well-being, she writes and edits her Substack newsletter Keeping Creative Time which features regenerative writing from the ashes of burnout, along with original photography, to help you be well, create and thrive. The daughter of a renowned clockmaker, Faye brings to her writing a deep knowledge of the mechanism that controls our busy interconnected lives, and a passionate curiosity for restoring the body and its creative mind beyond the burnout culture narrative of the patriarchal clock.
For over twenty years, she worked in public libraries beginning as a book shelver during Y2K, a Reference Librarian during The Great Recession, and a Community Engagement Librarian who managed a vibrant public programming department, facilitated a Cookbook Club written up in Edible Rhody, co-produced the Rhody Radio podcast as featured in Library Journal, then found herself bookended and burned out amid the COVID-19 pandemic to become one of 4.5 million quitters in The Great Resignation. By leaving her job as a public librarian, she committed herself to answering two questions: “Why did I burn out in a job that I loved?” And, “How do you write a book when you only have the energy to write a fragment of a thought?”
A creative workshop facilitator, consultant, and coach, she is passionate about helping others on their parallel burnout recovery and creative healing journeys by nurturing one's passion for learning, connection, and growth. She holds an MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons University in Boston, Massachusetts, a BA in English with minors in American Studies and Art from the University of New Hampshire, a Certificate in Editing from the University of Chicago, and is a certified Inward & Artward Creative Facilitator from Story Parlor in West Asheville, North Carolina.
Faye lives among the artists, tourists, trees, and mountains of Asheville, North Carolina, and can often be found drinking a matcha latte and writing in the margins of her books. You can learn more about her creative offerings at jfayedavanza.com.
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“Faye’s workshop is thoughtful, well researched, and full of creative tools for combating creative burnout. One of the most profound experiences was sharing my relationship to stress, anxiety, and burnout with another participant, and also hearing about their relationship to the same. It was extremely vulnerable and also relieving to know I’m not alone, not the only weirdo struggling to find space and energy for my creative practice.”
–Alli M.
“Faye's workshop is grounded in her personal experience and deep research. She is meticulously planned and is thoughtful, humble, and hopeful in her facilitation. Working with Faye feels like intentional movement in my own journey out of burnout and into rejuvenated creativity!”
–Katherine S.
“Faye leads by example in her offering, sharing lessons from her own lived experience with burnout which immediately creates a feeling of trust. She dives into self discovery in a way that is both freeing and disarming. Through a series of prompts, dyad activities, and so much more Faye encourages participants to get curious about their own coping strategies with stress and anxiety and to question what’s working and what isn’t. She leaves you with concrete, tangible tools, a refreshed sense of inner wisdom that we can break free from harmful habits and ways of being when we better understand ourselves and the ways we crave change. I want Faye to lead this workshop for the doctors I work with who struggle with burnout!”
–Taylor Rose E.