Weekly Update- #the100dayproject
Cyclical nature of creativity
Today marks day seven of my cycle and day seven of my 100-day project. One week in.
How’s it going?
I’ve used this period of rest and emergence to simply see what wants to come through. If I had said the first week I was doing nothing, it would have felt too restrictive. By placing it within the framework of the creative process, there was permission to do nothing and also permission to emerge and play.
The first couple of days were gentle. I focused on the administrative side. I wrote the first article to set my intention, and a video flowed quite naturally from that. I’m often resistant to making videos, especially around my work. I think what usually stops me is my inner critic and a perfectionist attitude toward creativity.
By simply making something with limited editing, using helpful tools, and putting it out there, even if it wasn’t in the perfect format or as polished as I’d like, it felt real. It was out there. It was done.
“Sometimes, done is better than none”
The whole point of the creative process is to show up with what you have. Not everything has to be polished. Not everything has to be perfected for the world.
That doesn’t mean churning out rubbish. It means discerning what truly needs refining and allowing some things to remain rough and alive. Not everything needs to be worked and reworked endlessly.
The intention behind the article and the video was to hold myself accountable and perhaps gather a few people along the way. I want this to be an educational process.
This cyclical awareness is something I embody in my work, and bringing a new level of consciousness to it feels meaningful for me as well.
I’m still learning (16 years in to menstrual cycle awareness!) I’m bringing a beginner’s mind to this. I’m using the containers of the cyclical process, the creative process, and my menstrual cycle, and noticing what that looks like now. Even though I’ve tracked my cycle for years, it’s always shifting.
It’s important to ask: Does this still hold true? Do I still feel the same these days? Has something changed over the past months or years?
And how does this inner season resonate with the outer season as we move into Lammas/First Harvest, from early February through mid-March, when we reach the equinox? What is this space asking of me? That feels like a rich place to be.
So what have I physically done this week?
Days two and three of my cycle are usually wobbly, and I definitely had a few emotional waves. I let the creative process hold that. I did some simple doodles, painted with my Daughter, nothing connected to the larger project, just loosening up and remembering I can play. That felt important.
I know I want to work with paper during this project, especially old artwork, magazines, and images I’ve collected, pieces of colour that catch my eye even if I don’t yet know why. I spent time in my studio while my daughter painted, reorganising my scraps into colour order. It felt like laying out paint. I’m intrigued by the idea of painting with paper.
I love mixed media. I don’t yet know whether I’ll use paint, what kind, or whether it will remain entirely paper-based. I’m letting it unfold. The point of this project is to stay connected to the creative process itself and not become attached to a particular outcome.
I’ve played with themes that connect to my broader work, but I’m mindful that this isn’t about creating something for a specific purpose. In a previous 100-day project, I created 52 images exploring cyclical patterns and creativity. I loved those pieces, and later they naturally wove into my journals, calendars, and book covers. That wasn’t the original intention.
My intention is to create art for art’s sake on subjects I care about, without commercial pressure. If something evolves into further use, beautiful. If the pieces sell, as my last paintings did, that’s wonderful too. Sometimes all that remains is a photograph and the memory.
I’ve also been gently challenging myself to complete necessary work tasks alongside this project. That can be difficult because when I enter a creative process, I want to become completely absorbed. The 15 minute container for the 100-day project is powerful. Without it, I would either run away with it or abandon everything else.
Insights from this week
The project has made me think about containers and movement and how it mirrors the yogic concepts of the masculine and feminine, Shiva and Shakti. One does not exist without the other. In yoga and Ayurveda, my constitution is predominantly Vata, air, movement, and creativity. When we lean too heavily into air, things become scattered.
The ether element provides the container. There is no movement without space. The same applies here. My cycle becomes the container for creativity. Within that structure, it can flow, expand, and bounce off the edges. Without the container, my whole life could be consumed by creating or by drifting.
The next steps
As I’ve moved from winter into emergence and early spring, I can feel that my inner spring is brief. My winter and spring are short, and I move quickly into summer. Around day nine or ten, I will need to commit to something and begin producing more intentionally. That commitment will likely carry me through until days sixteen or seventeen, when I naturally feel the need to pause and reflect.
Or maybe this round of the cycle is still in the early stages of a larger creative process. And this menstrual cycle will be more about playing with ideas…
I’ll check in again around day fourteen, nd stepping into autumn, which is always a powerful time for reflection.
See you on the other side.