A New Way of Creating: From Pressure to Presence

Parental Leave as a Pause from Pressure

For over 1.5 years now, I’ve been (mostly) on parental leave. It’s a long time – and also somehow nothing at all. What does parental leave even mean for a freelancer? For me, it meant not feeling the pressure to produce, create, or advertise in order to earn money. That felt like a huge relief. It allowed me, on some level, to just breathe and be present – which is, after all, essential when caring for a tiny baby.

I had imagined that during the winter of my parental leave, which we spent in Spain, I would tap into my creative inspiration and start shaping what’s next in my work. That didn’t happen at all. That winter, I just about managed to deal with our everyday life and fulfill the contracts I had already committed to. I was too exhausted to access my creative source. But as I let go of the disappointment and did a reality check with my expectations, I felt less torn – and more at peace with where I was.

The Return of Creative Energy

Only now, in the summer, after completing all the commitments I had taken on in the last years, and with my daughter starting daycare, I’m finally noticing a reawakening of creative energy – the joy of designing learning processes and holding space for people and their becoming is rising in me again.

And yet – through the transformative experience of becoming a mother – something in me has changed. What is it? My connection to the creative life force has become deeper, more fluid. I’ve learned to let go, to surrender control, to soften – and in doing so, to welcome pain, fear, and old patterns. And also to let myself be surprised by what emerges when I’m rooted in my long-term calling and have no fixed agenda.

Tracking Creativity as a Living Process

I recently listened to a beautiful podcast episode on Soulful Impact with Brooks Barron, featuring Kelly Wilde Miller. They spoke about using creative projects as a way to track and explore one’s relationship with creativity itself. I loved the idea and decided to try it out – exploring how creativity now flows through me.

So I asked myself:

What if I created a project from a sense of inspiration, flow, financial abundance, and connection to what feels truly meaningful?

What if my doing were grounded in light-hearted trust and real openness to the responses I receive?

Creating Differently This Time

This felt like a bold experiment. I know too well the tightness and pressure that can accompany creating offerings. My mind is good at finding strategic angles and doing marketing – but promotion has often felt like a burden, a pain, something I had to force myself to do. Often, my projects were overshadowed by the fear of not getting enough signups – of having to cancel and feeling like I failed.

This new openness to create differently “caught fire” when someone asked me when my next Authentic Relating workshop would be. I hadn’t planned on doing one anytime soon, so instead we did a 1:1 session. I was reminded of how much I love sharing – even just a few basic practices from Authentic Relating – and how powerfully they can impact people. I came out of the session full of energy and motivation to offer more.

Following the Impulse into Form

So I asked again:

What if I just put out my openness to hold spaces for practicing Authentic Relating?

What if I let it happen with ease and trust – and stay open to the response that comes?

Out of this energy came the impulse to offer an Authentic Relating Mini Course in Berlin before we head back to Spain this autumn. If you’re reading this and it resonates with you – I’d be so happy to have you join us!

In short

🌀 Start: September 2, 2025
🌀 Location: Berlin-Friedrichshain
🌀 Schedule: 5 Tuesday evenings
🌀 Language: German
🌀 Contribution: €150–300 (sliding scale, excl. VAT)
👉 Sign up here

If the timing, language, or location doesn’t work for you – but you’re interested in something similar – just send me an email. Who knows what else might emerge?

And stay tuned – I’ll keep sharing how this creative experiment unfolds.