Mama Nous: Singing Your Feelings
What did you use to do during recess?
I was homeschooled/unschooled for my entire education so I’m very lucky that a lot of my childhood felt like “recess!” I got to spend so much time outdoors with no agenda which was an incredible gift: boredom is such an underrated catalyst of creativity.
Did you think of yourself as a creative kid? What does creativity look like for you these days?
As a kid I didn’t identify that way because I come from a very creative family and my mom was really good at sparking our imaginations without putting pressure on us to create in a certain way. So that was just the water I swam in, but looking back I realize just what a gift it was that my creativity was cherished and encouraged in the way that it was.
I wrote my first song when I was 10, I loved collecting new instruments and figuring out how to play them, I loved knitting and sewing and making my own outfits, I would choreograph elaborate gymnastics routines and then wrangle my younger sisters to do them with me…I think all kids are inherently creative, I just got really lucky that my mom recognized what a precious and magical gift childhood is and gave us a lot of space + encouragement to explore many different creative outlets.
When I first decided to start sharing the songs I was writing for my own kids, I gave myself permission to let my inner child run the show. I wanted to let myself feel playful and free and imaginative in ways that adulthood rarely leaves room for. I didn’t want to pin myself down to any one thing and that has been key to making this project sustainable: I will never be the kind of person who can stick to one narrow niche or topic forever and so building myself a creative container that’s big enough to hold all parts of me has helped ensure that I don’t burn out or get bored. I need to be able to share songs for kids sometimes and songs for grownups other times and talk about how I use astrology as a tool in my parenting and sometimes I really just need to reflect on the monumental weight of parenting through the Anthropocene. The lens of motherhood has been a very helpful anchor in weaving so many threads of my lifelong interests together.
These days my favorite forms of creativity don’t look all that much different from when I was 10: I still love making things with my hands, weaving words + sounds into songs that wouldn’t exist unless I shepherded them into the world, and dusting off my old gymnastics skills with my very athletic 4-year olds. I try my best to weave play into my day in as many ways as I can.
How much time do you get to work on creative projects?
Not nearly as much as I’d like! I have a full-time job and I’m the parent of 4-year old twins, which doesn’t leave me with much free time, so it’s been incredibly important for me to weave my creative practice into my life rather than feeling like I have to carve out time and space just for it. I’ve always got some kind of voice recorder handy so that I can capture snippets of song ideas as they come to me and then refine them later when I have kid-free time. A whole lot of my songs were born during the 45-minute commute to my FT job.
My husband is my audio engineer and we do all of the recording/production in our home studio: my first album “Sing Your Feelings” is only 14 minutes of music, but it took us 6 months to record because we could only work on it together while the kids were sleeping.
We’ve gotten into a better groove since then where I can lay down tracks myself, and he adds to them when he has the time, so we don’t always have to be in the studio together. I’m incredibly lucky that he’s totally supportive and 100% on board because he makes sure to give me as much time as possible to actually put this work into the world.
What’s inspiring you outside of your own genre?
I draw inspiration from SO many different sources and that’s part of what keeps this project fun + interesting to me! I’m incredibly inspired by transformative justice and somatics and astrology and Buddhist philosophy…I’m forever inspired by tools + schools of thought that help us build more awareness around our interconnection, our agency, and the beauty of healing.
What do you hope your kids will learn about creativity from you?
I hope my kids see how much fun it is to express yourself! That the end product really doesn’t matter so much as just giving yourself the freedom to let your imagination play. I hope they learn that creativity is just as vital as exercise and staying hydrated and getting good rest. I cannot wait to witness all of the weird and wild things I know they will bring into the world!
Mama nous is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and 2nd-generation mindful parent living in the woods of New Hampshire with her husband and 4-year old twins. She shares songs with accessible, emotionally intelligent lyrics that resonate with both kids and adults. You can find her on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify (as well as all streaming platforms!).
Nebula Notebook is a place to meet kindred spirits, get inspired, and learn how to find ease and joy in the creative process—even when life is bananas. 🍌🍌🍌
✏️ PS—The fastest way to grow as a writer is to book a manuscript critique or a creative coaching session with an expert. My clients get agents, sell books, and win awards. They also learn how to enjoy the creative process, so they can keep going when life gets hard. 👏
yess!! love this!!