Tanmeet Sethi: Making a Connection with the Earth

Tell us about a day in your life, how do you fit in creative moments?

It continues to evolve. I wrote my entire first book published in 2023 in the hours of 4:30 to 7:00 AM, before the kids got up and before going to work. People always gasp when I tell them that but it was magical. I still LOVE the early morning when it is not quite light out and the house is asleep. I feel like I can hear the call to what I need for myself or want to create more clearly in this time, before the day starts to ask of me. My work life has changed a bit so I have some more flexibility in when I write but continue to do my best and most alive work in the early morning.

What helps you make time and space for being creative? How do you avoid burn out?

For me, being creative is less about something to do and more about a way to “be.” So I don’t burn out with it, it is the opposite. It keeps me from burning out. Humans have made things since the beginning of time. It is how we stay human. And I have learned especially through grief and challenge that when I cannot make sense of the world or my life, I need to put my hands on something to make a connection with the earth or myself. Creating is the way I stay alive to what life has given me.

Who would you love to collaborate with? What’s a dream project for you?

I am dreaming of a podcast in collaboration with another woman of color. A conversation over chai so to speak. I have some ideas of what it would be centered on but am not clear yet on which one to choose. I love podcasts that allow you to “sit in” on people talking about life in a way that feels like you are learning from friends.

What’s inspiring you outside of your own genre?

My book and Substack are all creative nonfiction. But I am feeling called back to fiction. I had a fictional novel I started 15 years ago. And I had gotten very far in it and even started to comprise a query to agents. But then my middle child was diagnosed with a fatal illness and for my own sanity, I had to put it on a proverbial “digital shelf” so I wouldn’t feel bad about leaving it be. I needed to focus on my spiritual path and funnily enough, I also found myself unable to even read fiction until a few years ago. But in the last year, the characters have been calling to me and I feel pulled back to that book. I think it will look different because I am different. But it will no doubt be infused with the creativity and joy I have found on my path. I am really excited to write it and have been reading fiction again as well!

What’s your favorite super easy creative practice to do when you’re looking for fresh ideas?
For me, it’s a long walk in nature. Sometimes I listen to something inspiring and other times, I listen to the earth around me. No matter what, it stirs something awake within me. And if I am feeling really alone, I will stop somewhere in the trees, close my eyes, and do a short meditation. I imagine the trees are all reaching out to support and nurture me. I imagine they have wisdom I cannot muster at the moment. And then when I open my eyes, it all looks different. I literally feel like they were looking at me and that I am less alone. And somehow, I always leave a walk with a seed of an idea or the seed of hope that I can feel better.

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Tanmeet Sethi, MD is an Integrative and Psychedelic Medicine Physician, activist, author, and TEDx speaker who has dedicated her career to care for the most marginalized patients in Seattle’s refugee, uninsured and homeless populations as well as global communities traumatized by manmade and natural disasters as senior faculty for The Center for Mind Body Medicine. Her first book, Joy Is My Justice: Reclaim Yours Now, published in May 2023, is a radical call to claim Joy as our birthright, the deepest liberation we can know and a path to power through oppression. She is also a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Washington and a primary clinical investigator there on the sacred plant medicine, psilocybin. She lives in Seattle, WA with her husband and three children, ages 20, 19, and 16. Connect with her at tanmeetsethimd.com, on Instagram @tanmeetsethimd and on Substack.

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