Creative Liberation: Four Elements (February 2026; Final Series)

This blog covers the second and last iteration of the Creative Liberation series, featuring the Four Elements. Classes met Friday afternoon in February 2026, and consisted of three White American women who were there out of curiosity to explore and reclaim their creative selves.

Throughout this series, I've done my best to describe both the interactions of demographics of my students, so that readers can understand the different perspectives and challenges that come along with creative blocks. Knowing the identities and stages of life in which we reside also help us better understand the systems that have operated to silence our desires, to deem play and creativity as frivolous, and to question our sense of worth and purpose to follow our whimsy.

Note that I'm writing the commentary two months after the class ended on purpose, so that personal details and musings are protected while the integrity of the discussion remains. Here we go.

For this second iteration of Creative Liberation: Four Elements, I introduced myself by the different Artistic identities that I've recovered through practices like morning pages and Artist's Dates, and invited my students to introduce themselves in the same way.

When I asked the class why they were there, and to define themselves, students expressed feeling in a state of transition, where they were questioning what was next for them, were exploring who they were in this stage of their lives, while coexisting with family trauma, fear of the unknown, and the pressure to be practical, productive, useful.

What's always fascinating to me is that my older students come to class already knowing they have been creative, but feeling disconnected on how to integrate that into their lives. Every class ended with a suggested action, which we'd deconstruct for the next class.

Earth Element: How do you want to roam Earth?

The first time I taught Creative Liberation through the Four Elements, I deconstructed Earth in class as an outsider. We explored our relationship— both positive and negative— to our home planet, and then used that labeling to understand aspects of ourselves.

This time, we focused on defining what Creative Liberation was (e.g., creating new memories with self, contemplating enoughness, finding purpose, ridding external expectations, permission to pursue art).

There is so much power about being in a room full of people that can share the experience of being creatively blocked. Their wisdom through time also had allowed them to see patterns in their lives, times when they were less or more creative, so they could learnt to recreate the conditions for their artist.

We ended the Earth class by calling out specifically the experiences we wanted to feel and have, and they ultimately had to do with connection. With ourselves, with humanity, with Earth herself.

.   

Water: Yes, You Are an Artist

The number one thing that I do not allow my creativity students to sit in is the idea that they are not Artists. Decolonizing art and artistry means that we all reclaim how we already are artists, instead of thinking that expertise, accolades, or career path are what determine whether we are Artists.

Developmental psychology teaches us that our identities are central to our behaviors, and that it's pivotal in sustaining long-term behavior change. The point of our discussions wasn't just to instigate taking one class or doing art for one day, but to question what and why we have kept from creating as a way of being.

As we deconstructed these different versions of self and identity, I took a moment to map out the horizontal x vertical visual that represents the four elements and chakras. Although the four elements are already subsumed under the first four chakras (root = earth, sacral = water, solar plexus = fire, heart = air), separating them allows us to deepen the connection to the planet itself, a pivotal part of expression.

In our water discussion, we determined that the characteristics that define water, define our emotions, and can therefore define our expression. An Artist, then, is one who creates the courage to let their inner world exist externally, even if the only viewer is themselves. It is enough to be your own witness.

.   

.   

Fire: What Must Burn Away?

Fire is the element of transformation, literally. It represents the fears we've internalized from our family, society, culture, and at the world at large. It's here in particular, that systems of oppression disrupt.

Most people live in their fears only in their minds. They're too scared to voice them because they believe those voices, instead of seeing them as the conditioning it is. The group setting allowed us to witness each other having such similar fears and disruptions, creating a pattern that impacts us all.

But in particular, I called out the four systems of oppression and how they show up in these behaviors: colonization, unconscious capitalism, the patriarchy, and yt supremacy. 

This awareness itself burns away the shame and isolation it creates when we abandon ourselves, because we realize we are not (solely) responsible for our blockages. Further clarity was created when we started as a group identifying the specific creative practices we wanted to reclaim or deepen, and more importantly, the different competency levels that we can use as a guide of self-mastery.

Clarifying just what level of interests we want to have— and accepting that being a beginner is not anything to be ashamed of— clears a clearer path of recovery. 

We closed our discussion by naming the quality of relationship we had with other areas of our life, the wheel of life tool as it's typically called, so we could better understand what was blocking our energy and time.

This was a great closing setup for what would come next in Air: the voicing of our creative futures.

.   

.   

Air: Reclaiming Creative Practices

When we started the series, my students struggled with articulating just exactly what had stopped them from being creative, or rather, seeing themselves as creative. By the end of our series, there was a marked shift in the room. Sometimes my students come to class thinking that we're going to do art together, but what we do is collective reprogramming. We give voice to our inner experiences, and that creates instant connection.

When asked what they'd learned, this is what we shared:

• making time to start things
• making time to finish things
• permission to not be a master before starting
• levels of competencies opened up possibilities
• creativity is a natural response (it's part of who we are)

We also returned to the Queen Mindset Leadership®, whose entire focus is on creative reclamation and embodiment. The language of this framework is what I've documented as I've deconstructed my own self, rewritten my life's stories, and changed the trajectory of my life to align with my inner self.

With the awareness of systems, our identities, and the time sucks in our lives, we coasted to a close by exploring the multitude of artistic endeavors calling to us. And similar to the breakdown of competencies of mastery in fire, I shared the different layers of artistic awareness that I'd developed. 

As a behavioral research scientist with a decolonial lens, breaking down the actions that lead to systemic behavior change helps break down common barriers to embodiment. I reminded them that mastery is figure-out-able, and that they have already shown with their lives they're capable of doing as an act of obligation. Now it was time to repeat actions as an act of devotion. Devotion to what? To life itself.

What's Next for My Creative Teachings

With this series, my time at the Creative Arts Center has come to a close. As my brand matures and my lens on decolonial leadership sharpens, it is time to spread my wings into my own work.

While this was the last teaching at the CAC, I am still very much active in the Dallas arts community. As a result of these 27 classes, I've created a Creative Embodiment Assessment that helps past, present, and future students gauge their level of connection to their lives, their aliveness, and their creativity. Think part-journaling, part-education, part-coaching, designed to help you see yourself with clarity.

I'm also offering nature-based coaching sessions, at the Arboretum and beyond. At the end of the assessment, you'll have an opportunity to explore my other Creative Embodiment offerings, including my Decolonizing Your Leadership workbook, and future chakra-focused liberation workshops.

Thank you for being part of my teaching ethos in Dallas, TX. Now go create more. Just because.