🎨 Creativity, Anxiety & the Joy of Letting Go ✨

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Creativity Chronicles​
Unlocking Creative Joy, One Week at a Time

The Opposite of Anxiety
Isn’t Calm—It’s Creativity.

Hi Reader,

I’ve been delightfully pulled into Martha Beck’s new book, Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life’s Purpose. The creative sparks are flying!

Ms. Beck talks about how anxiety comes from pushing too hard and trying to control everything. But creativity (and real joy!) is ignited when we let go and allow ourselves to be pulled by curiosity. In other words, when we play creatively, anxiety doesn’t stand a chance. 🚀✨

When I was playing golf yesterday, my friend and golf coach, Bill Condaxis told me that because most people take their golf swing (and the expected results) so seriously, they don’t actually enjoy the swing. So crazy and so true!

Maybe it’s time we all ask ourselves how often do I grip too tight instead of relaxing into the flow of life and creativity?

🧘 Creativity:
The Antidote to Anxiety

When anxiety creeps in, Martha Beck explains and I agree, it usually means we’re stuck in what-if spirals and worst-case scenarios. Creativity invites us into the present moment, where curiosity and play can take the wheel. When you get creative—whether it’s doodling, journaling, playing music, or simply exploring an idea without pressure—creative play replaces anxious overthinking and a joyful flow just happens… with ease! 🙌🏼

⚡ How to Supercharge
Your Creativity with AI

One way that I enjoy a joyful creative flow is playing with AI as a creativity enhancer. The challenges of a blank page have become so “yesterday.” The magic happens when we take AI’s creative sparks and make them our own.

Beyond ChatGPT (which I use daily), two apps that I highly recommend and which you may not have discovered yet are:

🎭 Gamma – I use this app weekly in my Creativity Sandbox Community member sessions. It’s an AI-powered tool that makes it almost magical to create engaging presentations, including text-to-AI-generated images from multiple image models.
🧠 Napkin – A visual thinking and diagram design app that helps you connect and organize ideas. A step beyond mind mapping, this app helps you flesh out concepts in an almost instantaneous way that’s supercharged with creative power, and fun.

🖋️ How can I help?

Joyful, one-to-one AI creativity coaching sessions—for example on how to use th apps mentioned above, or as a life or business coach, or whatever you need—are available upon request. Just reply to this email and let’s talk.

👉 Stay tuned for my upcoming free virtual event:
“Creativity 2.0.”
It’s coming soon!

Cheering you on,

Jon Leland, AI Creativity Over 50 Guy
​“Don’t die with your creative sparks still stuck inside.”

🌟 Feeling Stuck? Learn How AI Can Help Ignite Your Creative Spark! 🌟

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Creativity Chronicles​
Unlocking Creative Joy, One Week at a Time

Over 50 and
Ready for Something New?

Hi Reader,

Does this sound familiar?

  • You’re bored with the same old routines.
  • Retirement feels less like freedom and more like a waiting game.
  • You’re itching to create, connect, or explore, but you don’t know where to start.

If so, you’re not alone—and I’m here to help.

🎥 Here’s a quick story about how used AI to refine my mission so I’m ready to meet these challenges.​
One way that I play creatively is to use AI as my creative thought partner. This video explains how I used ChatGPT to clarify my purpose and sort out how I solve real problems.

​

🚀 I’m on a mission!​
After some back-and-forth refinement conversations with ChatGPT, I arrived at a mission statement that will help me serve you better:
​
​‘Igniting joyous creative freedom for people over 50 by blending AI and play to inspire connection, self-expression, and living a deeply fulfilling life.’

Sounds good to me. How does it sound to you?

I made this mission statement more “tangible” for myself by creating this graphic in Canva:

Then, to make it clearer, I refined it further as shown below.

🖋️ How can I help?

Sometimes, life can feel stuck or uninspiring. Here are some of the ways, I help people over 50 rediscover their spark:

  • Show you how to use AI as a fun, creative tool (it’s easier than you think!).
  • Help you reconnect with your creativity through simple, playful practices.
  • Empower you to feel more connected, expressive, and excited about life through an accountable, supportive Creativity Sandbox Community.

I even hand-lettered the simpler version of this message—because that’s the kind of personal touch I enjoy:

💡 Want to learn more about how AI can help you?

✨ Grab my FREE guide: Top 3 Ways AI Can Enhance Your Creativity. It’s packed with quick tips to help you start your AI journey and have fun along the way! Click here to get it now.

👉 Stay tuned for my upcoming free virtual event:
“Creativity 2.0.”
It’s coming soon!

To your creative freedom,

Jon Leland, AI Creativity Over 50 Guy
​“Don’t die with your creative sparks still stuck inside.”

🎨 Are You Ready to Play with the Future of Creativity? 🤖

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Creativity Chronicles​
Unlocking Creative Joy, One Week at a Time

Here’s why learning AI is becoming
a kind of creative superpower.

The world of creativity is changing faster than ever—and, even though The AI Revolution is only just getting started, AI is already transforming the creative landscape in mind-boggling ways! 🚀

And, here’s the best part: you don’t need to be a tech wizard to unlock its magic. With a playful mindset and simple tools, you can create things you probably never thought possible.

To show you what I mean, I recently did two playful experiments with AI video tools. Note: these are not polished masterpieces, but they are proof of how quickly AI can turn ideas into creative sparks.

The Power of Video Play​
Using FlexClip, an AI-powered video tool, I turned a standard template into something completely fresh in just a few minutes. This video shows that simple can still be innovative.

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Giving Voice to a Testimonial​
With the AI video app HeyGen, I created a video avatar in order to share a powerful testimonial from one of our Creativity Sandbox Community members. Since she prefers not to be on camera, this video combines her authentic voice with a digital avatar designed to bring her story to life.

​

Why does this matter to you?

AI is your ultimate creativity enhancer! 🌟 Whether you’re:
🎥 Experimenting with video,
🎨 Unlocking your artistic side, or
🧠 Ideating on your next big project…

AI gives you the power to play, iterate, and bring your ideas to life faster and with a “leg up” from an extraordinary co-intelligence thought & action partner.

💡 Ready to explore your creative potential?

👉 Dive into my AI Creative Consulting services to see how we can create something extraordinary together

👉 Or join the Creativity Sandbox Community—a space where creativity, accountability, AI education, and joy collide.

🎉 The future of creativity isn’t just happening—it’s waiting for you to jump in. Let’s play!

To your creative freedom,

Jon Leland, AI Creativity Over 50 Guy
​“Don’t die with your creative sparks still stuck inside.”

🚀 Follow the Juice: AI + Creativity = Big Wins ✨

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Creativity Chronicles​
Unlocking Creative Joy, One Week at a Time

How to Unleash Your Creative Sparks with Powerful Collaborators

Sometimes, following the juice—the energy that lights you up—leads to breakthroughs in unexpected ways. Just yesterday, I experienced this firsthand while thinking about my goal of guesting on more podcasts.

AI + Creative Juice

My friend Peter reminded me that I needed a media kit in order to give podcast hosts a quick overview of why I’m a good guest. Because I have AI as a collaborator, it was easy (and juicy) to spring into action. With the help of a custom GPT tool that I’ve built for Creativity Sandbox marketing, I quickly drafted a compelling, personalized pitch.

The process was seamless:

  • My AI “partner” helped me refine my ideas into clear, impactful messaging (which I polished and rewrote).
  • Canva (using one of its templates) helped me transform this vision into a polished, professional design.

The result? A first draft media kit that I’m proud to share with podcast hosts (and you). This came together surprisingly quickly.

What I Learned that Might Be Useful

This wasn’t just about completing a task—it was about reinforcing how powerfully AI can be a meaningful collaborator, helping me (and you) unlock creative potential, especially when there’s palpable juice to follow. The Force was with me. 😃

Creativity doesn’t just flow in isolation. With the right tools and mindset, you can co-create with AI to amplify and enhance your ideas… with ease!

Sharing is Caring

👉 Please download and share this media kit, especially if you host a podcast or know someone who does.

Let’s connect to bring value-packed conversations to as many podcast audiences as possible. I love to collaborate.

Bottom line: Don’t die with your creative spark still stuck inside. Follow the juice and use AI, a guitar, a paintbrush, or whatever to co-create something impactful!

With creative curiosity,

Jon Leland, AI Creativity Over 50 Guy