Our Club members tell us that they write songs because of the joy and wellness it brings to their life. But what if you’re a songwriter who has lost the drive and momentum to write songs, swallowed up by demands with no time or space to write?

This blog lays out four simple steps for beginning again and experiencing the life-affirming benefits of songwriting. We think you’ll be delighted by what you discover.

Hands up if you’re feeling snowed under?

If you feel like you’re slipping and falling down a dark rabbit hole, this message is for you, dear songwriter.

Right now, it’s imperative not to opt-out when it comes to creating. You want to avoid slipping further down the hole. Whilst you may not feel like writing songs right now, creativity is the thing that will keep you open and expanded.

Not creating can result in a closed-down, limited feeling, and that’s probably not where you want to be.

How the Club helped me with all of this

Before I started writing songs every week, I was super closed down. I had let decades of life slip away, barely writing four pieces a year, not becoming the songwriter I knew I could become. The one that was waiting within me. There were moments where I could claw back out and gain some ground, but the majority of the time, I was slipping, like an uncontrollable downward spiral limited by life, work, others, and my beliefs.

For those that know the story of I Heart Songwriting Club’s creation, it was in this lowest of lows when I came up with an idea to write songs every week with people around me doing the same; a Songwriting Club. This fine illuminated thread of an idea pierced the darkness that I was in for a brief second.

As with all ideas, you can follow them or reject them. I chose to follow this one. I could have easily and readily shunned it with “I’m too busy, I’ve got other more important things to do/I don’t feel like writing songs,” but I took the idea and did something small with it.

There was no bang, no fireworks. It wasn’t a burst of inspiration; it was a small, kindling process. There was one other person in the Club with me, then four, then six. We gave ourselves the gift of one hour to creatively play through songwriting (for ourselves) each week. We would then simply share our newest creation, no matter what it sounded like. The goal wasn’t to write a hit song but merely to do something that reminds us of who we are – and that was songwriting.

Where did this lead?

When I was preoccupied with life, I forgot what it felt like to be light and creative. I had forgotten the joy that came from creating. So even though I rarely felt like writing songs, I honoured this light each week and opened myself up creatively. It was a quiet inner work that was happening. A rewiring of myself. Empowerment. A transformation.

I had no inkling of the significance of this practice until time had passed, and I could reflect. This creative practice was my lifeline, the thing that brought me back to myself and helped me to become resilient, empowered and joyous. Creativity was the life I wanted to live, but I didn’t know it until I was there.

I noticed a super fast-track transformation after one year of this practice, and over the seven years of the Club, the growth has continued, sometimes in leaps and bounds, and sometimes a quiet, subtle shift.

That spark that created the songwriting Club caught alight and started a wildfire that we named I Heart Songwriting Club. This month we celebrate our 7th birthday, and still, the Club remains true to its original intention; a simple one-hour practice each week to reconnect with our higher selves so that we feel more like our most authentic selves. We can express ourselves from this higher place and positively affect our lives (and everyone else within them).

The funny thing is; the Club was never meant to be about writing great songs; that’s just a very cool and useful by-product of writing regularly.

What you can do in four small steps

If you’re feeling like you’re falling down the never-ending pit, and you don’t want to be there, positively affect your life by creating! Take a tiny step forward to create; just make it achievable and manageable.

So what does this look like? If you can carve out 15 minutes, make it your time. 30 minutes? Even better. If you have a bit more time, great! Keep it small though, don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater and quit your job as that will create other stresses.

If you feel you have nothing left to give of yourself, this is not giving OF yourself, but giving TO yourself. If you don’t do this for yourself, no one else will. So it’s critical for your wellbeing.

Simply one hour a week of songwriting can change your life, and the thousands of members who have been on this journey alongside me attest to this.

To get started, simply take one small step forward at a time:

1. Set a timer for one hour so that this time doesn’t leak into time for other things
2. Bring a very playful (silly, if you will) attitude and write a song
3. Remove all expectations and judgments on what you made
4. Do it again next week

This is a straightforward four-step process to creating and raising your energy when you’re stuck in the mud. It can be this simple; there is no need to complicate it.

If you want to have others around you, who lift each other, give feedback on your songs and receive songwriting prompts to help you know what to write about, then join the Club.

If what comes up for you is a long list of all the things you need to be doing instead and reasons you can’t write songs each week, then this is your limited imagination. Of course, if you want to have a limited imagination, you can do that, but if you want to have an unlimited imagination, guess what can help you get there? Creativity.