Create-Today with Beth Buffington

I dare you to go offline: 7 Analog Hobbies Your Brain Craves Your phone is not the bad guy, my friend. But if your days have quietly gone all screen and with very little offline time, this one is for you. 🎃 In Episode 149 of Create Today, Beth Buffington talks analog creativity: the paper, yarn, glue stick, flour-on-the-counter kind. If you have been feeling the pull toward some crafty hobbies, a...

Poetry is having a moment. And your busy brain needs it! ✍️ This week on Create Today, Beth sits down with Bri McLaughlin, LCSW, a bilingual therapist, and poetry therapist in training at Connections Health in Evanston, Illinois. Together Beth and Bri explore how a poem and a few minutes minutes with a journal can calm anxious thoughts, quiet your inner critic, and finally give words to feeli...

🎁 Grab your guide for tips on creative investing! The Going FourWords™ Guide, is your plan for a growing your creativity: https://www.bdi-create.today/fourwords At 12:01 this morning you got paid. 24 hours, deposited straight into your daily account. Same as me. Same as everyone. So where did all those hours go? 🤔 Some went to sleep, work, and laundry (the beast that will not be tamed). But...

Ever catch yourself thinking, "I wish I were more creative"? You've come to the right place.  🎨 My guest Vanessa Harnik is an advocate for creatives and she shares her tips and secrets about how you can lead a (more) creative life. She comes from a long line of artists and makers. She's the granddaughter of abstract painter Paul Feeley and runs a family stationery business. She hap...

✉️ Think for a moment...it feels sweet to get a handwritten envelope in your mailbox, right?  This week on Create Today, Beth explains the brain health and happiness boost behind writing to...and receiving letters from a pen pal. Letter writing is having a real comeback (Pinterest even named pen pals a 2026 trend), and the research on what a handwritten lett...

Here's what happens when you just "see what happens". Deborah retired after 38 years in government, tried knitting, watercolor, and acrylics (turns out she’s not a patient painter), and somehow ended up running her own publishing house with two crime-solving cats and a squirrel who thinks he’s a rock star. 🐾📚 This week on Create Today, Beth sits down with Deborah Shoemaker, author, and foun...

This week we explore the creativity in sending greeting cards, and the unbelievable goodness they deliver to a chaotic world. Last week we learned about: “Thinking of You Week” (September 21–27, 2026) AND then…how to prepare for the challenge of: 7 cards to 7 people in 7 days. Don't miss Part 2 of this series. This week Beth shares a fabulously fun way to multiply the number of people in...

Send 7 Cards to 7 people in 7 Days: Surprising Science on Why It’ll Make you Happier Every now and then as you flip through your mail – junk, junk, a bill, a catalog... you'll find one... an envelope with a handwritten address. Stop for a moment and think about that little flare of joy that flutters in your heart. You know what I'm talking about.  That's what this episode is all about....

You're Not Too Old (And It's Not Too Late) to Get Creative Again Psychologist Ilene Berns-Zare joins Beth to unpack the real secret to resilience, creativity, and thriving at midlife and beyond. 🌿 In this episode of Create Today, Beth talks with psychologist, life and leadership coach, and author Ilene Berns-Zare about what it actually takes to build resilience, reconnect with your creativity, an...

Have you been ghosting your creativity? If your sketchbook, camera, or craft table has gone quiet, this episode covers the real signs of creative burnout, the science behind why creativity keeps you steady, and how to start treating creative self-care like the vital sign it actually is. In this episode of Create Today, Beth Buffington unpacks creative fitness: the idea that a consistent creative p...

She's 60 and Hiking 133 Miles. Here's Her Secret. 
 What are you training for? Beth welcomes back one of her favorite recurring guests, Lisa Murphy, a Vibrant Living Coach (who helps women in their middle years, through perimenopause, menopause, and beyond) live more vibrantly and take on new adventures. This year Lisa is training for a big one: a nine day, 133 mile through-hike of the Isle of Ang...

How to increase happiness with a Creative Process that really WORKS! In this episode of Create-Today, you will explore struggles like unfinished projects and creative burnout – and how having a successful creative process helps you bypass these roadblocks. This episode digs deep into Beth’s structured framework: Going FourWords™. This is Beth's own creative process that ca...

Your Hands Can Fix Brain Fog Ever notice how you feel wired AND tired after a scrolling binge? That foggy, restless feeling has a name, and this episode is about the science-backed fix hiding in your own two hands. In this episode of Create Today, Beth Buffington breaks down why tactile creativity like, painting rocks, crocheting, kneading dough, coloring, and more, calms your nervous sy...

Artists Have to Live It Before They Can Create It Creativity is not just something you make. For Ezra Vancil, Creativity has been the saving grace that gets him through the hard parts of life, and the gift that keeps handing him back his own confidence. Ezra is a Texas based singer, songwriter, poet, and author whose career spans more than three decades. He is a Kerrville New Folk finalist, a...

Years ago, Beth thought she'd lost her creativity for good. She was doing the job she'd always dreamed of, but somewhere between the grind of deadlines and hustle, her joy disappeared. In this episode, Beth shares the personal story behind her Going FourWords™ Framework. The four-word creative wellness practice she built to find the way back to her creativity. Listen in as she explains why every o...

We all know we need eight hours of sleep, regular exercise, and good nutrition. But there's a fourth pillar of health nobody talks about: your creativity. In this episode, Beth breaks down the real, measurable science behind "creative fitness" and maps her Going FourWords framework, Revive, Realize, Refine, Release, onto your actual body: your nervous system, your eyes and brain, your hands, and y...

Let’s talk about Joy! (...using a story about songs, soccer, and bagpipes.) Is it possible for 50,000 people to descend upon a city to watch soccer — and give the whole city permission to stop worrying and feel good together? The answer is –YES!  That’s what joy inside a community can do. 
 Today, we're going to talk about why JOY matters for your health, your heart, and your l...

When was the last time you were with people who genuinely “get you”? Not acquaintances. Not coworkers you nod to in the hallway. Your people. The ones who have a similar passion, who can laugh with you. Who can cry with you…when needed. If it's been a while, something important has been quietly draining out of you. And this episode is your wake-up call. This week in Create-Today , we explore why c...

One of the most powerful things you can do for your happiness and health (and creativity), has nothing to do with supplements, your routine, or your schedule. Spoiler alert…it’s about adventure, new people and feeling a bit “new” In this episode, Beth Buffington shares how a four-day, 153-mile tandem bike tour stoked and energized her creativity. Not just from sunshine and exercise, but from somet...

Looking to Change Your Life? 10 Proven Ways Creativity Boosts Your Happiness & Health Are you creative? (Hint: Yes, you absolutely are.) 🎨 In this episode of Create Today with Beth Buffington, we're exploring something that has the power to genuinely transform your life – and it's waiting for you right now. Whether you've never thought of yourself as creative (I can’t draw a st...

Is Your Creative Work Pulling You — Or Are You Pulling It? Have you ever looked up from your desk, surrounded by 17 open browser tabs, three half-finished projects, and a to-do list that somehow keeps growing — and wondered how you got here? That feeling of frustration and lack of control means… Your horse is behind your cart. Today, Beth Buffington brings one of her favorite workshop questions to...

The Creative Secrets Behind Liz Wilcox's $9 Email Membership (4,000 Members and growing!) What if the most creative thing you could do for your business had nothing to do with art — and everything to do with writing a few clever notes? (by notes...I mean emails)  In this episode of Create Today, Beth sits down with Liz Wilcox — the Fresh Princess of Email Marketing — to talk about how cr...

What if just 4 words could change everything...  your health, your happiness, your creative life, and your sense of purpose? In this special episode of Create Today, we’re going all the way back to where it all began: Episode 24, where Beth first introduced the Going FourWords™ Framework. But this time, we’re hearing it with brand new ears. Because something important has shifted...&nbsp...

What You're Holding Onto… Is Holding You Back. (It's time to RELEASE it!) Is there something heavy you’ve been carrying around for a while? A project that never quite gets finished. 
 A conversation you keep rehearsing in your head. 
 A fear of what people might say if you actually put your work out there. 
 A version of yourself you have quietly outgrown but cannot seem to let go of. Friend, you...

Your Brain Is Wired Against You. Here's a Clever Workaround Have you ever woken up exhausted, tried to be productive, and then gone to bed still feeling behind? Friend, that is not just a busy week. That is low energy that needs to replenished. This is a problem is not going to fix itself. The good news is that you do not need a total life overhaul to start feeling better. You just need one word:...