I can’t recall when I first met Aly Miller, it was sometime when we were tiny teens in our shared hometown of Milwaukee. It wasn’t until our mid-twenties, when we stumbled into each other while freelancing for the same start-up in NYC, that I discovered we were kindred spirits.
I was over the moon when she agreed to chat with me about how creativity plays a role in her everyday life for my second issue of EVERYDAY CREATIVES! We recently sat down together at a cute coffee shop in Brooklyn, where we exchanged textiles (she brought me a beautiful bandana she designed, I brought her a sweater for the sudden chill in the air) and connected over the deep essence creativity infuses into our lives.
Below we chat about her grandmother’s surprising tablescapes, the frigid, healing joy of cold plunges, and dreamy floating saunas. Let’s dive in!
I first want to ground us in an understanding of creativity with this quote:
Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. -Robert Franken
With that in mind, how do you find creativity paying a role in your life?
Creativity is always in the background - we’re living and breathing it. What you’re eating for lunch, how you spend your evenings - it all involves creativity. It’s an aspect of freedom - to have the freedom to look at a situation and imagine the alternatives and feel which ones are right for you.
Yes! I sometimes wonder if people who don’t identify as artists see art and creativity as one in the same, so they feel that not being artistic automatically means they’re not creative.
I love to look at my friends who aren’t artists and call them out for their creativity! They’re creative in the way they dress, in the way they decorate their house and that’s an art form too.
Even my grandma - she might not identify as an artist, but I think she’s incredibly creative. Like in the patterns she wears in an outfit - maybe she’s wearing sequin and velvet and it's fun to look at! In her home, she creates tableaus with art on the wall, hangs found objects, and creates tablescapes in the most unexpected corner of her kitchen. We channel creativity into whatever lifestyle we run.
How do you use creativity in solving problems in your everyday life?
I have a health condition with no known cure, so I’ve had to get really creative in the past few years, thinking outside the box in addressing symptoms and the overall health picture.
That sounds like a really difficult and frustrating journey.
After trying so many different approaches - supplements, IV drips, massage, PT, expensive treatments - I'm starting to wonder if there’s emotional and energetic work I can do. How I might heal with meditation and visualization - a spiritual approach to healing. There are so many different avenues to heal.
It’s been a creative process in trying to get really quiet and listen to what my gut says about my health. Maybe I have the answers in me - if i just pause, meditate, wait to listen for whatever message comes through.
That’s such a beautiful and hopeful approach. Do you use any similar creative approaches in your day-to-day life?
I might use tarot cards, meditation, cold water plunges, sauna, prayer. I can't tell you if it works yet, but it certainly feels like I'm on the right path and slowly I'll receive more answers from god or the divine or spirits or whoever is listening.
I've gotten really creative in visualizing what I want. When I'm in the cold water [during a cold plunge], I focus in on the feeling of total health and recovery and shift that feeling into an emotion - what is the emotion I would feel if I was healed? - and I sit in that emotion for a while.
Joe Dispenza is a huge inspiration for me as a creative self healer, through his meditations and books. His You Are the Placebo meditation gets you to a point where you lose touch with your body and tap into the possibility of the space around your body. You imagine what it would feel like to be your future self in the version of what you most want for yourself. Through mentally and emotionally getting in touch with who you want to be in the future, the hope is that your body and cells will follow.
That sounds like it has the potential to be so empowering. It almost feels like the opposite of a psychotherapy treatment I use with clients called EMDR, where you get into your body to process and release past trauma. It’s a tender and powerful healing modality [ed note: I go in depth about EMDR here, if you’re interested in learning more]. I’m curious in exploring combining different modalities too - like using EMDR to heal the past / present and a meditation like this to vision the future.
Are there any other ways you use creativity in your day to day life?
I get creative in the ways I navigate the city I live in. I don’t want to own a car and don’t enjoy driving, so living in a city that’s more car-centered has inspired creative solutions [ed note: Aly moved from Brooklyn to Milwaukee a couple of years ago]. It's been an interesting aspect of living away from New York. I'm exploring options like using electric scooters to get me to the bus. I also have an e-bike with a basket. As a former cyclist, I never thought I'd need a cruiser e-bike but I'm finding a lot of joy in biking short distances around my neighborhood. I'm not sure what winter will bring but I find that when you ask, people generally want to help.
Let’s end with a few fun and quick ones!
A place you want to travel / explore:
Oslo! They have saunas that float in the fjord in the harbor. I illustrated them for the Wall Street Journal and I've been dreaming of going ever since.
A favorite read:
Tenements, Towers & Trash: An Unconventional Illustrated History of New York City by Julia Wertz
A favorite healing/spiritual read:
In love with the world - A Monk’s Journey Through the Bardos of Living and Dying - by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche and Helen Tworkov
Podcast rec:
Thoughts on Illustration with Tom Froese has beautiful insights for any aspiring artist.
What are you eating lately:
I’m in love with the cookbook I just worked on, Start Here: Instructions for Becoming a Better Cook. It has really creative salads and a good amount of vegan and gluten free options. I'm gluten free, so I go back to the basics a lot. I enjoy really simple meals like roasted sweet potatoes and hummus and rice and beans.
What’s your favorite spice when cooking? I love cumin.
Same! I also think spices make really cute dog names :)
Thank you for such a nourishing conversation, Aly! So grateful for you.
You can find Aly on Instagram here and see her beautiful illustration work here.
The holiday season is upon us, along with all the anxiety that can come with the family dynamics and waves of grief and and and. I have some spaces for new clients - if you live in New York and want to chat you can reach out here.
My heart warms with every email I get letting me know another seat for my Milwaukee workshop is filled. There are only a few left - so if you’ve been thinking about joining, reserve your spot while you can!
Jenny made rum balls for my friend’s cookie swap the other night and woah - the layers of flavor! the soft doughiness! the surprising spicey bite!
My parents are visiting and I can’t wait to cozy up in one of my favorite, glowy corners in the west village tonight.
PS - If you enjoyed this week’s letter, please share with a friend! Word of mouth helps my space and offerings grow and flourish :)
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