Protecting creativity in a Performance Driven World
- UK Creative
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Sophie Cartledge Founder of Hormones on the blink.
Monday 2nd May 2025
If I asked you what your most precious resource is as someone working in the creative industry, what would you say?
Chances are, you’d think of creativity right away. Because really, what are we without our creative minds, the minds that dream up new ways of thinking, of seeing, of connecting with others?
If you woke up tomorrow and lost your creativity, it wouldn’t just be your work at risk, it might feel like your identity, too. Creativity isn’t just about making things, designing, or problem-solving. It’s a way of being, it’s a fundamental part of our existence. A way of finding meaning in the obscure, and light and hope in the dark.
Creativity is everything.
But making a living from creativity comes with its own challenges, mainly, the pressures of a capitalist system that weighs heavy. Time is money (yawn), targets need hitting, budgets keep shrinking, and you’re expected to be “performing monkeys” churning out constant streams of brilliance, on demand.
Where’s the space for finding our flow state? Accounting for the rhythms and cycles of seasons and hormones? Recognising that while some pressure can fuel creativity, chronic stress is a creativity killer?
The Divided Brain
A fascinating perspective on this comes from Dr. Iain McGilchrist’s work The Divided Brain. As a neuroscientist, he explores how left-brain dominance in society may actually hinder creativity. The left brain is all about detail and control, while the right brain sees the big picture, embraces nuance, and makes space for ambiguity and beauty.
He argues that our culture has become overly left-brain-driven, focused on logic, analysis, and detachment. Historically, though, civilizations like Ancient Greece and the Renaissance period flourished when right-brain values such as art, connection, emotion, were honoured.
So where does that leave creatives? Pulled toward deliverables, metrics, and peak performance, until reaching burnout and considering leaving the very industry you love?
Mark Deuze’s book Well-Being and Creative Careers dives into this. He shows how the media and creative industries—journalism, advertising, film, gaming, content creation—are plagued by burnout, anxiety, and depression, despite workers’ passion for their craft.
Deuze argues that our love for the work is being weaponized: “What makes media work special, creativity, autonomy, storytelling, is also what traps people in cycles of self-sacrifice.”
A 2024 UK Film and TV Charity survey found that 35% of screen workers rated their mental health as “poor” or “very poor,” and 64% were considering leaving the industry.
Does it have to come to that?
Can we take back some control over how we live and work?
Is there another way?
One way is through building our knowledge, understanding how our brains and bodies work, biologically, in relation to creativity.
Stay with me. This isn’t fluffy stuff, it’s science.
Let’s start with our sex hormones. All humans have oestrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Men typically have more testosterone; women, more oestrogen and progesterone. These hormones follow natural cycles. For men, testosterone rises in the morning and dips in the afternoon. Levels also tend to drop in winter. For women, oestrogen rises post-period, peaks mid-cycle, then drops as progesterone takes over.
Why does this matter for creativity?
Because these hormones influence neurotransmitters, our brain’s chemical messengers. Oestrogen supports serotonin and dopamine (mood, motivation, reward). Progesterone supports GABA (calm, focus). Testosterone also boosts dopamine.
This means hormonal fluctuations can directly impact our ability to create. Many women, for instance, feel most creative around ovulation, while creativity can dip closer to menstruation. GABA helps us stay calm and clear-headed, key for innovation.
And yet, we’re expected to perform at a consistent level, every hour, every day, every month.
The Biggest Creativity Killer
Stress quite literally hijacks our creativity. It shifts the body’s priority from sex hormones to cortisol. When in survival mode, creativity isn’t a priority. Our brains enter fight-or-flight, not imagination and flow.
Sure, some of us thrive under a bit of pressure (especially those with ADHD), but long-term stress? It drains us and leads straight to burnout.
So, what can we do?
Reframe Creativity as a Resource Worth Protecting
Just like athletes protect their physical health, we need to protect our creative wellbeing. It’s not indulgent, it’s essential. Here are my top 5 pointers as to where to start:
1. Track Your Hormones and Cycle
Apps like Flo help track your menstrual cycle and give hormone-related insights. Balance is great for navigating perimenopause. Check out Period Power if you haven’t already, it's the book we all wished we had many years ago and definitely one to share with our friends, our nieces and our daughters.
2. Understand Your Neurotype
This is huge. Knowing whether you’re ADHD, autistic, dyslexic or neurodivergent in other ways really can help to identify your strengths and set yourself up for creative success. If you’d like some pointers with where to start with this heck out the free guide to unlocking neurodiversity & hormones on our website, complete with signposting and research links.
Do you need time pressure to finish tasks? That’s ok. Prefer deep focus with minimal interruptions? That’s valid too. Thrive in group brainstorms but need alone time to process? See how you can work with that. Need support for the admin side so you can focus on the creative stuff? There is no shame in that.
We are all different and knowing how and why can really help with giving us the language and reasons to make adjustments to how we work and our environments, so that we can thrive.
On this point, Emma Castle founder and owner at Bright Island says:
“Now I know what kind of brain I have and better understand how I work. I'm learning to reframe it as part of the reason I’ve been successful so far. To consider it a positive thing, an advantage and strength in this industry and my profession.
I’d say my ADHD may have been the power behind my skills and talent all along… I’ve always been highly creative, I can solve problems and see things from perspectives that others maybe don’t. I can spot patterns and see trends emerge, I have huge amounts of empathy and I’m hugely passionate. Yes, I may lose my train of thought but it often leads me to somewhere quirky and unexpected. I can also hyperfocus and keep going until 2am on a pitch because I'm so invested and really do care.”
3. Create “Circuit Breakers” in your day
Bring yourself out of fight-or-flight regularly. Try:
● Gentle exercise
● Laughter
● Physical affection
● Fun creative play (with no pressure)
● Look into vagus nerve hacks
Find small circuit breakers that help to regulate your nervous system.
4. Boost Dopamine Naturally
Start your day with three quick wins, three emails that need sending and tick them off, dopamine loves achievement. Try:
● Cold water dips (shower, sea, tub)
● Movement
● Collaboration with others
All great for focus and creativity.
5. Rethink your fuel: Food, Alcohol & Caffeine
Yes, I know you already know this but it’s worth repeating. Caffeine and sugar spike cortisol. Alcohol affects hormone processing and sleep. Processed foods add additional stress on your body as it works to filter out all the unhelpful fats, salts, sugars and additives. You don’t have to quit it all but tune in to how you feel and make conscious choices that support your creative energy, instead of draining it.
You are a one-off. Completely unique. And so is your creativity.
Let’s not let a system that wasn’t built for creative minds to flourish, rob us of our shine. And maybe, we can’t change the whole world, but we can start by changing how we take care of ourselves and protecting our most precious resource.
Don’t wait until you’re 45, burnt out, and questioning your very existence.
Start now.
Protect your creativity with everything you’ve got.
Because your creativity?
It’s everything.
And on that note, I’ll leave you with a little gift from me to you, called ‘Finding flow’.
Enjoy
Sophie.
For more insights from the UK’s creative community, come and join us in Margate for the 2025 UK Creative Festival in July! Tickets on sale NOW. Find out more here
Monday 2nd May 2025
Sophie Cartledge Founder of Hormones on the blink.
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